Spllyay Tyrooo, Warm Springs, Oregon
October 27, 2005
Appeals court: eight years
too Ions for salmon to wait
(Al) - An appeals court List
week tossed out a key part of
the federal government's plan
for balancing water between
farms and threatened coho
salmon in the Klamath Basin,
putting the Hush administration
on the spot over how to pro
vide water to farmers who need
it for irrigation while also meet
ing Endangered Species Act
obligations.
The government's decision to
take eight years to provide the
full amount of water needed for
coho survival in the water-scarce
basin was arbitrary and capri
cious, and not backed up by sci
ence, the 9th US. Circuit Court
of Appeals in San Francisco
ruled.
'The agency (NOAA Fisher
ies) essentially asks that we take
its word that the species will be
protected if its plans are fol
lowed," Judge D.W. Nelson
wrote in the opinion. "If this
were sufficient, (NOAA Fisher
ies) could simply assert that its
decisions were protective and so
withstand all scrutiny.
"If there is insufficient wa
ter to sustain the coho during
this period, they will not com
plete their life cycle, with the
consequence that there will be
no coho at the end of the eight
years. If that happens, all the
water in the world in 2010 and
2011 will not protect the coho,
for there will be none to pro
tect." The appeals court sent the
case back to the U.S. District
Court in Oakland to sort out
where the extra water will come
from.
Earthjusticc attorney Kristin
Boylcs said she would ask Judge
Saundra Armstrong to order
the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
to provide the full amount of
water called for in 2010 from
the Klamath Reclamation
Project, which irrigates 180,000
acres straddling the Oregon
California border in the high
desert east of the Cascade
Range. Irrigation was cut off to
most of the project in 2001 to
protect threatened coho, then
restored the next year.
Glen Spain, spokesman for
the Pacific Coast Federation of
Fishermen's Associations, a
commercial fishing group and
lead plaintiff in the appeal, said
the ruling was an important step
in providing balance in the con
tinuing fight over water in the
Klamath Basin.
"It comes at a time when
because of past Klamath water
problems and fish kills the West
Coast fishing industry is suffer
ing enormous losses," Spain
said.
Bob Gasser, a fertilizer and
pesticide dealer, said it was a
terrible ruling for Klamath
farmers, but they would survive.
"People are trying to solve
100 percent of the salmon prob
lems on the back of the Kla
math project," he said.
Greg Addington, executive
director of the Klamath Water
Users Association, which repre
sents farmers, said the irrigation
project would have a hard time
coming up with the water the
ruling demands.
'That's going to be a difficult
thing unless we have a whole lot
of snow," Addington said.
NOAA Fisheries spokesman
Jim Middlcbury said the agency
was reviewing the ruling, and had
no immediate comment.
After the irrigation shutoff
in 2001, NOAA Fisheries, the
federal agency responsible for
protecting ralmon, came up with
a plan to phase in over eight
years the full amount of water
needed for coho in the Klamath.
As part of the plan, the Bureau
of Reclamation created a water
bank, paying farmers $7.6 mil
lion this year for extra water for
fish.
5
Salmon to test Upper Klamath Lake
KLAMATH FALLS (AP) -Scientists
placed chinook
salmon in the waters of
Williamson River and Upper
Klamath Lake last week to see
how they respond, perhaps set
ting the stage for the eventual
return of the sea-running fish
to the Klamath Basin.- -,
The year-old salmon were
confined to 2-foot submerged
cubical mesh cages submerged
in the water by the US. Fish and
Wildlife Service.
"Essentially are captives,"
said Phillip Detrich, field super
visor for the agency's Yreka, Ca
lif., office.
The scientists will evaluate
how the water quality affects the
salmon as they grow into smolts,
young fish ready to go from
fresh water to salt water. ' k jl
They also hope to see if
there is enough spawning habi
tat for salmon in the rivers that
feed into Upper Klamath Lake.
Trout and salmon can usu
ally co-exist, but they might com
pete for resources if there is lim
ited habitat
The tests, which will be re
peated in spring, are being con
ducted as federal officials de
cide whether PacifiCorp, which
has a series of dams on the Kla
math River, should be required
to install ways for salmon to get .
around the dams as part of a
new 50-year license. Detrich said
the agency has a long-standing
interest in returning the fish to
the Basin, where they haven't
been since the first power dam
was built on the river in 1918.
left)
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