Friday, April 15, 2022
CapitalPress.com 11
Drought: ‘The ag community in Washington
should feel glad they’re not in Oregon’
Continued from Page 1
Overall,
however,
Washington is better off
than Oregon.
“The ag community in
Washington should feel
glad they’re not in Ore-
gon,” said Bond.
Oregon
The storm is having pos-
itive, tangible impacts in
Oregon.
Larry O’Neill, state cli-
matologist and professor at
Oregon State University,
said the statewide aver-
age snow-water equiva-
lent April 11 was at 69% of
normal compared to 57%
of normal last week.
“That was a good
bump-up,” he said.
But farmers in different
parts of Oregon face strik-
ingly different outlooks.
As of April 11, accord-
ing to Natural Resources
Conservation
Service’s
snow survey, the snow-wa-
ter equivalent in the Hood-
Sandy-Lower Deschutes
watershed is at 123% of
normal levels, and the Wil-
lamette watershed is at
94% of normal.
The
Umatilla-Walla
Walla-Willow watershed
has seen decent precipita-
tion, at 87% of normal.
Central
Oregon’s
snow-water
equivalents
range from 53% to 73% of
normal. Southern and East-
ern Oregon regions have
as low as 28% of normal
snow-water equivalent and
below-average rainfall.
“If you’re reliant on irri-
gation or surface water in
the southeastern two-thirds
of Oregon, you should
have a contingency plan
in place and be prepared
for water shortages,” Scott
Oviatt, snow survey super-
visor for NRCS.
Idaho
Idaho also had a dry
early spring, putting snow-
pack levels at two-thirds or
three-quarters of normal
across southern Idaho.
This storm pummeling
the region, however, could
turn the situation around.
“The cold front will
delay the snow from melt-
ing. And if enough snow
falls, it may add to water
supplies,” said Erin Whor-
ton, water supply special-
ist at NRCS’s Idaho Snow
Survey.
Idaho farmers have
been bracing for shortages
in Boise, Owyhee, Wood,
Lost, Salmon Falls and
Oakly basins and in the
upper Snake basin.
Idaho is still expected to
have significantly reduced
water supplies and low res-
ervoir carryovers from last
year, Whorton said, for
which farmers should be
prepared. But this storm,
she said, could “help alle-
viate that.”
“It’s nice that this will
potentially allow the res-
ervoirs to fill more and
give us that supplemental
water,” she said.
Water: ‘Obviously, there are no winners in this critical year’
to receive drought relief
funding and be subject to
some kind of action.”
Continued from Page 1
On April 11, Recla-
mation again announced
a limited water alloca-
tion for irrigators amid a
third consecutive year of
extreme drought. Based on
hydrologic conditions, the
bureau will release an esti-
mated 50,000 acre-feet of
water from Upper Klamath
Lake into the Project’s A
Canal beginning April 15.
That is just 15% of
the Project’s full allot-
ment, though still a mod-
est improvement over
2021. The rest of the stored
water will remain in Upper
Klamath Lake for pro-
tected sucker fish, or sent
down the Klamath River
to boost streamflows for
coho salmon and the Yurok
Tribe’s boat dance cere-
mony in August.
Speaking up for fish
‘Coming to a head’
If not for federal drought
relief programs, which pay
farmers to idle land, Grant
said they would not have
made it through last year.
He and Barnes decided
they would stick it out five
more years on the farm
before considering their
alternatives — if they can
make it that long.
They also have two
young children, includ-
ing a 7-year-old son and
4-month-old daughter.
Their plan is to sell all
or most of their 50 cattle,
which will allow them to
sell more of the hay they
grow without having to
feed their own animals.
Higher
hay
prices
will help make up for
the smaller crop, though
Grant admitted he is ner-
vous about what they will
be able to produce in such
dry soil. Meanwhile, inputs
such as fuel and fertilizer
are getting more expen-
sive, he said.
“I think things are com-
ing to a head,” Grant said.
“It seems like there’s going
to be permanent land idling
happening out here. ... I
don’t know if there’s going
to be reliable water.”
Prolonged drought
Reclamation’s
initial
2022 water allotment for
the Klamath Project comes
as the region is experienc-
ing its worst drought since
the 1930s.
The last three years
have ranked among the five
driest on record, according
to the agency’s Klamath
Basin Area Office.
