Our Klamath Basin Water Crisis
Upholding rural Americans' rights to grow food,
own property, and caretake our wildlife and natural resources.
Our Klamath Basin
Water Crisis
Upholding rural Americans' rights to grow food,
own property, and caretake our wildlife and natural resources.
|
House To Vote On Wallowa Water Grab S 1355
Please send a letter to help out the
irrigators.....11/12/04
Wallowa Valley In Eastern Oregon a Model for
Nationwide Land and Water Grabs
If Congress passes S 1355, it will set a precedent
for funding the repair or replacement of a private
dam with Federal dollars. Over $40 million.
There are over 10,000 other dams like it
nationwide. This will cost the government far
more than just the money need to fix the Wallowa
dam.
S 1355 gives the Indians private control of the
fish facilities at the dam. It brings in
Endangered Salmon regulations. Read below for the
many reasons why S 1355 is a very bad idea.
There is no need. Local interests are willing to
put up the money to fix the dam. They don't want
to trade away their future or tie up all their
land in endangered species (salmon) regulations.
Don't let the land and water grabbers sneak this
bill through without careful consideration.
All Land and Water Users Should Call Your Congressman.
The Vote on could occur on S 1355 in the next few
days. Congress is going into a Lame Duck session
on Tuesday, November 16th. That usually means bad
bills passed in the dark of night with three
Congressmen on the House floor.
Yes, the House is using S 1355, the Senate bill
number. The House number was HR 3747. The bill
has never been marked up in the House. They are
just using the Senate bill to sneak this land and
water grab through when Congress is distracted.
If you like how the Feds cut off the water in the
Klamath Basin using the Endangered Species Act,
you'll love their effort to create a water
lockdown in the Wallowa Valley in Eastern Oregon.
Most of the farmers, families and communities in
the Wallowa Valley want to head off anything
similar to the Klamath Basin before it starts.
They want to head off this precedent setting
backroom deal that could be used in your area.
You can make a difference in the looming House
vote. This is important to you no matter where
you live. What is happening in the Wallow Valley
is really a road map for how certain groups are
seeking land and water grabs all over the country.
By helping the people of the Wallowa Valley, you
help yourself by preventing this kind of land and
water grab where you live. By helping save these
people you will have them on your side when your
battle comes. And it will come.
In the West especially, Indian groups, watershed
activists, environmental groups, Endangered
Species Act advocates, fish promoters and a
variety of government agencies - state and Federal
- are working together to lock up your water and
your land. This is certainly true in the Wallowa
Valley.
They are trying to undermine your future by gaining control over your water. As the old saying goes, "Whoever controls the water controls the land."
You can help in the following ways:
-----1. Call your Congressman at the Capital
Switchboard, (202) 225-3121 to insist on a markup
and full consideration on S 1355 in the House
Resources Committee before they vote on what is
called the Wallowa Lake Dam Rehabilitation and
Water Management Act. Also send them a fax and
e-mail. Ask them not to rush to judgment on this
land and water grab.
-----2. Be sure to call the staff of Chairman
Richard Pombo of the Resources Committee at (202)
225-2761. Send a fax to (202) 225-5929. E-mail
him at
resources.committee@mail.house.gov
-----3. Go to
http://www.stopthewatergrab.org to download
your own petition to send or e-mail back. You
can download a formatted Testimony Questionnaire
by going to
http://www.landrights.org
Land and Water Grab Background:
Why you should express your opinion about , called
the Wallowa Lake Dam Rehabilitation and Water
Management Act:
-----It involves 42 government and tribal agencies
who will largely take control over what are now
local decisions regarding water. "Hi, I'm from
the government and I'm hear to help you." For
instance, there will be automated head gates
installed on all water diversions controlled by
people from outside the valley.
------It will use the Endangered Species Act as a
tool to regulate and strangle farming and local
communities by facilitating the (re) introduction
of endangered species of salmon.
-----The bill takes taxpayer dollars and gives
them to private dam owners who have failed to take
care of the dam in the first place. It is a
government bailout that is not needed. Pork
barrel spending at its worst.
-----Sets a precedent for bailing out over 10,000
other dams in a similar category. It creates an
incentive for not spending money to take care of
dams because the owners can rely on the government
to bail them out. Just one more way of
squandering taxpayer deficit dollars.
-----Gives in to hysterical talk designed to scare
people into supporting a project which is not
needed, yet will cause great harm to the entire
valley. The dam does need repair but that could
be done for as little as $1 to $3 million, not
forty plus million in taxpayer dollars.
-----Local agriculture and irrigation interests
that own 75% of the irrigated land have been
completely left out of the process. In fact,
denied access to the process. If S 1355 goes
forward, it shows land and water grabbers how to
grab your land without you having anything to say
about it.
-----It gives the Indians private ownership over
fish facilities at the dam at taxpayer expense;
and does not even to require them to pay to
maintain the facilities.
-----It will likely introduce endangered or
threatened species into Wallowa Lake which will
lead to a whole new domino process of progressive
regulation and water strangulation.
-----It sets a precedent for taking water from one
watershed and transfers it to another, for the
preferential benefit of fish.
-----If you allow this to happen in the Wallowa
Valley, you encourage the extreme green groups,
watershed advocates, fish activists and others to
try it again other places.
