Major enlargement of Upper Klamath Lake approved Barnes Ranch 103123

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Major enlargement of Upper Klamath Lake approved

Klamath Water Users Association Water Works October 31, 2023 Newsletter
"Klamath Water Users Association’s (KWUA) board of directors will discuss the Barnes/Agency Project in detail at its November 18, 2023, meeting."

KWUA Newsletter is below the following KBC News collection of information on Barnes Ranch acquisition, flooding more former ag land with irrigators' stored water in Upper Klamath Lake.

Is this recent theft of 70,000 acre feet by USFWS the end of Klamath Reclamation Project irrigation water rights? rule of law? Major enlargement of Upper Klamath Lake approved, KWUA Newsletter, posted to KBC 11/4/23. "...Barnes/Agency Project will increase the capacity of the UKL by approximately 70,000 acre-feet... resulting in the UKL expanding to cover an additional 13,443 acres beyond its current area..." (note: One acre irrigated ag land uses approximately 2 to 2½ Acre Feet (AF) water. One acre wetlands uses 4 to 4½ AF water. Wetlands use over 2ce as much water as ag lands.)
KWUA: "...Credible parties believe that the project will have important benefits for water quality, habitat for endangered suckers and other aquatic species, and bird populations. Irrigation water users in the Klamath Project are supportive of all those things..."
My question to KWUA: Who are these "credible parties"?? “The National Research Council (NRC) is the operating arm of the United States National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and is overseen by a governing board that consists of councilors from each of the three Academies.” It is the most prestigious science team in America.
Dr. William M. Lewis, Jr, Chair, National Research Council Committee on Endangered and Threatened Fishes in the Klamath River Basin (2001-2003), attended February 3, 2004, at a DOI sponsored Klamath Science Workshop in Klamath Falls. He spoke regarding the NRC conclusions on suckers, lake level and river flow management, and expanding UKL to lower ph levels and help suckers. "Lewis explained that the suckers were listed since 1988 because of over harvest. They stopped fishing in '87 but they did not recover. The lake has gone from 3' range under natural conditions to experiencing 6' deep in current dry years. With charts and graphs he showed the habitat and water quality, algae and chlorophyll. He said that the committee looked extensively at water levels, and they find 'no hint of a relationship'. He also said that there was no relationship between lower water levels and extreme ph levels. And "the committee cannot support the idea that water levels effect algae growth.' "It can not be achieved by lake levels." '92 was the lowest water year, and they expected it to be the least favorable for fish. 'The lowest water year produced the same amount of larvae as other years."...He explained that Clear Lake does not have the habitat that scientists are trying to create in the Upper Basin for suckers, yet Clear Lake has stable populations of healthy suckers..."These have all the characteristics we want in recovered population. We have to protect these populations."...Lewis was asked about making more wetlands for suckers, and he responded that there are 17,000 acres of restoration already. He cautioned that we shouldn't put too much faith into wetlands regarding the suppression of algae...He added that we should not count on retiring agricultural land land for saving suckers...Jacob Kann, ecologist and scientist for Klamath Basin Rangeland Trust (OBRT president is presently on KRRC Klamath dam destruction board), insisted that timing and flows are related to the ph levels. Lewis responded that the water is always ph loaded, "the increase doesn't matter if it's always been saturated"... When asked if it would work to control the significant part of the ph load, Lewis responded that the lake is 140 square miles...that is not feasible to change... looking at the data, water level management just does not line up." http://klamathbasincrisis.org/science/sciencewkshop020304.htm

Again, KWUA, who are these "credible parties"?

