Regulations For Irrigators

Regulations effecting Klamath irrigators

ESA

Bills and Laws

Board postpones decision on logging buffers to cool streams, H&N 7/24/15. "...imposing buffers up to 100 feet along streams could cost timberland owners up to $227 million in land and timber values..."

Media may need permit to film nature; Forest Service considers setting fees for wilderness photography, movie-making, (comment period through Dec 3). H&N, posted to KBC 9/28/14. "(USFS) said it would consider the nature of a proposed project before approving a special-use permit and charge fees of up to $1,500 for commercial filming and photography in federally designated wilderness areas.  Press advocates have criticized the rules as a violation of the First Amendment, saying it raises concerns about press freedom...The agency, which manages nearly 190 million acres of public lands in national forests and grasslands, including 439 wilderness areas...permit applications would be evaluated based on several criteria, including whether it spreads information about the enjoyment or use of wilderness or its ecological, geological, scientific, educational, scenic or historical values; helps preserve the wilderness character...'It is also very troubling that journalists could be held to different standards at the discretion of the issuing officer depending on the content of their stories and its relevance to wilderness activity,” U.S. Rep. Greg Walden' "

County, state tussle over water regulations; public works director to sit on water advisory, H&N, posted to KBC 9/20/14.
< Klamath Falls City Councilman Bill Adams speaks about his frustrations with a proposed Oregon Water Resources Department rule on Thursday during a question and answer session at Oregon Tech.   "Klamath County Commissioner Tom Mallams, also an irrigator, spoke in opposition to the proposed rule change. 'This is what I feel is nothing more than trying to put pressure on everybody trying to agree to a settlement that’s very iffy, lacks a lot of support...There is some support … because they have been pushed into a corner, and a gun to their head, as far as I’m concerned, by Oregon Water Resources and our federal government. Water resources in the past has been the champion for irrigated agriculture...I feel they’re one of our worst enemies, and that’s very disheartening.' Mallams also read a statement from State Rep. Gail Whitsett on her behalf: 'We find no viable reason or justification for this permanent rule to apply only to the Klamath River Watershed in Klamath County,' read the statement."

(Oregon) Court spells out law on farm activities, Capital Press, posted to KBC 12/16/13. "The Oregon Court of Appeals has ruled that weddings and corporate events aren't permissible on farmland, but smaller-scale events that feature agricultural education, like birthdays, are allowable."

Jackson County landowner sentenced for illegal ponds, gets 90 days for storing rain and snowmelt runoff, H&N, posted to KBC 5/4/13.

Forest Service makes it difficult for public, H&N 8/16/12, by Steve Rapalyea, Chiloquin

Hastings Holds Hearing on Federal Regulations and Costs Impacting Hydropower Development, PRESS RELEASE 6/27/12

Battered Communities, by Siskiyou County Supervisor Marcia H. Armstrong, 6/4/12. "The paper chronicles the relentless series of lawsuits by fishermen, environmentalists and tribes to reduce water available for irrigation in the upper Klamath Basin. It shows the use of the Clean Water Act Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) to render agriculture a “permitted” activity controlled and curtailed by the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board. It shows the CA Dept of Fish and Game’s efforts to take water from pre-1914 water right holders through the 1602 streambed alteration agreement, coho incidental take permit and flow studies. Then there are the repeated attempts to create a “basinwide” governance structure, such as the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement, where unelected bureaucrats, tribes and environmentalists will write restoration plans, reallocating water from farmers to the environment."

KBC News: the following has been thoroughly researched and documented by Marcia Armstrong 5/31/12:
Part 1 - Siskiyou County, California: How Water and Land Use Regulations and Litigation Are Destroying Us by Siskiyou County Supervisor Marcia H. Armstrong. Background on Siskiyou County and its Economy 5/31/12.
Part 2 - The Global Agenda –IWRM - a Blueprint for Control, by Siskiyou County Supervisor Marcia H. Armstrong 5/31/12.

Farmers (and Consumers) Denied the Right to Consume Milk from Their Own Cows, 10/4/11.

Proposed rule on farms called ‘absurd,’ Gazette Virginian 8/12/11. "...anyone who drives a tractor or operates any piece of motorized farming equipment would be required to pass the same tests and complete the same detailed forms and logs required of semi-tractor trailer drivers."

