Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Capital press. (Salem, OR) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (June 29, 2018)
Capital Press A g The West’s FRIDAY, JUNE 29, 2018 Weekly VOLUME 91, NUMBER 26 WWW.CAPITALPRESS.COM $2.00 Columbia River Treaty Keystone of Northwest agricultural economy Storage Run of river N 1 State boundary Sources: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; Pacific Northwest Waterways Association Lake/reservoir lum Co 30 miles r ve Ri River Columbia Duncan 2 Lake BRITISH COLUMBIA K o Kootenay Lake er a ke Sn 19 Ice Harbor McNary Pendleton e er Riv HELLS CANYON NAT’L REC. AREA 8 J o hn Day de r John Day r Ri ve r Missoula ver Ri r e at IDAHO Ri r n S a l mo R i v e 14 Oxbow 15 Brownlee er u rn t Riv B Ri v e Corvallis Kerr k La Grande OREGON w s c hutes Ri ve r The Dalles De l ear w C i F or r ve 17 18 20 lear w a t e r . C Lewiston Po Salem 16 er R iv mbia C o lu r Rive Sna k e Riv e r ki Priest Rapids ma Ri v er N. F 22 Wanapum lu Co 21 John Day Bonneville Portland Clar k 7 MONTANA ia s 9 d oeur ’Ale n e WASHINGTON er R iv Flathead Lake Thompson Falls Coeur d’Alene C Post Falls (Coeur d’Alene) mb Le w Noxon Rapids Pend Oreille Hungry Horse *Columbia River Treaty facilities shown do not represent all dams and reservoir structures within the Columbia River Basin. S almo n R iv er MT. RAINIER NAT’L PARK 11 10 Albeni Falls Lake 13 Spokane 24 Rocky Reach 23 Rock Island Yakima Y a Longview k an e Riv r Grand R ond Olympia S 28 Libby 6 ad Seattle 26 27 25 e Chelan 12 Grand Coulee po OLYMPIC NAT’L PARK Chief Joseph Cabinet Gorge WATERTON- GLACIER INT’L PEACE PARK he l at . F S.F Lake Chelan Wells an Priest Lake Box Canyon C olumbia an Riv og d e Fu ca Ok Juan 5 ive r d R NORTH CASCADES NAT’L PARK ea VANCOUVER ISLAND Ri ve r rg ia . Fl ath N.F 4 iver y R Arrow ena ot 3 Str ait Str ait of River ia b Alan Kenaga/Capital Press Corra Linn (Kootenay) Turn to TREATY, Page 9 “ Columbia Basin Mica o Ge of s they meet this summer to update the Columbia River Treaty, U.S. and Canadian negotiators hold Northwest farmers’ futures in their hands. The treaty was adopted in 1964 for the cooperative development and management of the Columbia River, the 1,243-mile-long river that winds through British Columbia, Canada, and Washington state and whose tributaries are as far- flung as Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and Oregon. Some provisions of the treaty are set to expire in 2024, and U.S. and Canadian negoti- ators met in Washington D.C., in May to begin talks on how to update them. The next round of negotiations will take place Aug. 15-16 in Brit- Clark Kagele ish Columbia. “The Columbia River Treaty is a huge deal for farmers,” said Clark Kagele, a farmer in Odessa, Wash., and secretary of the Columbia Basin Development League. “It’s basically going to have control of all future water supplies.” For farmers such as Kagele, who depend on the Odessa aquifer, having access to Columbia River water is crucial. He estimates he has less than 15 years of water left in the five wells that he uses to irrigate his wheat, alfalfa, timothy hay, potatoes, sunflowers and canola. He hopes to receive Co- lumbia River water to replace his wells within the next 10 years. If not, his choices are limited. He could switch to dryland farming, but that would mean a wheat yield of 30 to 32 bushels per acre compared to the 100 bushels per acre he averages under ir- rigation. Willam ette Capital Press Legend 15. Brownlee 16. Bonneville 17. The Dalles 18. John Day 19. McNary 20. Ice Harbor 21. Priest Rapids 22. Wanapum 23. Rock Island 24. Rocky Reach 25. Chelan 26. Wells 27. Chief Joseph 28. Grand Coulee 1. Mica 2. Duncan 3. Corra Linn 4. Arrow 5. Box Canyon 6. Libby 7. Hungry Horse 8. Kerr 9. Thompson Falls 10. Noxon Rapids 11. Cabinet Gorge 12. Albeni Falls 13. Post Falls 14. Oxbow lumbia Co A By MATTHEW WEAVER Columbia River Treaty dams * Pacific Ocean Agriculture, navigation, power, the