Here are LINKS to KBC's collection of documents, tours, letters concerning adding Barnes Ranch to the previously acquisitions of irrigated ag land with the empty promise of more storage for Klamath irrigators.
2/3/04 Klamath Science Workshop notes: http://klamathbasincrisis.org/science/sciencewkshop020304.htm
Barnes Ranch articles, letters, testimonies, and documents: http://klamathbasincrisis.org/0kbcbarnesandstoragetoc.htm
Letters written regarding Barnes Ranch land acquisition 2005 by scientists, farmers, representatives: http://klamathbasincrisis.org/storage/barnesletters061305.htm
Tour of The Nature Conservancy and Government land acquisitions, Barnes Ranch purchase questioned: http://klamathbasincrisis.org/0kbctnchatfield071603.htm
Over 94,539 acres of agricultural Land has been taken out of production above Klamath Lake with the promise by conservancies to create 'more water to go around'. More was taken out of production last year
Letter regarding Barnes Ranch acquisition for "storage" by Dr. Ken Rykbost, retired as superintendent of the Oregon State University Klamath Experiment and Professor, Department of Crop and Soil Science 4/18/05: http://klamathbasincrisis.org/storage/rykboststudy041805.htm

Major enlargement of Upper Klamath Lake approved

The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has approved a project that will increase the size of Upper Klamath Lake (UKL) by nearly 13,500 acres.

The goals for the project are to improve water quality and increase habitat for endangered suckers and other species. Irrigation water users in the Klamath Project support these objectives but are concerned that the project was adopted, and is going forward, without a rigorous analysis of the effects of the project on water availability for other uses including irrigation and the national wildlife refuges served by the Klamath Project.

The Barnes/Agency Project

The project – “Wetland Restoration on Upper Klamath National Wildlife Refuge Barnes Unit, Agency Lake Units, and Adjacent Lands” (Barnes/Agency Project) – is to take place on lands at the northern end of the Agency Lake portion of the UKL on lands owned or controlled by USFWS. In the twentieth century, the land was separated from the lake by levees to provide irrigated pasture. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) purchased the Barnes and Agency Lake Ranches in the early 2000’s, but subsequently transferred administrative control to USFWS, which added the area to Upper Klamath National Wildlife Refuge.

The Barnes/Agency Project will involve partial breaches of some levees, resulting in the UKL expanding to cover an additional 13,443 acres beyond its current area. A different levee will be reinforced, to isolate, outside of the lake, a new wetland designed to improve water quality by removing nutrients from West Canal, which will also be modified.

USFWS formally approved the Barnes/Agency Project on October 4, in a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI). The FONSI relates to requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). NEPA requires that federal agencies prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) prior to consideration of projects that could have significant effects on the human environment. NEPA also provides that agencies can prepare a more limited, environmental assessment (EA) in lieu of an EIS, and if the EA shows that no significant impacts will occur, the agency can adopt a FONSI in lieu of preparing a time- and resource-consuming EIS.

The Barnes/Agency Project has been under study for a number of years. USFWS issued a draft EA in September of 2021 and invited public comment. Roughly two years later, it issued the final EA and FONSI, which contemplate a project to be completed in three phases over the course of approximately one year, with monitoring and adaptive management thereafter.

Project Implications

Credible parties believe that the project will have important benefits for water quality, habitat for endangered suckers and other aquatic species, and bird populations. Irrigation water users in the Klamath Project are supportive of all those things.

On the other hand, the restoration project has been approved without a meaningful assessment of what it will mean for water supply for agricultural communities and Lower Klamath and Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuges. The purpose of NEPA is to require disclosure of these impacts, alternatives to avoid the impacts, and mitigation measures that would reduce the impacts.

In this case, the Barnes/Agency Project will increase the capacity of the UKL by approximately 70,000 acre-feet. The “first fill” of this capacity will occur with water that would otherwise go somewhere else. Over the longer term, Barnes/Agency Project will increase the capacity of the UKL by approximately 70,000 acre-feet.

The FONSI commits USFWS to attempt to evaluate these impacts thoroughly, and to avoid or minimize negative impacts, but these commits are stated in aspirational terms that are not binding.

The lack of disclosure of impacts before consideration of approval of the Barnes/Agency Project results in increased political tensions and skepticism. When it comes to use of water for irrigation, federal agencies micromanage every molecule. Irrigators do not believe that a project of comparable magnitude to the Barnes/Agency Project could possibly be approved based on an incomplete EA and FONSI if the project under consideration were for purposes of addressing the interests of agricultural communities.

Klamath Water Users Association’s (KWUA) board of directors will discuss the Barnes/Agency Project in detail at its November 18, 2023, meeting.

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