-----It will construct a multi-million dollar pump
and pipeline complex which will be used, at most,
a few weeks out of the year - when there is enough
water to fill the pipeline. The planners have
said what happens in the Wallowa Basin will be a
model for what they want to do in many other
areas. It is also a transfer of local control to
outsiders.
-----It is largely a con job. It talks about a
plan but there is no plan. Only a "vision"
document which is "a brief project summary." It
is largely a blank check for planners. The bill
says the City of Joseph needs the dam for their
water yet their water comes from the river
upstream, not from the dam. This is clearly a
game of "bait and switch."
Land use control groups are always looking for a
way to gain control. The Endangered Species Act,
Wild and Scenic Rivers, Watersheds, water and any
other excuse are actually tools to achieve land
use control. This dam repair and water
management project is just another means to gain
control of private property by controlling the
water.
Three notable examples in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana include:
-----1. Many people supported the Interior
Columbia Basin Ecosystem Management Plan (ICEBMP)
until they saw the details. American Land Rights
led the successful region wide campaign in seven
states to stop the plan. Elements of it still
exist.
Those that had supported it began to realize that
bringing the government in and giving agency
bureaucrats and outsiders far greater power would
vastly increase regulation while reducing grazing,
mining, forestry and many recreation uses in most
of Eastern Oregon, Washington and Idaho.
Comforting promises camouflaged the eventual devil
in the details. When people finally saw the plan,
it was a nightmare.
There is no written plan for the Wallowa basin.
Blind faith did not work on the Interior Columbia
Basin Ecosystem Management Plan and it won't work
in the Wallowa Valley.
-----2. Forty-one Oregon rivers were named
official Wild and Scenic Rivers in 1988. Senator
Hatfield said that only five million board feet of
timber would be lost.
Forestry associations said it would more likely be
between 50 and 100 million board feet. Not one
stick of wood has been cut on any of those rivers
since that time. The courts have stopped all
harvesting, ridge top to ridge top. Now the
forests are burning. American Land Rights was
brought in late and helped three rivers get out of
the bill, plus many landowners and Federal land
users.
-----3. The Klamath Basin farmers came to the
basin at the request of the government. It was a
giant reclamation project. Who stood up for the
farmers and the local community when they were
threatened with losing their water? Not the
government. The fish activists, tribal leaders
and environmental groups have joined together to
use the Endangered Species Act to try to drive the
farmers out, forcing them to lose everything they
have in the process.
Though damaged severely, they have not been driven
out because the community rose up and blocked the
takeover. American Land Rights members and
supporters were the first at the Klamath head
gates although many groups were ultimately
responsible for the progress and publicity in the
Klamath Basin.
Watersheds are being used as a tool all over the west to try to take control away from local communities and water user groups. The latest and perhaps a poster child for this technique is the Wallowa Valley, its river basin and private dam.
The US House of Representatives will vote on S
1355 that will begin the process of the valley
takeover in the next few weeks. Maybe the next
few days. The bill has been hotlined for
immediate action.
Amazingly, it is, actually a small group of
uninformed irrigators who control about 25% of the
irrigated land in the Wallowa Valley who are
responsible for this looming disaster. Their
group, called the Associated Ditch Co.s (ADC),
actually sought government money because they did
not have or would not spend the money to maintain
the Wallow Lake Dam or fix the deferred
maintenance that needs repair.
It appears they are willing to sell out their
neighbors, their children's future and the future
of the entire valley for a taxpayer bail out of
their private dam.
The Wallowa Lake Dam is not in danger of
collapse. It does need repair. By continually
deferring repair, the current ADC owners are
creating urgency for repairs that need not have
existed.
S 1355 has mushroomed into a huge government
boondoggle with only 17% of the over $40,000,000
cost going to fix the dam. The rest is to do all
kinds of other projects that will place endangered
fish in Wallowa Lake, bury water ditches, build
pipelines and lockup all irrigation water access.
Amazing. A little help with a little dam has
ballooned into a giant takeover.
A few Associated Ditch Co.s (ADC) farmers may
benefit financially in the short run but a giant
sell out of all the other water and agriculture
users is taking place in the process. All
communities in the Valley have their future in
jeopardy.
Some members of the House and Senate have gotten
involved thinking they were giving relief to some
farmers in need, expanding endangered fish habitat
and other "good things." Unfortunately, most of
what looked good is actually VERY BAD.
The Wallow Valley Agriculture Water Users
Association represents the position of most of the
landowners and farmers who own 75% of the
irrigated land in the Wallowa Valley. They oppose
this Federal takeover of the entire river basin,
using dam rehabilitation as the tool.
Local funds have been offered to repair the dam.
But the Associated Ditch Co.s (ADC) has rejected
all loan offers and instead has aligned itself
with various governmental and water and land grab
groups who prefer using watersheds, the Endangered
Species Act and promotion of fish priorities to
gain control of water and the land. Most valley
residents are being left out.
The Water Users Association and others in the
community have affiliated with the American Land
Rights Association in attempt to get their voice
heard. We believe it is in the interest of all
land and water users that this project not go
forward.
For more information on this issue go to
http://www.stopthewatergrab.org
Also, please forward this message to your entire
list. Time is urgent.
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Page Updated: Thursday May 07, 2009 09:14 AM Pacific
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