Basin Needs to Identify Problems, Not Scapegoats
By Elwood Miller, Klamath Falls Herald and News
June 29, 2001

Recently the organization Water for Life provided an article for this newspaper that in several ways tried to blame the Klamath Tribes for the water difficulties in the Klamath Basin. Judging from the response, that effort was unsuccessful.

Most people in the Basin understand that the tribes are not responsible for the demise of Basin fisheries or for the awful pollution problems in Upper Klamath Lake. The article's contradictory assertions that the Tribes, on one hand, have no water rights yet, on the other, are responsible for water management in the Basin is puzzling.

The c'wam fishery.

The Tribes managed the c'wam fishery for many, many centuries. The fisheries thrived, and our people along with them. When non-Indians came to this land, they, too, enjoyed the bounty of the fishery. The idea that these are "trash fish" only of interest to Indians with questionable taste is disproved by the non-Indians' own records of vigorous participation in the harvest by settlers and visitors.

The article's suggestion that shabby harvest practices by the Tribes have caused the precipitous drop in the c'wam population is inconsistent with reality. We closed our fishery in 1986. The non-Indian fishery remained open for two more years, but it, too, was closed in 1988 with the listing of the fish as endangered. There has been no harvest in over a decade. If overharvest were the problem, we would have seen a rebound in the populations after the harvest stopped. But that is not happening.

The article also alludes to dams as the cause of the fishery decline. But most of these dams have been gone for decades. The article itself refers to them as "long-forgotten." Again, if this was causing the fishery's demise, we would be seeing a rebound in populations. But we are not.

No, other things are killing the fish. One such thing is the incredible water quality problem in Upper Klamath Lake.

Lake water quality

Anyone familiar with Upper Klamath Lake knows of its awful water quality problems, especially in the late summer. Thick algae blooms make the lake obnoxious for boating and swimming. They also make the lake lethal to fish.

As the algae dies off, its decay robs the water of dissolved oxygen needed by the fish to survive. Algae blooms are now a regular occurrence, happening twice in particularly bad years. The resulting water problems either kill the fish outright or severely stress them, leaving them vulnerable to disease, predation or other sources of mortality.

This has not always been the case with Upper Klamath Lake. Core samples of the Lake's bottom have been analyzed by university scientists. They report that the heavy algae densities responsible for the current water quality problems are found only relatively near the top of the core samples, in the layers recently laid down. This shows that the enormous algal blooms that cause this problem have not always been present in the Lake, and that this is a problem that has come on in the last century or so.

Again, blaming the Tribes for this problem faced by our fisheries simply does not hold water. It is an unfair attempt to divert attention from the real problems that drive the algae blooms that kill the fish. Part of the problem is found upstream of the Lake where the condition of the tributary streams is poor, and where bovine fecal matter washes into the streams and, then, into the Lake to fertilize the algae blooms. Other causes include draining of wetlands and changes in hydrology in the Lake and its tributaries.

The Tribes are aware that many farmers and ranchers who are Water for Life members acknowledge these problems and have taken significant steps, often at their own expense, to address them. We applaud and encourage this effort, and we look for ways to work with such people in order to implement these improvements on a scale that will turn the present problem around. But the organization's attacks on, and misplaced blame of, the Tribes is counterproductive to this cooperation, and it encourages people to deny the real causes of the Lake's problems.

Conflicting water rights

The article attempts to portray the agricultural community as united within itself and unified against the Tribes on water issues. This mischaracterizes the situation by ignoring the fundamental problem of overcommitment of water resources.

Water law requires that all water interests compete with one another. The idea of sharing, or of unity among water users, is a stranger to this legal regime. This is obvious from the fact that 60 to 70 percent of Basin agriculture is irrigating vigorously around and above the Lake and in the Scott and Shasta valleys, while the remaining 30 to 40 percent in the Klamath Project goes without water.

Under the law, competition among agricultural uses is ever present. For example, in the Klamath Basin water adjudication process, Fort Klamath water users have filed contests questioning water rights in the Klamath Project. And in other litigation, Project water users have demanded restrictions on water use above the Lake.

This competition is not anybody's "fault." It is a product of the legal system within which we all must work. But it is misleading for Water for Life to imply that all agricultural water interests are not in competition with one another, or should be united against the Tribes. It works as a diversion, whether intentional or not, from attention to the real problem at hand — that federal and state promises of water far exceed what nature provides.

Recognize real problems

It is very good that the article acknowledges the poor condition of Lake fisheries and the attendant water management problems. But using the Tribes as a scapegoat for these problems, first, is simply incorrect and, second, does nothing to address the problems.

With the problems properly identified, we should all move on to crafting solutions, not inventing scapegoats. The Tribes will continue to work toward solutions that will allow the Basin to support a vigorous, healthy, and sustainable economies in both the agricultural and tribal communities.

Elwood Miller Jr. is Director of Natural Resources for the Klamath Tribes

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