Our Klamath Basin Water Crisis
Upholding rural Americans' rights to grow food,
own property, and caretake our wildlife and natural resources.

Archive 78 - November 2008
also see main archive page

Around 1900, Link River, between Upper Klamath Lake and Lake Ewauna, occasionally went dry before the Klamath Project was built. There was no hydropower, no hatcheries, occasionally no fish (fish need water), no artificially-raised river flows or lake levels. HERE for more

HERE for page where tribes, enviros and agencies want to remove the Klamath Dams, blaming the hydroelectric dams for salmon decline. This year is a bumper crop of salmon. The dams provide power for 70,000 households.

Karuk Tribe petition against Klamath Dam removal, Nov., 2008
So far nearly 250 Karuk Tribal members and community members living on or near the Klamath River have signed a petition opposing removal of 4 hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River. On each petition is printed:
"As Tribal Members/Community Members:
     * We do not agree with dam removal; dams are not the reason for the salmon net returning to the Klamath River.
     * Small groups of tribal members, along with small interest groups, are not representing all tribal members/communities along the Klamath; they represent their own agenda.
     * All tribal members and community members should be able to have a voice, not a select few."
HERE for Karuk Tribe cover letter on Petition.

Happy Thanksgiving! Remember our God, our veterans and settlers, and our military. God Bless You!

What Klamath County’s state lawmakers think (about dam removal), H&N, posted to KBC 11/25/08. (KBC NOTE: Nearly 98% of those who voted supported Senator Whitsett's re-election as Oregon State Senator in the five county District 28. Senator Whitsett opposes dam removal and the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement. 300 Off-Project irrigators signed a petition against the KBRA. 640 throughout the Klamath Basin signed another petition, and more than 250 Karuk tribal members and people living on the Klamath River oppose the KBRA. Siskiyou County Supervisors, home of 3 Klamath River Dams, unanimously oppose the KBRA, and the Klamath County Natural Resource Council "cannot support draft 11 as written." 74 people signed a letter favoring the agreement in the Klamath Basin, however the green media calls the overwhelming majority "detractors". The Upper Basin Resource Conservancy was not allowed at the table; they represent 50,000 acres of Upper Klamath Basin agriculture.)

Gobble Warming, by Rudy Hiley 11/24/04

Dam bypass proposed; Opponents of removal offer alternatives, H&N, posted to KBC 11/25/08
Details of the proposed Hart Bypass, H&N 11/25/08

Transcripts from the four public scoping meetings that were held in Northern California in October regarding dam removal and environmental concerns. They were held by the Calif. Water Quality Control Board. Full transcripts of the public comments are included, as well as the introduction and full explanation of the purpose of the meetings. PLEASE send your comments to the board by Feb. 23. Yreka Klamath Orleans Eureka Two groups at the Klamath settlement table, North Coast Environmental Center and Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen, support taking out the Keno Dam as well. People at the Yreka meeting presented testimony objecting to dam removal. Most of those objecting are not allowed at the table.

Environmental groups send detailed wish list to Obama, 11/25/08

Klamath River Dams - Agreement in Principle (AIP), Excerpt from Siskiyou County Supervisor's column this week 11/25/08. KBC NOTE - A few farmers, fishermen, and tribal members, along with many environmental groups and government agencies, drafted the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement which would tear out 4 dams, 3 being in Siskiyou County. Siskiyou County unanimously opposes the KBRA, and has many concerns about the AIP which are summarized in Armstrong's column.

Dam deal still stokes controversy, Critics from all sides assail new deal on Klamath Basin water, Mateusz Perkowski, Capital Press, posted to KBC 11/24/08

Ridin Point by Siskiyou County Supervisor Marcia Armstrong. posted 11/24/08. Regarding Klamath dam removal

Administration sued over owl plan, H&N 11/25/08. HERE for logging page.

Dan Keppen: Removing Klamath dams doesn't apply to the Snake: READER'S VIEW DAM REMOVAL, by Dan Keppen, Idaho Statesman 11/23/08. (For another viewpoint: Senator Doug Whitsett speech on Klamath dam removal and KlamathBasinRestorationAgreement, KFLS)

Oregon election completes democrat control, by Oregon Senator Doug Whitsett, District 28 posted 11/24/08

From farms to wetlands; Walking Wetlands program benefits farmers, refuges and wildlife, H&N 11/20/08

From Farms to Wetlands, A partnership with agriculture, Herald and News 11/20/08

From farms to wetlands; Transforming tracts of farmland to wetland, Herald and News 11/20/08

(OFFICIAL) STATEMENT OF THE COUNTY OF SISKIYOU regarding the Agreement in Principle regarding Klamath River dam removal 11/19/08

< What about Copco?, Siskiyou Daily News, posted to KBC 11/22/08. "Numerous Copco Lake residents gathered this week to express their concern on a plan to tear down four Klamath River dams."

