Enviro Group Pulls out of Klamath Talks
By Matthew Preusch, The Oregonian
April 23, 2009

A prominent environmental group has backed out of negotiations over a deal meant to help fish, farmers, tribes and others in the Klamath Basin.

The California-based Northcoast Environmental Center said the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement would threaten salmon and other fish and the basin and won't speed the removal of four dams on the Klamath River, which the center supports.

The agreement, they said, doesn't do enough to ensure flows for fish runs while guaranteeing water deliveries to farms that rely on irrigation water diverted from the river.

"We understand and sympathize with the plight of upriver farmers, who need water for their crops," said Greg King, the NEC's Klamath campaign coordinator. "The farmers require water to avoid dry fields. But the salmon need that same water to avoid extinction."

Two other environmental groups, Oregon Wild and WaterWatch, have already come out against the agreement, as has the Hoopa Valley Tribe in California and some upper basin irrigators.

The settlement was crafted over three years by a coalition of 26 groups representing government, farming, fishing, tribal and conservation interests. It was released in draft form last year, hailed as a way to end long-running disputes over water and resources in the basin that straddles the Oregon and California border.

But it would require enough political support to wring nearly $1 billion in funding from Congress to move forward, so any dissolution of the negotiation group threatens its success.

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NEC Steps Away From Klamath Agreement
By John Driscoll, Eureka Times-Standard
April 24, 2009

The Northcoast Environmental Center has bowed out of multi-party talks aimed at resolving some of the Klamath River basin's thorniest controversies.

The center's stance on the draft agreement has changed several times since it went public in early 2008, from tentative support, to opposition, back to tentative support and now withdrawal. The NEC holds that the agreement between tribes, irrigators, agencies and environmental groups guarantees water for farms but not for fish, and would continue farming on Upper Klamath River wildlife refuges.

Greg King with the NEC said that efforts to submit changes to the working document were rebuffed. Signing onto the agreement in its current form, he said, could prevent the center from taking legal action to protect salmon in the river from depleted flows.

”Ultimately, the risks of the deal are put on the fish,” King said.

Scientific reviews the NEC commissioned last year raised concerns about the deal's ability to protect fish, but the scientists who wrote those reviews later said that those worries had been eased after attending a three-day science conference on the matter. King said remaining issues have been left unaddressed, however.

Craig Tucker with the Karuk Tribe, which supports the agreement, said that the agreement puts a cap on the amount of water delivered to irrigators each year, something not currently in place. That corresponds to more water for fish, he said.

”The farmers are giving up water,” Tucker said. “The fish get more water under this deal.”

He did said that a plan to handle droughts has yet to be written, but must be complete before the agreement can be final. Tucker also insisted that any group -- whether they sign the agreement or not -- can still assert its right to litigate to protect endangered species in the river if necessary.

The NEC also argues that trying to come to an agreement on the broad problems in the basin could hold up negotiations with dam owner Pacificorp to remove four hydropower dams on the river. The group remains a party to those talks.

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, and as defined under the provisions of "fair use", any copyrighted material herein is distributed without profit or payment for non-profit research and for educational use by our membership.