https://lamalfa.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/congressman-lamalfa-introduces-the-protect-our-water-rights-act?
 Congressman
LaMalfa Introduces the ‘Protect Our Water Rights’ Act
with responses by founder
of Klamath Forest Alliance and Sierra Club Water Resource Chair
Felice Pace, Klamath Irrigation District Manager and Executive
Director Gene Souza, and Siskiyou County Water Users Association
Board Member Chrissie Reynolds
Press Release Jan 11, 2023
(Washington, D.C.) –
Today, Congressman
Doug LaMalfa (R –
Richvale) introduced
H.R. 289, the
Protect Our Water
Rights (POWR) Act.
This bill will give
certainty to
agriculture
producers and
irrigators during
dry years and hold
the Bureau of
Reclamation
accountable for
proper water
delivery.
“Building water
storage, delivering
irrigators their
water that is
lawfully theirs, and
ensuring fresh water
is not wasted are
the priorities of
rural California.
This is especially
critical in
California
agriculture, where
severe water
mismanagement has
exacerbated the
crippling drought.
Responsible water
management means
higher food
production and lower
prices for all
Americans, while
keeping farmers in
business. I’m
looking forward to
passing this bill
and protecting our
water rights,” said
Congressman LaMalfa.
This bill:
-
Mandates 100%
contract water
deliveries to
water districts
by Reclamation
in normal or
above normal
precipitation
years and
guarantees
additional water
in dry years.
-
Require
in-person field
briefings and
outreach, in
each county
where a Central
Valley Project (CVP)
water contractor
is located,
after
Reclamation’s
initial
allocation
announcements
and before the
allocation
announcement for
April is made.
-
Reduces or
eliminates the
operation and
maintenance
(O&M) payments
required to be
paid by CVP
water
contractors,
based on
reductions in
water
allocations.
-
Requires the
Bureau of
Reclamation to
assess and
report on what
debt is still
owed by the
irrigators of
the Klamath
Project.
-
Prohibits the
Bureau of
Reclamation from
releasing stored
water created by
the Klamath
Project in Upper
Klamath Lake,
except for
agricultural and
refuge purposes
associated with
State-adjudicated
water rights,
and to otherwise
maximize total
storage volume
in Upper Klamath
Lake.
https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/289?
Congressman Doug
LaMalfa is a
lifelong farmer
representing
California’s First
Congressional
District, including
Butte, Colusa,
Glenn, Lassen,
Modoc, Shasta,
Siskiyou, Sutter,
Tehama and Yuba
Counties.
___________________
____
Responses by Felice Pace, KFA, Chrissie Reynolds, Copco Lake
resident, and Gene Souza,
Felice Pace
 /Felice
Pace (right) and Petey Brucker.
"Why do you want to kill our rivers and our fish?
We need a balance of water for Ag and water to
maintain healthy aquatic ecosystems and fisheries."
KBC NOTE:
A little bio and history: Felice Pace is Water Resources Chair
for the Sierra Club, Redwood Chapter. In the late 70's, he and
Petey Brucker came out west from back east to 'help' our
forests. They created KFA/Klamath Forest Alliance and were
instrumental in stopping most of the timber harvest in Siskiyou
County, to save spotted owls; the
unthinned forests' wildfires ended much spotted owl habitat.
https://klamathforestalliance.org/about-us/kfa-history/
They became a non-profit and formed other groups. Pace through
KFA created Klamath Riverkeeper, so KFA was an umbrella group
for KR/Klamath Riverkeeper, helping KR obtain it's non-profit,
which is now a stand-alone NGO that can receive tax-free funds
to sue power companies and Klamath resource users.
