View
full sizeSome
irrigators in the Upper Klamath Basin are
getting word that their water supply is
getting cut off today.Watermasters are starting to tell ranchers in the drought-stricken upper Klamath Basin they have to shut off their irrigation to satisfy the needs of the Klamath Tribes and a federal irrigation project.
Douglas Woodcock of the Oregon Water Resources Department said Wednesday that watermasters have completed verification of the need to start shutting off some irrigators, and were beginning to notify ranchers along the Sprague River and its tributaries.He says it is not yet clear whether all the irrigators drawing from the Sprague have to be shut off. It will take the next week and a half to make all the notifications.
The tribes and the federal government called for enforcement of newly recognized water rights to protect fish, other irrigators and wildlife refuges.
-- The Associated Press
The waters of Hyatt lake, native artifacts, wild life, and preservation needs to happen. 19 of 26 cabins (with hot tubs, dish washers & propane tanks) are going to pull thousands of gallons of water, every week. Preserve & protect Hyatt lake. What's happening in Klamath is a symptom of the rest of the state. A flight over Oregon today, showed the dry-dry-dry.
Doesn't this all have to do with protecting a sucker fish/minnow with a small effect on the aquatic food chain living downstream receiving top priority after being covered by ESA ? Economic impacts don't matter as much insignificant sucker fish. It would be interesting to know how much water the tribes need for their own well being (excluding the sucker fish).
Hitting your head against the wall makes about as much sense.
A bunch of ranchers who have been ignoring it in some cases for decades have now learned that their water right is junior to the tribes. They've never had to live with that before, and now they do.
Yes -- they will be unhappy. Let us devoutly hope that in their rage they don't do anything egregiously Stupid.
But I wouldn't necessarily count on that.
At least the ranchers don't also have to give up their land rights and culture rights and hunting rights and human rights, and it's only SOME of their water rights that they have to GIVE BACK.
Sorry you have to share the planet with others. Life just isn't fair.