[env-trinity] Ag Commissioner says potential disaster facing Klamath Basin

[Tom Stokely]

Ag Commissioner says potential disaster facing Klamath Basin
  
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Ag Commissioner says potential disaster facing Klamath Basin
 By Danielle Jester djester at siskiyoudaily.com The Klamath Basin is currently facing what Siskiyou County Ag Commissioner Jim Smith called “an unprecedented po...  |   |

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Ag Commissioner says potential disaster facing Klamath Basin
The Klamath Basin is currently facing what Siskiyou County Ag Commissioner Jim Smith called “an unprecedented potential disaster” for that area, as well as the farmers, ranchers and families there, and the infrastructure they support.The Klamath Basin is currently facing what Siskiyou County Ag Commissioner Jim Smith called “an unprecedented potential disaster” for that area, as well as the farmers, ranchers and families there, and the infrastructure they support.The threat comes from the possible shut-down of the Klamath Reclamation Project – a water management program developed by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to provide irrigation water and farmland to farmers and ranchers in the Klamath Basin.Smith and Siskiyou County Natural Resources Policy Specialist Elizabeth Nielsen came before the Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday to discuss the project’s history and the potential shut-down it faces.The KRP consists of land in southern Oregon’s Klamath County and in Siskiyou and Modoc counties. The project encompasses approximately 220,000 acres of irrigated agricultural land used for growing a variety of different crops. The land also supports livestock and hay and grain production. The vast majority of the project is irrigated out of Upper Klamath Lake.“The Klamath Project is very important to our local economy and our history and our culture here in Siskiyou County,” Nielsen said.The Klamath Project is at severe risk of being shut down within the next month or so, she stated. She related that in the fall of 2016, a lawsuit was filed by the Hoopa Valley Tribe against the Bureau of Reclamation and the National Marine Fisheries Service. The lawsuit asked for pulse flows in the Klamath River throughout different times of the year.The biggest hit, Nielsen said, was that the lawsuit also requested a reserve of 50,000 acre feet of water in Upper Klamath Lake for dilution flows to mitigate disease concerns relating to coho salmon. It requested that the water be held for dilution flows until June 15, or when 80 percent of coho salmon had migrated out of the upper Klamath River.That 50,000 acre feet of water being held, Nielsen explained, meant that no irrigation of the Klamath Project out of Upper Klamath Lake occurred for the month of April, and only 17,000 acre feet was delivered in May, which is far below average. For the month of June, Nielsen detailed, the Klamath Project has anticipated 50,000 acre feet of irrigation deliveries; the project typically receives an average of 63,000 acre feet in June.In May, the Klamath Tribes filed a lawsuit for an injunction related to Upper Klamath Lake water levels. With that lawsuit, Nielsen told the board, “Essentially what they are saying is that sucker [fish] survival is at extreme risk and that there needs to be additional water in Upper Klamath Lake to help increase the probability of their survival. I will point out that lake levels have continued to increase since 2001; we are now in 2018 and there has been no improvement in sucker survival.”The hearing for that injunction is scheduled for Friday, July 13. If the judge grants the injunction, Nielsen said, it will require that the water level of Upper Klamath Lake be approximately one foot higher than it is currently. “There is now way that precipitation and snowpack can meet those levels, so it would shut off the entire Klamath Reclamation Project for the rest of the year,” Nielsen stated.She added, “This would mean no surface water delivery to over 180,000 acres of irrigated land.” There are some opportunities for groundwater pumping in Tulelake Irrigation District, Nielsen said, “but nowhere near the amount that’s needed.”Additionally, if the injunction is granted, it is anticipated that irrigation out of Upper Klamath Lake might not be able to exist until a new biological opinion can be formed, which could take years. This would be the first time that a full-scale shut off of the KRP has occurred since 2001.If the shut-down occurs, Smith said, massive crop failures can be expected. What is more, crop insurance will not pay for the losses caused by a shut-down, because it would be a man-made drought, Smith explained. His presentation cited that Klamath County commissioners have estimated the drought could cost $557 million in agriculture revenue and around 4,500 jobs. Property values would also be adversely affected; Smith said agricultural land could be devalued by as much as 90 percent without water. He also anticipates that county revenues would decrease by hundreds of thousands of dollars.District 4 Supervisor Lisa Nixon remarked that the board “is very disturbed” by the threat to the Klamath Project. “We’re doing everything we can to help,” she said, but added that most of the actions the board is taking fall under attorney-client privilege. District 5 Supervisor Ray Haupt expressed his extreme dismay at the situation, stating, “This is the biggest financial problem to hit the county in a generation.” 
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