 Craig
Tucker is Karuk Tribe spokesman. He was on the steering
committee of KR/Klamath Riverkeeper before
it spun off from umbrella group Klamath Forest Alliance, and was
on the KR board. KBRA/Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement
(which offered some water to Klamath irrigators with mandate of
Klamath Dam destruction) participants, including Karuk tribe,
agreed not to sue other participants. So several Karuks formed
KR, and KR sued all sorts of groups to get the outcome of dam
removal
Chrissie Ishida Reynolds,
resident of Copco Lake community near Copco Dam, knows benefits
of keeping Klamath dams and the horrific results of dam removal.
Response to Felice Pace I
don't want to kill the fish. I want to save the
perch, crappie, large and small mouth bass, the
mudhead catfish, channel cats, suckerfish, western
pond turtles, mussels and clams, the pumpkinseed and
bluegill, the summer resting place of the white
pelicans and the last remaining reservoirs for the
Pacific flyway and the best fire suppression for not
only our community but for the county. These lakes
saved my life and the lives of many people and have
been used annually for fire fighting. All this goes
away. Right now we can fish below the dams for
salmon, steelhead and above for trout. In the middle
there is a whole freshwater ecosystem in place.
These dams protect the rest of the water shed from
the algae that will free flow all the way down not
stopping the polychaete from wiping things out
worse. These lakes actually help with flushing flow
releases, saved the lives of many ducks from
botulism in the basin and are home to several
endangered and threatened species of fish, birds and
mammals as well as reptiles and amphibians. There
are other solutions for balance besides dam
destruction which endangers human life. Whoosh
technologies, Shasta bypass tunnel. All of which
have been ignored and disregarded for the single
species single agenda of dam destruction. It also
means that as soon as those flows are gone, they
will be looking to the Scott and Shasta River to
make up those flows and everyone in the valley will
be asked to take shorter showers, not do laundry,
not water their gardens or their fields because
there won't be enough water. Then all of the surface
water will be cut off so that only "efficient" water
will be distributed and that hurts groundwater
recharge and wildlife that depend on the open water.
You have only to look at the basin and see the
devastation to waterfowl. I don't want to kill our
fish. I'm trying to protect them, and our home, our
community, our way of life and our national security
by protecting food production. I also didn't like
the secret backroom meetings, the phony science, the
bypassing of Congress, the biased media coverage,
the false and misleading headlines and storylines
and putting the pricetag on the backs of rate payers
and tax payers with no concern to how much this is
going to cost as well as the underestimated amount
of sedimentation and old outdated precovid costs
without there ever having been a true cost to
benefit analysis and only special interest
stakeholders being at the table completely ignoring
the will of the local Governments from both states.
No two states are supposed to enter into agreement
without the consent of Congress. Cheating, lying,
and bullying have been the tactics from the
beginning. It's not about killing anything except
exposing corruption. If this were the right thing to
do, none of those tactics would have been necessary.
If it were really a good thing anyone could see
that. Unfortunately most people can only see the
headlines and the news clips. And if those are
manipulative then they aren't getting the full
story. We live in an upside down river system that
get cleaner and colder as it goes down. These
reservoirs act as natural filtering systems and
provide a plethora of wildlife refuge. Fires have
crossed rivers and creeks recently. They didn't jump
reservoirs.
___________________ ____
Response to Felice Pace from
Gene Souza, Manager and Executive Director
of Klamath Irrigation District and board member
of Klamath Water Users Association
Felice Pace have you read the
resolution? As I read it, the
language looks reasonable,
equitable, and promotes restoring
water to the historic places it came
from...namely the refuges in the
Klamath and protects unnaturally
high releases of water from Upper
Klamath Lake.
(C)
the Secretary’s obligation to make
water available to managed wetlands
pursuant to section 3406(d) of the
Central Valley Project Improvement
Act, (Public Law 102–575).
SEC.
6. WATER OPERATIONS IN UPPER KLAMATH
LAKE.
When
operating the Klamath River Basin
Reclamation Project, the Secretary,
in accordance with State-adjudicated
water rights, shall—
(1)
operate all water in Upper Klamath
Lake above elevation 4136.0 feet
solely for agricultural and refuge
purposes; and
====================================================
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