California jobless rate soars to 8.2%, SacBee 11/22/08.

Where's the chair for (Klamath) taxpayers 11/20/08. "You point out that almost half of the estimated $450 million cost of removing four dams from the Klamath River will be paid for by PacifiCorp customers, and that the “Agreement” seeks “the use of public funds to buy private land for the Klamath Tribes.”

Klamath Water Users Association annual report, 11/2008

Klamath lake level and river flows, posted to KBC 11/17/08

Klamath dams water timeline, H&N, posted to KBC 11/17/08

Dear Green River friends, by Ric Costales. "When (not if!) the salmon fail to rebound if the dams are decommissioned, there will be immense pressure to end irrigated agriculture in the entire Klamath Basin. The farmers who have sold out thinking that supporting decommissioning will somehow guarantee their way of life will have only bought themselves time to live out their lives on their farms. It will be the next generation who will have to live with the final round of “takings.”

Reuniting a River, National Geographic Dec 2008 issue. "Today the dams are the backbone of the power system that produces 750,000 megawatt hours for Pacific Power in an average year, enough to meet the electricity needs of 70,000 homes. It's especially useful power in that it releases no carbon emissions and can be turned on in an instant to supply peak needs." " ...removing the four hydroelectric dams...advocates hope this might restore the river to its natural condition.

Klamath County Charter - Table of Contents, The Charter, Districts, and location of petitions. Updated 8/23/08

***Interim Rule and Request for Comments (on the NAIS), deadline November 17, 2008, Citizens for Constitutional Republic

The Klamath Restoration Agreement supports planting fish parasites, Klamath Lamprey, in Upper Klamath Basin. Klamath Riverkeeper and dam removal activist and Karuk spokesman Craig Tucker, is offended by the fact that KBC News said lamprey are fish parasites: "Will you guys please stop referring to lamprey as fish parasites? Native people (and sushi lovers around the world) love lamprey. They are part of God’s creation too! Thanks, S. Craig Tucker, Ph.D., Klamath Campaign Coordinator, Karuk Tribe". Posted 11/16/08

Restoration(KBRA) proposal unfair to many in Basin, by Tom Mallams, H&N, posted to KBC 11/16/08. "Sprague River Water Resource Foundation and the Resource Conservancy umbrella organization represent virtually all of the contestants in the adjudication and they represent the vast majority of all Off-Project irrigators. Sprague River Water Resource Foundation has been active in water-related issues for more than 25 years, settling many claims in the adjudication. Resource Conservancy... 11 years." (KBC NOTE - Resource Conservancy was not allowed at the KBRA table as a stakeholder--they farm 25,000 acres off Project. Already Nature Conservancy and gov't agencies have acquired more than 100,000 acres of off-Project once-productive ag land and made swamps. Of 50,000 acres left, this agreement forces them to give up 30,000 more acre-feet of water. Becky Hyde, who works with tribes and Sustainable NW, is trying to create a new group, claiming to speak for the off-Project folks and supporting the agreement. She was welcomed to attend the closed-door settlement meeting in Sacramento with other chosen 'stakeholders.') 300 off-Project people, in addition to 640 Klamath Basin petitions, oppose the 'agreement.

Reaction to Klamath agreement, H&N 11/16/08

Bush wants solution, Secretary of Interior hopes dam agreement will help Basin, H&N 11/14/08

Hurdles remain for Klamath dams , H&N 11/26/08

Notice of scoping comment deadline extension for Klamath River Hydro Project, new deadline for public comments to California Water Resources Control Board, February 23, 2009. The following article and video will explain what the Control Board needs from you. It is important to write to them! Water board mulls PacifiCorp project; Locals say they want Upper Klamath Basin dams to remain, Capital Press

This (Klamath) dam deal will cost you, Albany Democrat Herald opinion 11/14/08

Pact Would Open (Klamath) River, Removing Four Dams, New York Times 11/14/08. (KBC NOTE: although the National Academy of Science, and other fish scientists, said that in 2002 the Trinity River fish did not die because of Klamath Project irrigation, which is 200 miles away using 5% of the water at the mouth of the Klamath River, urban journalists and attorneys, tribes and environmentalists, as well as Interior Secretaries, insist on repeating the mantra that farmers killed the fish. There were years with lower water that had no fish kill.)