As of April 11, the
Klamath
Basin
had
received 70% of its median
precipitation for the water
year dating back to Oct.
1, 2021, but just 36% of
median snow-water equiv-
alent, which is the amount
of water contained in the
mountain snowpack.
With such difficult con-
ditions, Ernest Conant,
region director of the
bureau, said officials were
tasked with walking a fine
line between satisfying the
needs of Klamath Proj-
ect farmers and protect-
ing endangered fish in the
watershed.
“Obviously, there are
no winners in this critical
year,” Conant said. “All
interests are suffering.”
Under the bureau’s
Klamath Project interim
operations plan, Reclama-
tion is required to main-
George Plaven/Capital Press
Upper Klamath Lake
tain a surface elevation of
4,142 feet in Upper Klam-
ath Lake during April and
May to provide shoreline
spawning habitat for Lost
River and shortnose suck-
ers — known by the Klam-
ath Tribes as C’waam and
Koptu.
Given the drought,
Conant said there is not
enough water to meet that
target regardless of any
allotment for irrigators.
Instead, the bureau will
manage the lake to main-
tain a minimum surface
elevation of 4,138.15 feet.
Current water storage
and inflows suggest that
will make approximately
50,000 acre-feet of water
available for Klamath Proj-
ect farms, Conant said.
That, however, could
change
if
conditions
worsen. A year ago, the
bureau announced a Project
allocation of 33,000 acre-
feet before later reducing it
to zero.
A small amount of
water is already flowing
into Project canals, which
Conant said Reclamation
approved for maintenance
and to check for cracks,
leaks and structural integ-
rity. Water releases started
March 1, totaling 630 acre-
feet, which will come out
of the Project allotment.
Flushing flow
Klamath Project opera-
tions must also account for
the survival of threatened
coho salmon in the lower
Klamath River.
The interim opera-
tions plan calls for releas-
ing a springtime “flushing
flow” of water from Upper
Klamath Lake downri-
ver to wash away a deadly
fish-killing parasite known
as C. shasta, which thrives
in warm, slow-moving
water.
Jim Simondet, Klamath
Basin branch chief for the
National Marine Fisheries
Service, said the disease
ecosystem for salmon in
the river this year indicates
a high risk of C. shasta
infection, with a “very
high” density of polychaete
worms that act as a host for
the parasite.
Simondet said this
year’s flushing flow will be
approximately 25,000 acre-
feet, or about half of what is
George Plaven/Capital Press
A pair of C’waam, or Lost River suckers, swimming in
captivity at the Klamath Tribes Research Station near
Chiloquin, Ore.
typically prescribed. That
comes as major concern
to tribes along the Klam-
ath River that have strug-
gled to revive the declining
fishery.
Frankie Myers, vice
chairman of the Yurok
Tribe, said that while he
is gratified to see the river
afforded at least some pro-
tection, “it is no time to
celebrate.”
“Salmon runs will con-
tinue to suffer under these
conditions, and as climate
change intensifies, such
protections will become
increasingly important,”
Myers said.
David Palumbo, act-
ing commissioner of the
Bureau of Reclamation,
said the agency will con-
tinue to monitor the basin’s
hydrology and manage
conditions in coordination
with irrigators, tribes and
state and federal partners.
“Reclamation is ded-
icated to collaborating
with all stakeholders to
get through another diffi-
cult year and keep working
toward long-term solutions
for the basin,” Palumbo
said.
The
bureau
also
announced $20 million in
immediate drought assis-
tance for farmers, and
$5 million in technical
assistance for tribal proj-
ects focused on water
conservation.
‘Worse than last year’
Despite calls for col-
laboration, neither farms
nor tribes are pleased with
Reclamation’s temporary
operating procedures for
2022.
The Klamath Water
Users Association, which
represents 1,200 family
farms and ranches in the
Klamath Project, issued
a statement decrying the
limited water allocation
and accusing the federal
government of failing the
region’s agriculture.
“If we farmers failed as
badly as the federal agency
biologists who are con-
trolling water policy, our
bankers would have fore-
closed on us 20 years ago,”
said Ben DuVal, KWUA
president and Tulelake,
Calif., farmer. “The reg-
ulators’ performance is
unacceptable and should
be embarrassing to federal
decision-makers.”
It takes 350,000 acre-
feet of water to fully irri-
gate the Klamath Project.
