Water Again Flowing to Farms in Klamath Area

A farmer and a government irrigation official joined in cranking open a valve Wednesday, sending water flowing to Northern California and Oregon farms that withered while water was conserved for endangered fish.

Some 200 people cheered as the two men turned a large steel wheel to raise a head gate at Upper Klamath Lake that had been closed since April.

Interior Secretary Gale Norton announced Tuesday that conservation and recent thundershowers had put enough extra water into the lake for farmers to get 20% of their normal irrigation allotment.

The water release will do nothing for grain and potato farmers, who either did not plant or have seen their crops wither, but it could help ranchers green up pastures and get another cutting of alfalfa for cattle.

In April, the government cut off irrigation water to about 200,000 acres of farmland served by the Klamath Project because of severe drought and because the Endangered Species Act requires water for the threatened coho salmon and the endangered Lost River sucker and short-nosed sucker.

Some farmers vow to continue their protest until they receive assurances of sufficient water in future years. They are dubious that extra water prompted the release, saying that despite recent rain, their fields were bone-dry the next day. A slogan on a farmers’ Web site, https://www.klamathbasincrisis.org, refers to “Norton’s trickle.”

Bureau of Reclamation spokesman Jeffrey McCracken said on July 20 that the lake stood at only a 10th of an inch above required levels for the fish. McCracken said Wednesday, however, that the new water going to farmers is feasible because the lake stood at its required level of 4,140 feet above sea level on July 15, and can be drawn down to the 4,139-foot level required on Sept. 30.

An earlier mandate that the water be at 4,141 feet in August was dropped during negotiations among federal agencies in early spring, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman said. The new release is about 20% of the irrigation water that farmers normally get each year. Environmentalists said Norton’s decision to release water was a clear violation of the Endangered Species Act.

About two-thirds of the farm acreage in the Klamath Basin is in Oregon and the rest is in California.