Stakeholders react to agreement, H&N 11/14/08

Fed-State-Utility Agreement May Lead To Removal Of Four Dams On Klamath River, CB Bulletin 11/14/08

PacifiCorp Agrees To Remove (Klamath) Dams, Wall St. Journal 11/13/08

Klamath dam removal plan unpopular with farmers, Capital Press 11/13/08. "Common sense says, what are they thinking?" said Tom Mallams, a hay farmer and president of the Klamath Off-Project Water Users, who opposes dam removal. "It's an absolute disaster, the way they're trying to do this." "Removal will be paid for with $200 million worth of surcharges on PacifiCorp customers in Oregon and California, as well as $250 million in general obligation bond funds from the state of California...The dams currently provide enough electricity to service 70,000 homes..."

Statement by The President on Conservation of Klamath River Basin, DOI 11/13/08

**Hundreds of community voices reject Klamath Settlement Agreement to Klamath County Commissioners, 11/12/08. photo: Klamath County Commissioner Bill Brown reviews the 640 petitions by Klamath Basin residents opposing the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement. At the same time, Dept of Interior, Tribes, environmentalists, and 2 farm reps, in Sacramento claimed they have the support of their constituents to take out dams, downsize agriculture, give tribes a forest to be put into tax-exempt trust, and plant endangered fish, including fish parasites lamprey, in the warm shallow waters of the Klamath Basin. These constituents had no voice, no vote. HERE for KBRA Page There are the community voices.

PRESS RELEASE - Agreement in Principle Marks First Critical Step on Presumptive Path to Remove Four Klamath River Dams, AIP sets in motion potential for the largest project of its kind in U.S. history, DOI 11/13/08

HERE is Agreement in Principle, 11/13/08

Letter from Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne to Ore Governor Kulongoski, Calif Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, PacifiCorp., 11/13/08

Tentative deal will clear Klamath River for salmon, The Oregonian, posted to KBC 11/13/08. Oregonian comment following article, "The people have just screwed Oregon again. Nice job."

On Thursday, November 13, 2008, Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne, along with Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski, California Secretary for Resources Mike Chrisman and PacifiCorp Chairman and CEO Greg Abel, will make a major announcement regarding the Klamath River Basin. The announcement will be made via a moderated teleconference at 11:45 a.m. Pacific Standard Time.

* Dams would be removed by 2025;State, feds and PacifiCorp agreement scheduled for signing Thursday, H&N 11/12/08

* Deal reached on San Joaquin River legislation, posted 11/12/08, SignOnSanDiego
* San Joaquin River settlement is not worth the risk, 11/12/08, Visalia Times-Delta Opinion

A promising share-the-catch plan for California fisheries, SF Chronicle 11/12/08

      Honoring Tulelake World War 'Greatest Generation' Veterans, who made a place where food comes from.
    In the early 1920's until 1949, the Federal Government invited war veterans to apply to win homesteads with "water appurtenant to that land" to feed a hungry world. This 'Greatest Generation' was honored for defending FREEDOM in America and on foreign soil.
     Veterans came in groups to Tulelake in the Klamath Project; they were young people in their early 20's. They had no roads, no electricity, no water. They built a community from a former lake that they diverted into canals, refuges, reservoirs, Klamath Lake for storage, and the Klamath River.
     See Homesteaders with Photos and Story ( Thanks: Web Team) Read their stories .... their real stories ..... take the time.. read their stories. They wrote these in 2001 when their water was taken away by their government, leaving their fields dry and dead for the first time in known history. Of the following, seven are living.

WWII veteran homesteader Bill Macy, 1947

Gerald Johnson
Manuel Silva
John Masterson
Carl Voorhees
John Terry
Paul Christy
Fred Robison

Paul Rogers
Francis Webb
Marion Palmer
Jack Newkirk
Woody Chambers
Jess Prosser
Clyde Todd

Bob Heiney
Joe Victorine
Don Oman
Herbert Schwarz
Phil Krizo
Leonard Will
Glen Darrow
Bob Lillard

HERE for Settler Page

HERE for audio pg.

