< headgates of A Canal on Klamath Project
Reclamation extends interim operations plan for Klamath Project

Reclamation oversees the Klamath Project, which provides irrigation water for roughly 200,000 acres of farmland diverted from Upper Klamath Lake, near Klamath Falls, Ore.

At the same time, Reclamation must regularly consult with two other agencies — the National Marine Fisheries Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service — to ensure there is adequate water for several species of fish listed under the Endangered Species Act.

Listed species include Lost River and shortnose suckers in Upper Klamath Lake, as well as coho salmon in the lower Klamath River.

The resulting biological opinions, or BiOps, identify minimum water levels needed for each species to survive. From there, Reclamation determines how much water is available system-wide based fall and spring precipitation, and comes up with a yearly allocation for the Klamath Project.

Interim plan extended

BiOps for suckers and salmon are typically updated every five years, incorporating the latest science and environmental conditions.

However, the most recent negotiations were scrapped in 2019 after the agencies received “erroneous data” from an outside consultant during their development.

That has left an interim operations plan in place since March 2020, which stakeholders have panned as “unworkable and irrational,” particularly during drought years. Both the Klamath Water Users Association and Klamath Tribes urged Reclamation to discard the plan after it was set to expire Sept. 30.

Instead, the agency has proposed extending the interim plan through Oct. 31, 2024.

Part of the rationale, according to Reclamation’s Klamath Basin Area Office, is to allow for ongoing analysis of how the removal of four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River — J.C. Boyle, Copco 1, Copco 2 and Iron Gate — will affect critical habitat for fish.

Dam removal could begin as early as next year, and is expected to open about 400 miles of upstream spawning habitat for salmon.

In a letter sent Sept. 23 to Paul Simmons, KWUA executive director, and Clayton Dumont, chairman of the Klamath Tribes, Elizabeth Klein, senior counselor to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, said the department is “committed to improving our year-to-year engagement” to better understand water needs in the basin.

Klein said the department will convene two public forums this fall to discuss the latest science and funding priorities for water projects.

The bipartisan infrastructure bill that passed in 2021 has already earmarked $162 million for the Klamath Basin over the next five years.

Irrigation cut short

But patience is wearing thin among farmers and tribal members who argue a better, long-term fix is sorely needed to maintain their ways of life.

Mired in three consecutive years of drought, the Klamath Project was initially allocated just 50,000 acre-feet of water in April, about 15% of demand. Timely spring rains helped increase project supply to 82,253 acre-feet, though water was shut off to the A Canal on Aug. 19.

The shutoff caught farmers by surprise, who argued Reclamation moved the goalposts by increasing the end-of-season water elevation required by suckers in Upper Klamath Lake.

Simmons, with the KWUA, previously said the changes authorized under the interim operations plan were “far above any level ever claimed to be necessary” for suckers, while cutting off access to another 45,000 acre-feet of water for irrigation.

Meanwhile, farmers scrambled to save crops already in the ground, in some cases piping groundwater over a mile to fields growing potatoes and onions. Water that would normally be delivered to the Lower Klamath and Tule Lake national wildlife refuges was also halted, drying habitat for wildlife and migratory birds.

“It seems like, right now, the administration’s only priority on the Klamath River is removing the dams,” Simmons said. “It’s removed any meaningful intention of good water management by good water managers, which is sorely lacking here.”

Saving suckers

On the other hand, the Klamath Tribes sued the government in May claiming that any diversions of water from Upper Klamath Lake for agriculture were in violation of the ESA. That case is still pending in U.S. District Court.

Dumont, the tribes’ chairman, said Reclamation has failed to meet minimum lake levels for suckers to access shoreline spawning habitat for three consecutive years. The agency has also missed its targets for juvenile fish to access summertime wetland habitat for two of the last three years.

”The numbers (of fish) just continue to decline,” Dumont said. “We think the Bureau of Reclamation tends to privilege irrigators over the ESA, and over fish.”

The last time there was successful recruitment of juvenile suckers into the adult population was 1993, said Stan Swerdloff, the tribes’ aquatics director.

With suckers on the brink of extinction, Dumont said he hopes the government will have a new BiOp in place as soon as possible.

”We’re willing to talk to anyone,” he said. “But I think that, at some point, the federal government is going to have to show some leadership and make a decision about whether they’re going to let species go extinct, or insist upon sustaining agriculture.”