From The Oregonian, Feb. 21, 2003, p A1 (Main)

Drought dread grows in Klamath
Weaker-than-normal flows upstream and fallout from a fish kill
downstream have farmers fearing another water crisis

By MICHAEL MILSTEIN, The Oregonian
KLAMATH FALLS - Farmer Bill Heiney, who grows peppermint, grain and
other crops in the Klamath Project just south of the Oregon-California
line, is plenty worried about the water missing from the mountains
upstream.
They hold barely half their average moisture for this time of year.
That's scarcely more than they did at this point in 2001, the drought
year when federal agencies cut off irrigation water to Heiney and his
fellow farmers.
It means Klamath Basin farms could face more crippling water cutbacks
this summer.
Heiney also is worried about the lack of water downstream in Northern
California. More than 33,000 salmon and other fish went belly-up there
in the low, warm flows of the Klamath River late last summer.
The fish died in a stretch fed by both the Upper Klamath, in oregon,
and the Trinity river, a colder mountain stream emerging from
California. While the Klamath is aching for water this year, the
Trinity is one of the few waterways in the West loaded with it.
But little of that plentiful water may run down the Trinity this
year, because of a court order directing much of it to California's
Central Valley. And that may leave parched Klamath Basin farmers such
as Heiney stuck.
"Absolutely, I think there will be a lot more pressure on the Klamath
if you can't release water from the Trinity," said Dave Sabo, the U.S.
Bureau of Reclamation manager in Klamath Falls. "We're really caught."
It's an ominous one-two punch for Klamath Basin farmers. They face
their third dry year in a row, with no lasting relief from the
endangered species demands that led federal agencies to reserve
irrigation water for protected fish two years ago. Although the Bush
administration supplied farmers with all the water they needed last
year, bitter fallout from the subsequent fish kill, compounded by this
year's dryness and the shorting of Trinity water, makes the picture
much cloudier for 2003.
"There is this huge diversion of water from the Trinity, and we're
being looked at to subsidize that loss," said Heiney, whose eyes still
well up over the loss of his crops in 2001. "To be held responsible
for all that is ridiculous."
If irrigation water runs short this summer, it could revive the
anger that surrounded the 2001 water cutoff. That anger surfaced again
and again in protests in which farmers illegally pried open the head
gates of the federal Klamath Project. And farms that limped through
may not survive another summer like that, said Dan Keppen, executive
director of the Klamath Water Users Association.
"I'm afraid some guys will feel like they have nothing more to lose,"
he said.

Decision due in April
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation will decide in early April - when
runoff rates are more certain - how much water the more than 1,000
farms in the Klamath Project will get this summer. The amount will
depend on whether the year is classified as "dry," "critically dry" or
another category, each with specific water demands for endangered
suckers in Upper Klamath Lake above the project and threatened coho
salmon in the Klamath River below.
Many farmers already feel they are under unfair pressure to yield
water to the protected fish, while environmental groups content
farmers have dominated the basin's waters for too long.
More than twice the average precipitation would have to fall in the
next two months to push water levels anywhere close to normal. Weather
records do not show that happening before.
"It's looking pretty grim, to be honest," Sabo said.
Reclamation officials have ordered project farmers to identify at
least 12,000 acres other federal agency can pay to take out of
production under a "water bank" plan to save 50,000 acre-feet of water
- about 10 percent of the yearly water demand. That should leave
enough water for farms to begin irrigating at the start of the growing
season in April, Sabo said.
But there still may not be enough to last through the summer.
Season-end cutbacks similar to what project farmers endured in the dry
years of 1992 and 1994 are possible, Sabo said. And if the drought
worsens to the point protected fish are not ensured the water
biologist say they need, so is a complete irrigation shutoff.
"If we start impacting flow levels required for the species, I'll
have to consider turning off the project," Sabo said.

More water, but not for farms
An irony of the distribution plan devised last year by the Bush
administration is that in wetter years, with more water on hand, more
water must be set aside for protected fish. But in the driest years,
biologists have mandated less water for fish. So a year such as this
one that is shaping up as dry - but not extraordinarily so - may leave
less water for farmers than would the driest summers.
"It is hard for guys to understand that when there's more water, it
doesn't necessarily mean things will be any better," Keppen said.
That's also true of the Trinity River, which, along with Oregon's
Klamath Basin, feeds the lower Klamath - a vital reach for salmon and
center of the fish kill that last summer turned into the worst dieoff
of adult fish in the nation's history.
Chinook salmon were the main species affected, with hundreds of
threatened coho also dying. Wile chinook are not an endangered
species, downriver Native American tribes consider healthy fisheries
among their tribal treaty rights and insist the Bush administration do
all it can to avoid a repeat of the disaster. Most of all, the tribes
want more water in the river.
But the options are limited by a federal court order in a case
brought by Central California's Westlands Water District, the nation's
largest and possibly most politically powerful irrigation district.
As much as 90 percent of the water from the Trinity River has
historically been diverted through massive tunnels south to Central
California irrigators. including Westlands. When the Clinton
administration decided in 2000 to reduce diversions and leave more
water in the Trinity, Westlands and California utility companies
borrowed an argument commonly employed by environmental groups and
claimed the effects of the shift were not fully considered.
U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger agreed and blocked the decision. He
limited flows down the Trinity to no more than what the Clinton play
calls for in dry years. That keeps more water flowing to Central
California and Westlands, now trying to engineer a massive federal
buyout of poorly drained farmland laced with toxic minerals.

Tribes appeal ruling
So while this year looks to be a wet year in the Trinity, the river
will carry no more water than it would in a dry year.
The Yurok and Hoopa Valley tribes of Northern California have
appealed Wanger's ruling and urged Interior Secretary Gale Norton to
do the same. Although Norton and the Bush administration have so far
backed the Clinton boost to Trinity flows, they have not decided
whether they will join the tribes in an appeal.
When the fish kill struck last year, the court lockdown of the
Trinity led the administration to flush extra water out of the Klamath
Basin instead. It's unclear whether that water helped ease the
die-off, and tribal biologists say fish need water from both
tributaries.
"The perception that the Trinity will solve the problems of the
Klamath is not right," said Hoopa Valley tribal biologist Mike Orcutt.
"There should be more water in the Trinity. But the bottom line for
the Klamath is that there will always be drought conditions because
people are using too much water."
Up toward Klamath Falls, Heiney and other farmers fear drought and
the court order may again leave them without enough.
"If we at least know how much water we're going to have, we can
prepare for it," said Heiney, who is preparing to send his oldest
daughter to college. "But we need to know."

Posted by
Daniel B. Wheeler
www.oregonwhitetruffles.com