http://www.oregonlive.com/letters/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/editorial/1083931136156830.xml

Fishery regulations cause problems

Michael Milstein's article, "Klamath wells deep in trouble" (May 2), provides balanced and empathetic treatment of the efforts undertaken by Klamath Project irrigators to address their water supply challenges.

Hopefully, readers of this article will come away with an appreciation for the sense of determination and frustration faced by local producers as they try to plan for a future that is controlled by regulatory uncertainty.

Importantly, Milstein's article partially addresses the true and primary reason that is driving the challenges faced by the Klamath Project and the national wildlife refuges: fishery agency regulations that promote high lake levels and river flows.

The article does not note that these artificially high levels -- such as those that contributed to the 2001 curtailment of Upper Klamath Lake irrigation supplies -- have been questioned by the National Academy of Sciences.

It is not the farmers who have imposed new water demands that, in essence, have made groundwater the default supplemental supply to the Klamath Project. It is the opinions of agency fishery biologists who have fundamentally altered how our century-old water project operates, and who have apparently failed to anticipate the resulting impacts to our community.

DAN KEPPEN Executive director Klamath Water Users Association Klamath Falls