published Dec. 25, 2003

Aim is to get lake level up

By DYLAN DARLING

To fill Upper Klamath Lake now, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has flashed forward on its flow requirements for the Klamath River.

The Bureau has made a deal with the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service to lower flows on the river to the long-term winter levels set in the service's biological opinion. The move lowers the required flows from 1,621 cubic feet per second to 1,300 cfs.

Cecil Lesley, chief of water and land division, said the shift was made to get the level of the lake up.

"It has to do with meeting the flows in the winter and bringing the lake back up," he said.

He said the Fisheries Service agreed to the lower flows because it determined the change wouldn't hurt the salmon beds along the river. The biological opinion is written to protect threatened coho salmon.

The Fisheries Service also agreed because of the importance of having the lake as full as it can be when spring rolls around, he said.

"If we can't meet the lake level in the spring than nothing works," Lesley said.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has its own biological opinion, written to protect endangered suckers, that requires Upper Klamath Lake to be held at certain levels throughout irrigation season. The season typically runs from April through October.

From the end of the 2003 irrigation season Oct. 15 to the change in river flows, which was about a week ago, the lake level had flatlined, Lesley said.

He said the Bureau was concerned because it needs to get the level up before April. With the change and recent wet weather things are looking better.

"The increase in precipitation has helped and the reduction of flows has helped," he said.

In anticipation for the next irrigation season, the Bureau is now waiting for the January U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service's streamflow forecast. The forecasts give the Bureau an idea of what the water year type will look like, and thus what the river flows and irrigation deliveries will be, leading up to the irrigation season.

Lesley said the Conservation Service should have a better handle on what the year will be like than it did last year because its scientists better understand the affects of the long-term dry spell in the Klamath Basin.

But, the first forecast will just give a tentative picture of what the water might be like because less than half of the perception for the winter will have come down, he said.

"It's not one that we consider particularly accurate, but it gives us a feel for where we are going," Lesley said.