HERE for Homesteading in a Promised Land, 100-year documentary told by Tulelake Settlers

Wednesday 11/12/08 the KBRA/Klamath Restoration Agreement advocates are at the table in Sacramento. HERE for Settlement Page. The public is not invited.

E&E Daily reports today that “former Clinton Interior Deputy Secretary David Hayes is in charge of (President-elect Obama) transition planning for all of the key energy and environmental agencies - Mr Hayes' experience, posted 11/11/08

Tulelake Irrigation District special public meeting about KWAPA (Klamath Water and Power Agency), Takings Case, KBRA, FERC, and Coho BO, at Merrill City Hall November 10, 10:00 a.m.
Notice of Klamath Project District Joint Board Meeting for 11/10/08, letter by attorney William Ganong

A Sunday message > http://www.bluemoon.net/~pastor/12.htm

Water storage options, The Long Lake basin holds promise for area, H&N 11/8/08. "Addington said during KBRA negotiations, the subject of water storage was broached. 'We asked those other parties to support additional off-stream storage, which is a big step,' Addington said." HERE for storage and LONG LAKE page.
(KBC note: this is what the KBRA, Klamath Settlement agreement, says about storage > "17.3. Future Storage Opportunities. Page 90: 17.3.1. Technical Investigation. A. Klamath Basin. Pursuant to the Klamath Basin Water Supply Enhancement Act of 2000 (P.L. 106-498), and given sufficient appropriations, Reclamation shall complete a Feasibility Report for off-stream storage by September 30, 2011. The Parties shall thereafter support ongoing investigations of additional storage." Of the billion dollars to downsize agriculture on and off Project, decrease the power rate for irrigators, plant salmon and fish parasites/lamprey in the Klamath Basin, buy a forest for the Klamath Tribes that they sold, in addition to the possibly billions of dollars to tear out the hydro dams and deal with the communities and silt, this above mention of 'off-stream storage' agrees that "investigations' and a report are completed in 3 years. Four years ago the Bureau said they were doing studies on Long Lake for additional water. Scroll to page 91 in the KBRA for what the stored water will be used for. Who would decide? The Task Force with representatives from 26 agencies, environmentalists, tribes, and one Project irrigator.

Biologists say wolves are spreading into Oregon but without conflict, Oregonian, posted to KBC 10/9/08. WOLF PAGE

Klamath Lake Levels and River Flows 11/27-11/03/08.

In Ore., tribes' members eye Supreme Court case, The Oregonian, posted to KBC 11/5/08. "Jeff Mitchell, a council member of the Klamath Tribes, said he believes the Narragansett case could bear some significance in Oregon. His tribe regained its federal recognition status in 1986...We want to put more land back into trust now," he said."

Names fly as Obama starts assembling his administration, Greenwire 11/5/08

California bans conventional egg production, Capital Press, posted to KBC 11/5/08. "Many producers have said they will consider moving their operations to other states, or even to Mexico."

Other Places - County committed 'wetlands' fraud; now it must pay, Pacific Legal Foundation 11/5/08

Guest Commentary: Restoration agreement will pain many in Klamath River area, H&N 11/3/08. "Local ranchers and farmers above the Klamath Lake are asked to give up 30,000 acre feet of water in order to inflate stream flows and lake levels above what is available in most years. This is in addition to nearly 100,000 acres already acquired by government agencies and The Nature Conservancy and taken off our tax rolls. Klamath Project irrigation would also be considerably downsized, which affects our local economy." Restoration agreement has local support; It would let Basin live with change and help direct it, H&N

(California) Legislative report calls for water changes; Groundwater supply not sustainable, needs permitting, by Hank Shaw, Capital Press, posted 11/2/08 "Freeman's report includes a section on how much water the same crops use in different areas. This could lead to policymakers declaring that growing a certain crop in a certain area does not qualify as a "reasonable use" of water, essentially banning it."

Farrier sees each horse differently; Longtime horseman takes his shoeing service far and wide, Capital Press, posted to KBC 11/2/08. "Jim Bob Fowler (Klamath Falls) shoes horses in Southern Oregon and Northern California. He said shoeing and shaping horses’ feet properly can prevent and correct problems, but shoeing them poorly will harm the horse."

HERE for video

CHINA - Melamine already in global food chain, Capital Press, posted to KBC 11/2/08