Klamath Farmers ask judge to resume irrigation that was shut off in name of
fish ... Aiken to announce decision next week
By Jeff Barnard, ASSOCIATED PRESSApril 27,2001
EUGENE, Ore. - Klamath Basin farmers asked a federal judge
Friday to order the government to restore their irrigation water,
which has been shut off so that threatened and endangered fish can
survive a drought.
Lawyer Stuart L. Somach, representing the farmers, argued that
the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation failed to follow the dictates of the
National Environmental Policy Act in reaching its decision to shut
off the water.
In what he described as a desperate plea, Somach implored U.S.
District Judge Ann Aiken to release at least some water if she did
not decide to restore it all.
"It's clear fish need water," Somach said. "There is no
evidence the fish need all the water."
Lyn Jacobs, a government lawyer, countered that the Endangered
Species Act clearly requires that the threatened and endangered
fish be given the highest priority for water. And lawyers for
tribes, conservationists and commercial fishermen asked the judge
to deny the farmers' request.
Speaking on behalf of the commercial fishermen and
conservationists, lawyer Jan Hasselman argued that third-generation
commercial fishermen have lost their boats and gone into bankruptcy
because of water allocations to farmers. Lawyers for the Klamath
and Yurok tribes added that giving water to farmers to the
detriment of fish would destroy the tribes' cultural ties to gifts
from their creator.
Aiken said she would issue her decision next week.
The Klamath Water Users Association lawsuit challenges reports
done by federal biologists on the water needs of endangered sucker
fish in Upper Klamath Lake, the primary reservoir for the Klamath
Project irrigation system, and threatened coho salmon in the
Klamath River, which drains the Klamath Basin.
Earlier Friday, about 60 farmers gathered outside the federal
courthouse in Eugene before the hearing began, some of them
carrying signs saying: "People over fish," "Will work for
water," and "The lake is full, the fields are dust, stealing our
water is unjust."
The farmers also chanted "We want water, we want water," and
planned to travel to Salem after the hearing to stage a protest at
the Capitol.
Their lawsuit followed a U.S. Bureau of Reclamation decision to
shut off water to 90 percent of the 200,000 acres of farmland
served by the Klamath Project. The farms produce primarily hay,
potatoes and cattle.
With mountain snowpacks at just a third of their average levels,
the government is preparing for drought this summer.
The Bureau of Reclamation decision marked the first time the
interests of commercial salmon fishermen and the Klamath and Yurok
tribes had won out over the farmers since the irrigation project
first opened its headgates in 1907.
The decision came after a federal judge in a separate case found
that the bureau violated the Endangered Species Act last year by
ignoring the needs of salmon in the Klamath River in order to
supply irrigation water to the farmers.
Meanwhile, the Langell Valley Irrigation District agreed Friday
to comply with orders from the Bureau of Reclamation to stop
drawing water from two reservoirs in a region about 30 miles east
of Klamath Falls.
The district started drawing water Wednesday from Gerber
Reservoir, then opened gates at Clear Lake Dam on Thursday, despite
warnings from the Bureau of Reclamation that doing so violated the
court order prohibiting irrigation in the Klamath Project.
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On the Net:
Klamath Project: http://dataweb.usbr.gov/html/klamathh.html
Klamath Water Users:
http://www.snowcrest.net/siskfarm/KWUAwater.html
AP-WS-04-27-01 1923EDT