[env-trinity] KFallsHeraldNews: Bureau makes a call for water

[Sari Sommarstrom]

http://www.heraldandnews.com/klamath/bureau-makes-a-call-for-water/article_0
8c14e77-d110-550f-8d2b-45aa55005e3d.html

 

Bureau makes a call for water

.          <http://www.heraldandnews.com/content/tncms/live/> By LACEY
JARRELL H&N Staff Reporter Contact Lacey Jarrell by
<mailto:laceyjarrell at heraldandnews.com> email or follow her on Twitter
<https://twitter.com/LMJatHandN> @LMJatHandN.

.         Jun 17, 2015

Upper Klamath Lake

.         H&N file photo 

The Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) Klamath Basin Area Office (KBAO) on Tuesday
made a call to exercise a 1905 water right on behalf of the Klamath Project.
KBAO Manager Therese O'Rourke Bradford, said only 56 percent of water supply
needed by Project irrigators is available from Upper Klamath Lake.

More water shutoffs are anticipated in the Klamath Basin.

The Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) Klamath Basin Area Office (KBAO) on Tuesday
made a call to exercise a 1905 water right on behalf of the Klamath Project.

"The call for administration, made by both Reclamation and Project water
users, will assist in managing the limited water supply to ensure water will
be available as long as possible through the 2015 spring-summer irrigation
season," said KBAO Area Manager Therese O'Rourke Bradford.

Measuring flows

Before regulating water users, OWRD water managers must measure instream
flows to validate the BOR's call for water.

If the call is validated, water shutoffs for users with rights junior to
1905 could begin as early as Friday, Scott White, Oregon Water Resources
Department watermaster for the Klamath Falls office, said.

The Klamath Tribes called on their time-immemorial water rights in late
April. Fewer than 10 creeks are currently being regulated for the call,
according to the OWRD website.

According to Greg Addington, executive director of the Klamath Water Users
Association, the Tribes' call on upper Basin creeks is not being fully
regulated based on priority date. Instead, instream flows are being
regulated to levels the Tribes agreed upon in the Klamath water settlements.
This means upper Basin junior water users not affected by the Tribes' call
could still be impacted by the BOR's call for water.

City, Jeld-Wen wells

White said if the Project call is validated, city wells and wells owned
Jeld-Wen, the county's second largest employer, could also be impacted. He
explained that how many water users are shut off or regulated, and to what
priority date, will be determined by the volume of the shortage.

"If we're talking hundreds of cfs (cubic feet per second), then it'll go all
the way to 1905. It's really hard to say," he said.

KBAO Manager O'Rourke Bradford, said only 56 percent of water supply needed
by Project irrigators is available from Upper Klamath Lake.

As of Tuesday, Upper Klamath Lake was 77 percent full, according to the BOR
Hydromet Data website.

Usage, weather

"We are working with the water users to determine current usage and project
future use through the season. At this point, we are confident that at least
175,000 acre-feet will be available. Depending on water usage and weather
conditions in the next month, this estimate may increase up to 220,000
acre-feet," O'Rourke Bradford said.

She said since March 1, about 65,000 acre-feet has been diverted to the
Project from Upper Klamath Lake.

"The water users have taken to heart the need to conserve water and have
done a great job in efficiently using the water they have received,"
O'Rourke Bradford said.

Addington, executive director of the Klamath Water Users Association
couldn't guess how much, if any, water the call will create for Project
irrigators.

"We are hopeful that us making a call creates more water that will help get
us through the season," he said.

Future access concerns

White stressed that ranchers should also be thinking about options for
maintaining future access to stock water.

"We want to make sure people are set up to get water to their cows," he
said. "It's super important. I'm very much concerned about it in the
future."

This year, the OWRD commission was able to create rules allowing exceptions
to shutoffs for stock watering and human consumption because Gov. Kate Brown
declared the county in a drought; however, White said, in years when a
drought is not governor-declared, the commission cannot create the exemption
rules. White noted that water availability could improve next year, but
wetter conditions don't guarantee water calls won't be made.

 

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