Voluntary water cutbacks play a key role in new solutions being considered by the Klamath River Basin Task Force…but several obstacles remain.
The Klamath River Basin Task Force has been focused on 3 concerns:
* Resolving water management issues
* Getting cheaper power for irrigators
* Reducing the costs of the K.B.R.A., or Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement.
An agreement in principle has been reached to help get water to off-project farmers above Upper Klamath Lake who were cut off the past summer.
“It’s all voluntary.” Notes Klamath Tribal Chairman Don Gentry. “Even the 30 thousand acre feet retirement component, and agreement to manage riparian zones along the river. All those things are voluntary.”
“But we need a critical mass of ground and surface water irrigators to participate in order for it to work.” Adds Becky Hyde of the Upper Klamath Water Users Association.
That participation could require those ranchers to support dam removal.
Chairman Gentry stated: “Those are key pieces of our agreements that need to stay in place in order to allow us to move forward with this additional settlement.”
Water user Richard Marshall pointed out that voters in Siskiyou County voted 4 to 1 against dam removal…
“So I would just like to say that we would like to see the dams stay in place.”
Getting cheaper electrical rates for farmers will require some federal help…
But Senator Ron Wyden says he’ll go to bat to get that legislation passed.
Klamath Tribal Chairman Don Gentry adds that the final draft of the Task Force’s findings is now under review…
“The hope is if possible, to have a final agreement by mid-January.”
The Task Force has shaved about a third of the estimated cost of implementing the K.B.R.A., primarily by tapping into state resources.
It’s hoped that lowering the total federal costs could make it easier to pass on Capitol Hill.
Governor John Kitzhaber, Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Mike Connor are all scheduled to be at Oregon Tech tomorrow to announce completion of work by the Klamath Basin Task Force.
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