environment — all are factors in the negotiations If we ever want to get a little more water out to the farmers and shut the rest of these wells off ... the treaty has to make room for that. ” Clark Kagele, Odessa, Wash., farmer Klamath Project gets long-awaited 2018 operations plan Tribal lawsuit remains a wild card By GEORGE PLAVEN Capital Press It may be several months late, but farmers and ranchers in the Klamath Project finally know just how much water is available for the 2018 irriga- tion season — pending an injunction requested by the Klamath Tribes to protect endangered sucker fish in Up- per Klamath Lake. The Bureau of Reclamation re- leased its annual operations and drought plans on June 18 for the Klamath Project serving 230,000 irri- gated acres in Southern Oregon and Northern California. Regulators calculate the water sup- ply based on factors such as stream flows, reservoir storage and existing legal obligations for fish. According to the 2018 plans, irrigators can use 233,911 acre-feet of water from Up- per Klamath Lake and the Klamath River, which is 40 percent less than the historical full demand. As of June 18, the bureau had al- ready diverted 38,000 acre-feet for irrigation, leaving roughly 196,000 acre-feet still in the pipeline. Jeff Nettleton, area manager for the Bureau of Reclamation office in Klamath Falls, Ore., said this year has been challenging on all fronts, from the lack of usual snowfall to a court order requiring more water in the Klamath River to protect salmon from disease. “I appreciate the willingness of the entire community to work together to seek solutions to meet these challeng- es,” Nettleton said. “Careful manage- ment of irrigation and continued water conservation efforts will help to mini- mize negative impacts of the reduced water supply as we proceed through the season.” The Klamath Basin, like much of Southern Oregon, had a dri- er-than-usual winter, with snowpack at 55 percent of normal by April 1, 46 percent of normal by May 1 and com- pletely melted by June 1. The USDA Natural Resourc- es Conservation Service anticipates stream flows will be as low as 26 per- cent of normal in parts of the basin through September, and the bureau warns that most agricultural producers will not have enough water “to meet the requirements of good irrigation practices for the acres served by the Project.” A federal judge in San Francisco also upheld a ruling earlier this year that requires more water from Upper Klamath Lake be kept in-river to flush away a deadly salmon-killing parasite known as C. shasta. The bureau re- leased 38,425 acre-feet of water from April 6-15 and another 50,000 acre- feet from May 7-28 to comply with the order, which was secured by the Yurok and Hoopa Valley tribes in 2017. That leaves the Klamath Proj- ect short its usual water allocation, though irrigators can expect a near full supply of water from Clear Lake and Gerber reservoirs. Turn to KLAMATH, Page 9 Central Oregon wildfires keep ranchers on their toes By GEORGE PLAVEN Capital Press Inciweb.nwcg.gov An aircraft drops fire retardant along Bakeoven Road on June 22 to reinforce defense lines at the Boxcar fire near Maupin, Ore. It has been a wild week for rancher Joe Pechanec. Pechanec, cow boss for R2 Ranch, runs about 1,400 head of cattle on public and private range- land in arid central Oregon, where a pair of mas- sive, wind-whipped wildfires have torched more than 100,000 acres and passed mere yards away from his front door. “Last night, I finally got seven hours of sleep,” Pechanec said Monday. “It’s been a really brutal battle, but I think we’re getting headway.” The ordeal began early Thursday, June 21, when lightning touched off the Boxcar fire one mile southeast of Maupin along the Deschutes River corridor. Lightning also sparked the Jack Knife fire just 30 miles away near Grass Valley, and together the blazes have combined to burn 114,272 acres of heavy grass, sage and juniper. Turn to WILDFIRES, Page 9
