Judge Rules for Fish in Klamath River Dispute

A federal judge delivered a stinging defeat Monday to the Bush administration over its decision to reduce flows on the Klamath River, which has been blamed for devastating fish kills and putting the commercial salmon season in jeopardy.

U.S. District Judge Saundra B. Armstrong of Oakland ordered the administration’s Bureau of Reclamation to return more water to the river in dry years to help ensure that the endangered coho salmon doesn’t slide into extinction in the Klamath.

Armstrong also ordered the National Marine Fisheries Service to produce a biological study that would yield a more equitable distribution of water between the imperiled fish and family farmers in the Klamath Basin, which straddles the Oregon-California border.

“The fish won on all counts,” said Steve Pedery of the Oregon Natural Resources Council.

Salmon populations have been hit hard by polluted runoff, years of water diversions by farmers, and dams that block fish passage and unnaturally warm the Klamath’s water.

The coho remains on the brink of extinction in the Klamath, and the river’s once abundant Chinook salmon -- the backbone of the commercial fishing industry in Northern California and Oregon -- has plummeted to a point that federal regulators appear poised to ban this year’s catch.

“This order will help prevent the kinds of closures we’re seeing and help make the Klamath River a healthier place for salmon,” said Glen Spain of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Assns.

The decision will cause little immediate change, officials said, mostly because the region had a wet winter.

“We’ll be able to make full irrigation deliveries and provide for heavier river flows,” said Jeff McCracken of the Bureau of Reclamation. “But it’s going to be complicated to see how we get from there.”

The decision by Armstrong could hurt farmers most during drought years, when the river lacks enough water to go around.

Kristen Boyles, an Earthjustice attorney who fought the case for a coalition of environmentalists, fishermen and Native American tribes, said that during dry years up to 43% more water would remain in the river to ensure the coho’s survival.

“This decision couldn’t come at a better time, because there’s enough water now to give everyone time to plan for the future,” Boyles said. “We don’t want to lurch from crisis to crisis. We need to figure how to manage this scarce resource.”

Greg Addington of the Klamath Water Users Assn., which represents irrigators in the 200,000-acre basin, said farmers would find ways to manage in all but times of drought. “A dry year will be devastating,” he said. “There’s no doubt about it.”

The dispute dates to 2001, when a deep drought prompted federal regulators to cut irrigation water to Klamath farmers. The basin became a flashpoint for debate over the Endangered Species Act.

By 2002, the Bush administration had a plan in place that ensured irrigation water for agriculture but prompted protests from environmentalists worried about the fish.

Their warnings soon proved prescient. In the spring of 2002, thousands of juvenile salmon died because of low water flows. That fall, as many as 70,000 adult salmon heading upriver to spawn succumbed to a disease that California Fish and Game biologists blamed on low flows.

Armstrong’s decision Monday follows a ruling by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in October rebuking the Bush administration for its stewardship of the Klamath. The justices sent the case back to Armstrong with orders to give more water to the fish and less to the farmers.

But federal officials continued to argue for the status quo.

Boyles, who called it “a stonewalling strategy,” countered in court with a demand that reclamation and federal fisheries managers take immediate steps to ensure that enough water remained in the river.

On Monday, Armstrong agreed.

Bob Gasser, a Klamath Basin fertilizer dealer, expressed hope that the ruling would end years of bickering: “We know we have to change, we know we have to do better, but it’s hard to do better when we spend all our time in court.”