http://www.heraldandnews.com/articles/2005/01/21/news/top_stories/top3.txt

Bureau goes afield for water bank

 January 21, 2005

By DYLAN DARLING

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is sending a staffer into the field in hopes of spurring interest in this year's water bank.

Jennifer Birri, a water specialist, will be at the Tulelake Irrigation District office from 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. Monday and at the Klamath Irrigation District office from 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, the Bureau announced. She'll be there to answer questions and to help those interested fill out applications for land idling.

"She'll work with them to get their applications correct so they make the deadline," said Rae Olsen, Bureau spokeswoman.

Applications for the water bank's dryland, or land idling, program are due by 4 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 27. Bureau officials had expected to get 400 to 500 applications for the program, which was announced last month, but had received only about 25 midway through this week.

Once the deadline passes, irrigators won't be able to sign up for the program for this year, Olsen said.

Applications can be turned in to Birri at the meetings or mailed or dropped off at the Bureau's Klamath Basin Area Office at 6600 Washburn Way, Klamath Falls, OR 97603. Proposals and ideas for other ways to add water to the water bank are also due on the same date.

In all, the Bureau needs about 28,000 acres of land signed up for idling to create 50,000 acre-feet of its 100,000 acre-foot water bank. The water bank is a federally required program designed to boost flows on the Klamath River for threatened Coho salmon. This is the water bank's third year.

The Tulelake Irrigation District office is at 2717 Havlina Road in Tulelake. The Klamath Irrigation District office on Short Road near Henley.

For more information, call the Bureau at 883-6935 and ask for Gary Baker or Phil Graf, both special projects officers.

On the Net: www.usbr.gov/mp/kbao.

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