Klamath Water Users Association 

Tulelake Irrigation District (TID) general manager Earl Danosky yesterday in Reno accepted the F. Gordon Johnston Award in recognition of TID’s recent innovative canal lining project. Danosky accepted the award on behalf of TID at the Mid-Pacific Region Water Users Conference, held at the El Dorado Hotel in Reno, Nevada.

"TID's recent installation of geomembrane liner - completed with the leadership of Earl Danosky and his TID crew -  is an outstanding example of an innovative method that has widespread applicability and extensive benefits," said Bob Stackhouse, general manager of the Central Valley Project Water Assocition. "Earl and his crew have definitely made a significant contribution towards excellence in operations and maintenance, and his work epitomizes what the F. Gordon Johnston award is all about."

The F. Gordon Johnston Award recognizes an individual who has made a significant contribution towards excellence in operations and maintenance or who has developed innovative methods that have widespread applicability. Gordon Johnston, for whom the award is named, devoted 45 years of his life to the construction, maintenance, and operation of irrigation and water resources facilities located in the western United States.

TID last year successfully installed an exposed geomembrane system using custom manufactured panels, TID personnel for installation and seaming, and TID equipment for the soils preparation and backfilling. The combination of desirable technical characteristics and user-friendly materials that can be installed by irrigation district personnel with minimal training and no specialized equipment provides an outstanding alternative to other systems, says Danosky. TID is now able to very quickly repair this system because of their intimate knowledge of how the lining was installed. Danosky is the first Klamath Project recipient of the award.

Key technical capabilities of the new lining system include:

a. Ease of installation

b. Damage resistance (during placement and operation)

c. Ease of repair

d. Expected life (manufacturer warranty for exposed conditions)

e. Seepage control (effective barrier material)

TID personnel estimate that the recent lining project has virtually eliminated seepage losses along the reach of canal that was lined. Deliveries to TID customers in this area are now accomplished much more efficiently. John Cross, who grows potatoes adjacent to this reach, say he can now irrigate his entire operation more efficiently, without the worry of excessive seepage impacting his ability to farm. 

"The canal lining project is just the latest in a series of innovative actions taken by TID and other Klamath Project water users to improve water supplies for farmland and neighboring wildlife refuges," said Dan Keppen, Executive Director of the Klamath Water Users Association (KWUA).

Last year, KWUA received Oregon’s "Leadership in Conservation" Award in recognition of longstanding, proactive conservation efforts undertaken by Project irrigators and irrigation districts in the past decade. 

The Klamath Project shared the spotlight with other western irrigation projects on all three days of the recent 37^th Annual Mid Pacific Region Water Users Conference, held this week at the El Dorado Hotel in Reno, Nevada. The conference is an annual event attended by managers, directors, operations and maintenance personnel, consultants and government agency representatives from districts served by the United States Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) facilities in California, Nevada and Oregon.

The Klamath Project was a hot topic of conversation every day of the conference. On Wednesday, Dave Sabo, area manager for Reclamation’s Klamath Basin office, summarized 2003 activities and accomplishments, and outlined goals and objectives for 2004. Sabo focused on the recent reports released by the National Research Council (NRC) and Reclamation’s Technical Services Office, which address fishery and flow conditions in the Klamath River watershed. Sabo praised local water users for their efforts to voluntarily help meet Endangered Species Act regulations imposed on Klamath Project operations.

"One of the most important actions taken in 2003 was the collective, voluntary effort by Klamath Project irrigators to use private groundwater supplies and voluntary conservation measures to prevent Upper Klamath Lake from dropping below ESA conditions," said Sabo.

A focused effort to reduce Klamath Project diversions out of UKL coupled with a decision in early July 2003 by Reclamation to rescind an earlier decision to change the water year type ultimately helped Project interests to meet regulatory lake levels for endangered sucker fish.

On a later panel, Steve Thompson, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Manager of California and Nevada operations, also focused on challenges facing the Klamath Basin. He, too, acknowledged the constructive role played by Klamath Project water users during the 2003 crisis.

"The water users played an important role in organizing a meeting held in Klamath Falls to address the 2003 lake level problems," said Thompson.

KWUA helped set up a July work session where senior agency officials from California, Oregon and the federal government met with local water users and tribal interests in an effort to avoid further crises like the one in late June. Despite five hours of open discussion, some posturing, and debate, the solutions that came out of the meeting essentially dropped in the laps of Project irrigators.

In Reno, KWUA and Project irrigation district representatives also met with Mark Limbaugh, Deputy Commissioner of Reclamation, to discuss pressing Klamath Project policy issues. Limbaugh on Wednesday delivered the keynote address at the conference. Later in the day, Klamath Irrigation District board member Steve Kandra participated in a panel discussion on involuntary water use changes. Kandra’s presentation summarized the current biological opinions that guide Klamath Project operations and the importance of changing those biological opinions to reflect new information, such as the NRC report and Reclamation’s "naturalized" flow study of the Klamath River. Yesterday, KWUA Executive Director Dan Keppen provided an overall Project update at the general session luncheon.

A process of controversial meetings between the Klamath Tribes, irrigators and the Klamath Basin Rangeland Trust (KBRT) resumed on Monday at the Shiloh Inn in Klamath Falls after a one month hiatus. While the local community has shown extraordinary interest in the Klamath Tribes’ proposal to return federal forest land to a tribal reservation, the focus in the meetings again was assessing ways in which competing Upper Basin water demands can be met. Attendees at Monday’s meeting tried to better understand the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s water balance modeling and to look at various water management scenarios.

The scenarios include a suite of actions that entail all interests taking individual measures that might collectively benefit the whole community. Such actions, in the short-term, include acquisition of water in Upper Klamath Lake (UKL) tributaries, increased flexibility in UKL sucker and flood control management, increased flexibility in Iron Gate Dam releases, new storage within the Klamath Project and adjacent to Upper Klamath Lake, and dry-year demand reduction measures.

In the long-term, the development of new surface storage is critical. One interesting development that has arisen in the modeling exercises is everyone’s appreciation of the role that new offstream storage – namely Long Lake– can play to address the conflicting water needs of the Upper Basin. Preliminary modeling results suggest that Long Lake can be filled at a rate that is considerably lower than that assumed in a recent cost estimate of Long Lake prepared by the Bureau of Reclamation.

Tuesday, February 3 – Western Water Forum. Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, New Haven, Connecticut.

Tuesday, February 3 – Friday, February 6, 2004. Upper Klamath Basin Science Workshop. Shilo Inn, Klamath Falls, Oregon.

Tuesday, February 24 – Thursday, February 26, 2004. Klamath Watershed Conference. Oregon Institute of Technology, Klamath Falls, Oregon.

Klamath Water Users Association
2455 Patterson Street, Suite 3
Klamath Falls, Oregon 97603
(541)-883-6100 FAX (541)-883-8893 kwua@cdsnet.net

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