Video Security for Canal That Farmers Fought to Use (Klamath Falls)

New York Times ^ | 1/02/01 | AP

[kattracks]

LAMATH FALLS, Ore., Jan. 1 — A security fence, video cameras and motion detectors have taken the place of the federal police guarding the head gates of the Klamath Reclamation Project irrigation system.

The $90,000 security system was completed last week around the Klamath project, a United States Bureau of Reclamation site that became the center of protests last summer over federal restrictions on irrigation for farms. The limits were put in place to conserve water for threatened and endangered fish, a bureau spokesman, Dave Jones, said on Monday.

The cutoff forced farmers with no other source of water to sell cattle, let pastures and hay fields go brown and forgo annual plantings of potatoes, grain and other crops.

The federal police were brought in after irate farmers pried open the head gates to an irrigation canal four times and siphoned off water with a pump and a pipe.

The bureau spent about $750,000 guarding the head gates from July 14 to Sept. 26, when the federal police left the site, after protesters agreed to scale back their activities in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Security guards will remain through mid-January, when a final decision will be made on relying solely on the fence, cameras and motion detectors to protect the head gates, Mr. Jones said.

Mr. Jones said water restrictions might not be necessary this year.

"We are hoping for a very peaceful new year," he said. "The snowpack building up in the Siskiyous and the area there gives us every hope this will not be another contentious year, that we have enough water to meet both the environmental obligations we have as well as our longstanding relations with the farmers who depend on that water."

Because of last winter's drought, there was not enough water to supply farmers after meeting Endangered Species Act requirements for the endangered suckerfish in Upper Klamath Lake, the project's primary reservoir, and the threatened coho salmon in Klamath River, which drains the region.

More than 240,000 acres of ranches and farms rely on water from the federal irrigation project in the Klamath Basin in southern Oregon.

A report from Oregon State University said the water dispute polarized the Klamath Basin and involved an undercurrent of racism against the Klamath Tribes, which consider the suckerfish to be sacred gifts from their creator.

[nunya bidness]

Sounds like things are being set up for an unfavorable biological opinion.

Meanwhile the BOR gets new enforcement powers and pork for buying out the farmers.

No need for long johns this thing's going to get hot this month.

[redrock]

When needed...I'll meet ya there.

redrock--Constitutional Terrorist

[nunya bidness]

Interesting.

[TLBSHOW]

But you are a democrat liberal lover aren't you? I would think working on getting Pitt elected is your game.

[america76]

I predict that in one week all that will be left of the $90,000 security system is one giant bullet riddled mass of scrap plastic.

Stop sign or security cam? I know what I'd pick.

[redrock]

Hey....are you only able to 'bash and smash'???

Or can you actually help fellow Americans....in their quest for something that is theirs.

Or will you stand by your Republican President...even when he terrorizes Americans???

I'll be there sometime this year (seeing as how it's going)...will YOU???

Or is your devotion to the Constitution just words???

redrock--Constitutional Terrorist

[nunya bidness]

Do yourself a favor and drop it. I know redrock.

He was stictching up GI's in Viet Nam and stood with us at Klamath Falls.

[TLBSHOW]

YOU ARE NO FREEPER

[TLBSHOW]

I will stand by my President. I see you liberals won't. Isn't Pitt calling his little voices to war?

[hattend]

If the bypass hasn't been installed look for a repeat of 2001.

Headgates can be rendered moot if the bypass is completed.

[Luis Gonzalez]

"Hey....are you only able to 'bash and smash'???

I don't think that I will be responding to your posts any longer. I find your claim that I am only capable of bashing and smashing highly insulting, I have tried to give reasoned, and thought out responses.

"Or can you actually help fellow Americans....in their quest for something that is theirs."

Which fellow Americans? Those who fish, or those who farm?

"Or will you stand by your Republican President...even when he terrorizes Americans???"

Constitutional terrorist indeed redrock, by your complete disregard for it.

The Legislative Branch makes Laws, the Judicial Branch interprets them, and the Executive Branch enforces the Laws, as well as the decisions of the Courts.

Everything that has gone on in Klamath has been by Court order, after a sitution was brought to the Court system by a group of citizens.

Would you be supportive of a President who ignored the wishes of the Courts?"I'll be there sometime this year (seeing as how it's going)...will YOU???""Or is your devotion to the Constitution just words???

Oh, please...

[redrock]

Sorry if I offended you Luis...you know how much I respect your thought.

But let me put it this way.....you have 1400 (approx) AMERICAN Families...husbands...wives...children.

Families dependent on the water from a lake and dam that either they,or their fathers, helped to create.

Created for one reason...to irrigate their land.

The Dam is NOT OWNED by the Federal Government......neither is the lake.

So...think about people like Castro...taking over private property .."for the good of the state".

I KNOW you would not approve of Castro doing it..(even WITH a Court Order)...so why approve of an American President doing it??

redrock

[farmfriend]

Pinging the Klamath list. Freepmail me if you wish to be added or removed from the list.

[alphadog]

ADM, Monsanto, etc own the politicians on both sides of the fence. and they want to own the Klamath farms, but it seems that if that if you have an "R" next to your name it's OK...

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

Klamath Falls Research Thread 1

Klamath Falls Research Thread 2

Klamath Falls Research Thread 3

Klamath Falls Research Thread 4

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

Gentlemen
I do not know all the details between the discussions you have had.
I am only here to state that I met redrock at Klamath Falls and he is who he says he is.
I also know that when I was there in Aug, the lake was full,
yet the feds kept the farmers from getting the water the farmers own.
68-69TonkinGulfYatchClub Eye AND Ear Witness account of Klamath Falls Parade and Rally

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

see my post 17

[Carry_Okie]

A few electrical engineers could help make that security system a most entertaining toy. When is Evinger up for re-election?

[Luis Gonzalez]

I am well aware of the situation at Klamath, and well aware that even now, you spin the story and write out the other citizens involved, the fishermen, the ones who brought the origibal lawsuit ti court. A lot of families as well, depenending on the water.

The lawsuit was brought to a Federal Court by US citizens. I am well-read on BOTH sides of this question. Spinning will not work with me here.