Environmental Group Wants Long-Term Solution
By Anita Burke, Herald and News
March 29, 2002

Oregon Natural Resources Council representative says group may seek legal recourse to stop irrigation

Water supplies may be adequate to enable the flow of water to Klamath Reclamation Project farmers this year, but the Basin still lacks a real solution to water conflicts, said officials from the Oregon Natural Resources Council.

Standing on the shores up Upper Klamath Lake near Rocky Point Thursday afternoon, Wendell Wood, a field representative for the Portland-based conservation group, said little had changed in the Basin other than the amount of water available this year.

“In this type of water year, we assume there would be an irrigation season,” he said. “We’re not saying opening the headgates is inappropriate.”

Environmentalists are concerned that the process leading to the opening of the headgates may have been rushed and politically influenced.

“The whole ceremony at the headgates is about (Sen. Gordon) Smith’s re-election and those who want to make the Endangered Species Act a scapegoat,” Wood said. “The Bush Administration wants to be all things for all people.”

“They were trying to assure that Oregon Sen. Gordon Smith will be re-elected this November. They were also signaling to the people of the Klamath River Basin that they do not intend a balanced solution to the problem of too many federal commitments to deliver Klamath water,” Klamath Forest Alliance director Felice Pace said of the opening ceremony.

Wood said the Oregon Natural Resources Council supports sustainable agriculture in the Basin. “It’s certainly our view that the agricultural community has a legitimate right, but it’s only one segment,” he said.

The needs of wildlife, including protected species, and Native American tribes also must be considered and ultimately, demand for water must be reduced, he continued.

Pace said everyone should celebrate the fact that nature has provided water this year. “We should all — conservationists and irrigators, tribes, fishermen and recreationists — be opening the headgates together under a plan in which all interests are honored and the waters of the Klamath River are balanced.”

Environmentalists will review interim biological opinions that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service expected to issue on the initial operation of the irrigation project this spring. The review will explore the legal adequacy of the temporary documents and assess the scientific evidence, Wood said.

He said he didn’t want to prejudge the plans, but if the group found a problem, it might seek legal recourse to stop irrigation.

The biological opinions on the 10-year plan set out in the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s biological assessment of project operations will face similar scrutiny. Although environmentalists have sought a long-term plan in the past, this plan was rushed and doesn’t take into account recently completed flow studies and the ongoing review by the National Academy of Sciences, he claimed.

He fears the 10-year plan could be an attempt to lock in rising political will to support irrigation. “They have to do a new opinion if there is new information,” he said. “We may have to litigate if science indicates.”

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