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Klamath Irrigation District is holding off on delivering
water as the district announced Friday that it would do
so on Monday.
KID’s watermaster Tyler Martin said on Tuesday the
district had hoped to obtain alternative sources of
water to be able to begin delivery for patrons this
week. But following discussions with the Bureau of
Reclamation, KID’s attorney Nathan Rietmann, KID’s
management and the board of directors, as well as other
districts, the district decided to hold off.
Martin said it’s not so much that it wouldn’t work to
start water delivery, but that the district wanted to
give a little more thought to the decision and work more
with other districts to formulate a plan that works for
the Bureau of Reclamation and other districts.
“We thought we’d identified a chunk of water and as a
part of an adaptive management strategy, we decided not
to use that water for right now,” Martin said on
Tuesday. “We still may, but, right now we’re working
really collaboratively with other stakeholders to
determine the best course of action.”
Martin said the court-ordered flushing flows by U.S.
District Judge William H. Orrick that the Bureau is
required to meet, is another reason the district did not
start water delivery.
“They (Bureau of Reclamation) have said that they need
to meet the dilution flows from the lake, and we would
contend that there’s other sources of water to … at
least help with that flow,” Martin said.
“Also, lake level thresholds, at the end of the month,
we definitely have to keep in mind,” Martin added.
“There’s a natural drought as well, right, so there’s
less water available this year … than in an average
year.”
Scott Cheyne, assistant manager of KID, said
ditch-riders and KID’s management team have been keeping
irrigators up to date that water deliveries have not
started as planned. KID officials said while water
delivery is at a standstill, ditch-riders continue to
charge and maintain canals and are tracking groundwater
conveyance.
“They’re getting as ready as they can be for water
delivery so when we decide to go, they can deliver water
as quickly as possible,” Martin said.
“We’re continuing discussions with the Bureau, the other
districts, the water users, and our hope is to identify
a date that we can start delivering water as soon as
possible.”
The district has already started charging canals with a
portion of 10,500 acre feet of water borrowed from
PacifiCorp’s reservoirs, which also includes an amount
that leaked into the A canal during a change-over of
KID’s software at the A canal headgates.
“Of course that’s unfortunate,” Martin said. “We wish
that we could have planned that a little bit better.
“Since it was already in the canal, we put it to good
use by charging and flushing with that water, so it
wasn’t a total loss.”
Martin said while on-Project irrigators are waiting on
water, they some can buy, sell or transfer the usage of
a groundwater right.
“That’s a process that takes place with the Oregon Water
Resources Department,” he said.
“Groundwater users would need to use district facilities
to be able to convey that water. We need to be looped in
as well but that’s definitely a possibility.”
Martin said irrigators should not hesitate in calling
KID’s office with any questions or concerns, including
about how to sell or buy groundwater.
“Just keep in touch,” Martin said. “I’ll be in touch
with news outlets to try to get the word out if
something changes.”
