More water near certainty for Klamath this year

The Times-Standard ^ | June 10, 2003 | John Driscoll

[farmfriend]

More water near certainty for Klamath this year

By John Driscoll
The Times-Standard

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation intends to put significantly more water down the Klamath River after receiving forecasts that spell out a wetter year than first expected.

But the bureau is waiting to hear from a U.S. District Court judge in Oakland before making the switch, saying it doesn't want to rework flow schedules twice.

"We've got those wheels rolling," said bureau spokesman Jeff McCracken.

Judge Sandra Armstrong has apparently indicated that she intends to come down in favor of more water for salmon, which died by the thousands in a hot, shallow river last fall.

The Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, the Northcoast Environmental Center and others are suing the bureau, claiming its 10-year plan puts threatened coho salmon in jeopardy. A few hundred coho died in the fish kill last fall, but nearly 34,000 chinook salmon -- the staple of Indian and commercial fishermen -- died as well. Armstrong will decide whether to force the bureau back into consultation with the National Marine Fisheries Service over Reclamation's 10-year plan.

Armstrong's decision, and a change in the water year designation, would boost flows to the river below Iron Gate Dam for the remainder of the summer and into the fall. Parties in the suit believe Armstrong may rule this week.

The decision to put more water down the river is based on a Natural Resources Conservation Service forecast of inflow into Upper Klamath Lake, the river's headwaters.

Last year, in mid-July, the bureau did the opposite. Flows were dropped to levels that concerned biologists on the river, and the Yurok Tribe and the state Department of Fish and Game warned there may be a fish kill. They were right. Fish and Game reported the cause was disease brought on by hot, crowed conditions, but the U.S. Interior Department has yet to weigh in on the cause.

In related news, the bureau has told the fisheries service to appropriate 60,000 acre feet it bought from farmers for $4 million this year for salmon, McCracken said. The water will be spent this year to bolster flows. The bureau initially wanted to count water spilled from lowermost Iron Gate Dam against the water bank, but was sharply criticized for trying to take credit for a natural event -- April's heavy rains.

[farmfriend]

Rights, farms, environment ping.

Let me know if you wish to be a added or removed from this list.

[The Westerner]

Thanks for the update.

[tubebender]

Thanks for the ping. They are also releasing lots of water from Trinity Lake into the Trinity River and because of that I don't think they need that much water from the Klamath Lakes...

[E.G.C.]

BTTT!!!!!

[sasquatch]

Got back from the river yesterday. It is at about the same level as last month. Though it appears the Iron Gate supply is down a bit, the Scott is producing so much water that I did not even attempt fishing. A reservoir might help. Thanks for the ping.

[farmfriend]

Stay tuned. I have another Klamath thread going up.

[marsh2]

The Scott is tremendously high in comparison with prior years at this time. Lots of good snowpack. There is still snow in the mountains in abundance melting slowly to fill the rivers as God intended. We have experienced a long drought. Hopefully, we will see more years like this one in sequence so that we run through a few coho 3-year life cycles.

What we would like to do is store the water in some of the high mountain lakes on Forest Service managed land. Hard to so as much is wilderness. It would provide the COLD water we need for fish into summer. We already have one rancher willing to dedicate a high mountain water use right for these purposes.

We would like a small reservoir. Environmentalists are bound on removing dams, not building them.

[sasquatch]

We would like a small reservoir.

Think Big; not huge, but not small!
Since the Trinity has been substantially diverted,
the Scott could be of great benefit to salmon in the late season.
Be well,
D.

[marsh2]

Bite your tongue. There are maps from the 1950s showing the whole of Scott Valley as a reservoir. There are even survey markers to that effect at the old Brazil ranch.

[sasquatch]

...maybe not quite THAT big.
;o)