More rules stoke worry, Editorial, Capital Press, posted to KBC  6/26/11. "rumor says the DOT wants to require all farmers to get commercial driver's licenses to legally operate their equipment on their own property."

Eliminating Duplicate and Burdensome Regulation, Ag e-update by Calif. U.S. Congressman Wally Herger 4/6/11.

Distrust clouds EPA, Capital Press editorial, posted to KBC 3/28/11. "The EPA's Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee has recommended that the agency set tougher restrictions on airborne dust and dirt -- "coarse particulate matter" in government speak. An EPA draft memo suggested setting allowable coarse particulate matter levels as low as 65 to 85 micrograms per cubic meter -- about half the 150 micrograms per cubic meter currently allowed under the agency's air quality standards. Such a move could cause vast areas in the West -- including parts of Idaho and California -- to violate pollution standards."

Walden, Oregon farmers fight pesticide buffer by Peter Beland, Oregon Business, posted to KBC 3/10/11." 'This crop field, which now produces $21,000 in income — if the federal government’s rules as full described here — you’d be down to $1,500... buffer zones could take 40 percent to 67 percent of Oregon’s farmland out of production...' A number of conservation groups represented by Oakland-based environmental law firm EarthJustice filed a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency last November...". (KBC NOTE: GEORGE SOROS helps finance Earth Justice, which provides free legal fees for "environmentalist" and ecoterrorist groups to destroy "American Capitalism." EarthJustice represents most of the environmental groups with voting power in the controversial Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement.)

Costly Regulations Threaten Jobs and Access to Fishing, PR Newswire, posted to KBC 3/2/11

S510: Illegal to Grow, Share, Trade, Sell Homegrown Food, posted by Toni Thayer on our discussion forum 8/12/10

PLF PRESS RELEASE: New Fund Will Aid Family Farmer’s Defense Against Abusive Clean Water Act Regulators, posted to KBC 3/13/09

EPA says farm dust requires regulation! Capital Press , posted to KBC 3/3/09.

Environmentalists plan new push in Legislature, H&N, posted 1/15/07. "an extension of Oregon’s pesticide use reporting program; and maybe even a ban on field burning by grass seed farmers"

NCBA Challenges EPA Standards on Ranches; The National Cattlemen's Beef Association has decided to challenge the EPA's rule on fugitive dust, Farm Futures, posted to KBC 12/27/06

From the archives - I want to go back, Klamath Courier Reporter 2/22/06. Tulelake Fish and Wildlife Refuge story. (KBC NOTE: Presently the Lava Beds National Monument has signs forbidding people from walking on the thousands of acres of "public land unless you are on a designated trail. Fish and Wildlife lands are extremely restricted from human use unless you are a gov't employee.)

 DFG regulations now in effect on Klamath River, Times-Standard, posted to KBC 9/16/05

California Farm Bureau Association FRIDAY REVIEW 8/27/05 "SB 820, also by (D) Senator Kuehl, would require individual reporting of groundwater pumping to the State Water Resources Control Board...  Estimates of the cost of installing meters on wellheads range from $2,500 to $5,000, and as many as 100,000 or more wells may need to be reported annually. The total statewide initial costs could thus easily be as much as $250,000,000 for submitting information the state would not use. Those who fail to report risk loss of their water rights."

Pesticide-reporting system in Oregon to begin in 2006, Seattle Times posted to KBC 8/24/05
Endangered Species Act Incidental Take Permit Revocation Regulations, USFWS, 6/20/04

Regulations effecting irrigators in other places

OREGON - Molalla couple loses pet deer, H&N, posted to KBC 12/1/08. Oregon court won't allow couple to keep pet deer after they saved its life. HERE for more Oregon insanity.
California Farmers have until Year's End to Turn in Plans to Clean the Air ENN 12/27/04

Pollution rules confuse Calif. farmers, AP 4/28/04

Miscellaneous regulations effecting Americans

KBC's appalling proposed bill of the week: PERMIT REQUIRED TO COLLECT RAINWATER IN WASHINGTON STATE? News with Views 1/21/05.  ??????