With just one-seventh of
that amount, DuVal said
he anticipates more fields
will turn to dust, more
domestic wells will run dry
and farms will go out of
business.
“It’s probably going
to be worse than it was
last year,” he said. “Any-
thing we did to irrigate last
year was deficit irrigation.
That’s going to compound
the problem this year.”
KWUA
Executive
Director Paul Simmons
said the water policy gov-
erning the Klamath Proj-
ect is “egregious and out of
balance.”
“It’s the world’s worst-
kept secret that NMFS
is using Klamath Proj-
ect water to try to mitigate
problems not caused by the
Klamath Project,” Sim-
mons said. “And when that
doesn’t work, they just do
it again, and then again.”
While federal drought
relief does offer some
money for farms to pay the
bills, DuVal said it does not
replace food production
that is desperately needed
around the world — a fact
that is underscored by Rus-
sia’s invasion of Ukraine,
threatening the breadbas-
ket of Europe.
“On a single acre, we
can produce over 50,000
pounds of potatoes or
6,000 pounds of wheat,”
he said. “This year, most of
that land will not produce
any food because the gov-
ernment is denying water
for irrigation.”
A majority of produc-
ers in the Klamath Irriga-
tion District recently voted
that they want the district’s
board of directors to pur-
sue “all available avenues
which are legal, moral and
ethical” to deliver irriga-
tion water — even if it
breaks with Reclamation’s
operating plans and jeopar-
dizes their access to federal
drought relief.
Gene Souza, the KID
manager, said the board is
still analyzing what options
may be available to them.
“By allowing patrons to
exercise their voice through
a vote, they now have a
good ability to understand
what the patrons really
want to the district to focus
on this year,” Souza said.
Reclamation stated any
unauthorized
diversions
of water would result in
reductions to the Klamath
Project water allocation,
and possible legal action.
“It’s up to them,” Conant
said in response to the
KID vote, which was held
March 29. “If they don’t
cooperate and follow the
plan as laid out, they will
compromise their ability
Clayton Dumont, a
councilman for the Klam-
ath Tribes, said he does not
know how Reclamation
can justify releasing irri-
gation water from Upper
Klamath Lake while at the
same time failing to meet
its requirements for imper-
iled C’waam and Koptu.
“This will be the third
straight year the minimum
level for spawning season
will not be met,” Dumont
said.
In a statement, the
Tribes called the 2022
operating plan “perhaps
the saddest chapter yet in a
long history of treaty vio-
lations visited upon us by
the United States.”
C’waam and Koptu are
central to the Tribes’ cul-
ture and sense of iden-
tity. The fish, which are
endemic to Upper Klamath
Lake, have experienced a
precipitous decline. Both
species were listed as
endangered under the fed-
eral Endangered Species
Act in 1988.
Data from the Tribes
show there are fewer than
50,000 individual suckers
left in the Upper Klamath
River drainage. The fish
once numbered in the tens
of millions.
Water is needed in the
lake to provide habitat,
Dumont said. The Tribes
are also focused on restor-
ing wetland habitat that
acted as the “kidneys” for
the water system, absorb-
ing phosphorous leached
from farms that result in
harmful algal blooms later
in the summer.
“We think there is really
a failure to take a compre-
hensive look at the his-
tory of degradation in the
basin,” Dumont said.
Roberta Frost, secre-
tary of the Klamath Tribes,
said they are considering
all options this year —
including consulting with
their legal team — but
first need to communicate
with tribal members about
how the bureau’s decision
may put their fisheries in
danger.
“We’re not saying irri-
gators have no place in
this basin,” Frost said.
“What we’re saying is
our fisheries can’t take
more hits year after year
and survive. We can only
speak for them, because
they cannot speak for
themselves.”
Myers, with the Yurok
Tribe, echoed that senti-
ment for coho salmon in
the Klamath River. The
coho population is 1-3%
of its historical num-
bers. He said the upper
and lower Klamath Basin
once functioned as an inte-
grated system that bene-
fited salmon, suckers and
waterfowl with minimal
intervention.
“The fact that these sys-
tems now appear to be in
conflict with each other is
a direct result of the eco-
logical collapse brought
on by water withdrawals,
the loss of Lower Klamath
and Tule lakes, dams and
mining,” Myers said. “It is
our duty to bring this sys-
tem back into balance and
we will never stop working
toward that goal.”