Klamath Water Plan May Destroy Fish

The National Marine Fisheries Service warned Thursday that plans to provide water to farmers in the upper Klamath River Basin would jeopardize the continued existence of coho salmon in the river.

The service suggested that the federal government pull together California, Oregan and other parties to create a plan to meet the water needs of both farms and salmon.

.

In a long-awaited draft report, the Fisheries Service recommended that the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation be required to provide only 57% of the water flows that regulators deem necessary for the salmon’s survival. In what a service administrator calls an unusual step, other parties--including the states of California and Oregon--will be asked to help provide water in a plan to be developed in the next several years.

“We’re not going to hold the bureau accountable for all the flows the fish might need, but we will hold them accountable for their contribution” to solving the problem, said James Lecky, assistant regional administrator for the fisheries service, which is responsible for protecting salmon under the Endangered Species Act.

The new approach was hammered out in meetings between the fisheries service and the Bureau of Reclamation, which operates a 94-year-old irrigation system serving hundreds of farms along the California-Oregon border.

That agency received the draft report Thursday, and its staff has begun reviewing its contents, said bureau spokesman Jeff McCracken.

The public can comment on the draft through May 24, and a final version is expected June 1, he said.

Dan Keppen, executive director of the Klamath Water Users Assn., the leading farmers’ group in the area, said he was heartened by the report.

“It appears to be a very innovative document,” he said.

The question of how to divide Klamath River water between basin farmers and rare fish has long created controversy in the basin.

But court decisions and a massive drought last year brought matters to a head, as hundreds of farmers were denied water that was sent down river to protect coho salmon.

Since 1997, the fish has been listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, meaning that the fisheries service must review and approve Bureau of Reclamation irrigation plans.

The water shut-off last year forced some farmers into bankruptcy and prompted protests that the federal government was valuing fish over people.

The report issued Thursday reviews how the Bureau of Reclamation’s 10-year plan for its irrigation project will affect coho salmon. It sets out proposed water flows to be reached by the year 2010 that it says will benefit the fish.

Environmentalists called on the agency to explain why those levels--higher than what are being delivered this year--are not being required now.

“My question to the agency is what is different about the year 2010? If the fish are going to need those flows in the year 2010, I don’t see how the agency can defend not requiring those flows now,” said Kristen Boyles, attorney for Earthjustice, which represents fishermen and environmentalists in a lawsuit brought last month.