EPA’S REVERSAL ON WHAT’S UPSTREAM RINGS HOLLOW TO AG GROUPS
FRIDAY, APRIL 8, 2016
VOLUME 89, NUMBER 15
Page 3
WWW.CAPITALPRESS.COM
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State, federal offi cials sign new Klamath dam agreements
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
KLAMATH, Calif. — Top
state and federal offi cials made
their latest Klamath River dam
removal pact offi cial April 6,
as proponents vowed to keep
pushing for water-sharing
agreements that would benefi t
Klamath Basin farmers.
California Gov. Jerry
Brown and Oregon Gov. Kate
Brown were joined by U.S.
Interior Secretary Sally Jewell
and other dignitaries at a resort
on the Yurok Tribe’s reserva-
tion, where they inked the fi nal
version of the dam-removal
plan they announced in Feb-
ruary.
The plan calls for a non-
profi t organization to take
control of the four dams from
owner Pacifi Corp and seek
a go-ahead for their removal
from the Federal Energy Reg-
ulatory Commission.
“It’s a day to reaffi rm our
shared commitment to restore
and heal the Klamath Basin,”
Jewell said, “and to acknowl-
edge the incredible and brave
partners and leaders who, de-
“It’s really a promise to ag that we’re going
to stay at the table with them and continue to
support the things they need.”
Craig Tucker, the Karuk Tribe’s natural resources policy advocate
spite setbacks, stayed at the
table.”
California’s Jerry Brown
said the agreement is a testa-
ment to “non-extremism and
non-polarization,” as people
from different backgrounds
worked to put it together.
“What we’re doing today
in healing this river has impli-
cations not only for the United
States but all over the world,”
he said.
In addition, the parties sig-
naled a plan to revive the com-
panion Klamath Basin Resto-
ration Agreement, including
water-sharing agreements be-
tween farmers, tribes and the
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
and various fi sheries improve-
ments around the basin.
The side agreement in-
cludes support for federal
legislation that would provide
money to operate two diver-
sion dams within the basin that
Pacifi Corp would turn over
to Reclamation so irrigators
wouldn’t have to pick up the
cost, said Craig Tucker, the
Karuk Tribe’s natural resourc-
es policy advocate.
“It’s really a promise to ag
that we’re going to stay at the
table with them and contin-
ue to support the things they
need,” Tucker told the Capital
Press before the ceremony.
Oregon’s Kate Brown said
the agreements will heal di-
visions in the Klamath Ba-
sin, providing fi sheries im-
provements for tribes and “a
sustainable and predictable
source of water” for ranchers
and farmers.
“It’s about the future we
want to leave for our children
and our children’s children,”
she said.
Turn to DAM, Page 12
THE WEST’S
WATERWORKS
Courtesy of Bureau of Reclamation
The John Keys Pump Generation
Plant intakes are seen at the Grand
Coulee Dam. The 12 pumps send
water from the Columbia River to
Banks Lake and 670,000 acres of
farmland in the Columbia Basin Proj-
ect in Central Washington state.
Farmers rely on massive natural and man-made waterworks
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
Connell, Wash.,
farmers Kevin Lyle and
Orman Johnson stand
on one of Johnson’s
groundwater well
siteson March 17. Lyle
and Johnson hope to
replace their declining
aquifer water with
Columbia River water
as early as 2019. “We
need it today,” John-
son says.
C
ONNELL, Wash. — Orman Johnson and Kevin Lyle
worry about the wells that pump water from deep with-
in the earth beneath their Central Washington farms.
Soon, they fear, there will be no water for their crops.
Johnson and Lyle live about a mile from each other, and the fl ow of
water from their wells is lower each year, Lyle said.
“If they’re producing at all,” said Johnson, who is also chairman of
the Columbia Basin Development League board. “The quality of the
water is not as good, either. It’s a high pH, high sodium.”
“They pump for a while each year,” Johnson said. “In the spring they
Matthew Weaver
Capital Press
Turn to WATER, Page 12
Death of OR-4 a sobering turn for Oregon’s wolf plan
Shooting renews debate over managing predators
By ERIC MORTENSON
Capital Press
They called him OR-4,
and by some accounts he was
Oregon’s biggest and baddest
wolf, 97 pounds of cunning
in his prime and the longtime
alpha male of Wallowa Coun-
ty’s infl uential Imnaha Pack.
But OR-4 was nearly 10,
old for a wolf in the wild. And
his mate limped with a bad
back leg. Accompanied by
two yearlings, they apparently
separated from the rest of the
Imnaha Pack or were forced
out. In March, they attacked
and devoured or injured
calves and sheep fi ve times in
private pastures.
So on March 31, Oregon
Department of Fish and Wild-
life staff boarded a helicopter,
rose up and shot all four.
The decisive action by
ODFW may have marked a
somber turning point in the
state’s work to restore wolves
Turn to WOLVES, Page 10
Oregon Depart-
ment of Fish and
Wildlife biologists
place a new
GPS collar on
OR-4, the Imnaha
wolf pack’s
alpha male, after
darting him from
a helicopter in
2012.
Courtesy of ODFW
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