by Will
Houston,
Eureka Times-Standard
3/26/18
In an attempt to meet the needs of Klamath Basin irrigators
and endangered fish species in the basin in a time of
drought, a federal agency is proposing to reduce the amount
of dam water releases to the Klamath River that are meant to
protect threatened Coho salmon from deadly parasite
outbreaks like those that occurred in 2014 and 2015.
The Hoopa Valley Tribe says the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s
prioritizes farmers over fish and goes against a federal
court order that they, the Yurok Tribe and environmental
groups secured last year to protect threatened salmon.
The court order requires the bureau to release a 72-hour
flushing flow from Iron Gate Dam into the river to flush out
worms that host the parasite. The order also requires the
bureau to hold 50,000 acre-feet of water in reserve for an
emergency diluting flow in case baby salmon still show signs
of infection.
Up to 91 percent of baby Coho and Chinook salmon in the
river were found to have been infected in 2014 and 2015 by
an intestinal parasite, Ceratanova shasta. Local tribes say
the disease outbreak contributed to the low return of salmon
to the river in 2017, which resulted in a complete closure
of the commercial fishery in the region.
The fish-kill preventive flows were challenged
in federal court earlier this month by
Klamath Basin water districts and irrigators, which argued
that 2017’s rainfall and snowpack levels were sufficient
enough that the dilution flows will not be needed this year.
The dilution flows were not used in 2017.
The bureau is urging the U.S. District Court to consider its
proposal at an upcoming April 11 court hearing in San
Francisco that will discuss the irrigators’ challenge.
WATER DISPUTE
In a
statement released over the weekend, the bureau’s
Mid-Pacific Deputy Regional Director Alicia Forsythe said
the plan allows the agency to “protect important tribal
trust resources while allowing for water supply certainty
and economic stability for our agricultural communities in
the Klamath Basin.”
The Klamath Water Users Association is one of the
challengers to the dam releases and represents about 1,200
farms and ranches in the basin. The association’s Executive
Director Scott White said while he does not fully support
the bureau’s proposal, he said it at least provides a date
for farmers to begin receiving water during what he
describes as a “devastating” and “do-or-die” water year.
“We are hopeful that the judge sees this proposal favorably
and allows our guys to be able to plan accordingly to start
this season,” White said.
Hoopa Valley Tribe Fisheries Director Mike Orcutt said
Monday the bureau’s proposal is a tactic to “prioritize the
startup of irrigation and leave some uncertainty to
protecting most species.”
In its late Friday court filing responding to the
irrigator’s arguments, the bureau proposes to release the
flushing flows in mid-April, but forgo the emergency
dilution flows this year.
Irrigators in the basin also would be provided 252,000
acre-feet of water starting April 19 under the proposal,
which the bureau said is about 65 percent of the maximum
water supply of 390,000 acre-feet it can provide to
irrigators in its Klamath Project area.
The bureau provided several reasons why it would not be
providing the dilution flows that tribes and fisheries
researchers claim are critical to preventing another fish
kill on the river.
The bureau argues that the 2017 federal court order on the
dam releases does not supercede its obligation to ensure
there is enough water in the Upper Klamath Lake to protect
endangered sucker fish species.
“Reclamation believes this proposal provides the best
solution for addressing disease concerns for coho salmon in
the Klamath River while also ensuring water levels necessary
to protect endangered suckers in the Upper Basin,” Forsythe
said.
The bureau and two other federal agencies are facing a
potential Endangered Species Act lawsuit by the Klamath
Tribes of Oregon, which filed a 60-day notice in federal
court in February. The notice called on the agencies to take
“immediate, emergency measures” to bring water levels in
Upper Klamath Lake to protect endangered sucker fish
species.
The bureau also claims that “new information indicates
limited scientific support” for the effectiveness of the
emergency dilution flows to protect Coho salmon from
infection — an argument also put forward by the Klamath
Basin irrigators, though the federal agencies stated they
disagree with several of the irrigators’ claims.
FLUSHING, DILUTION FLOWS
U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service Pacific Southwest regional
director Paul Souza wrote in a letter to the Bureau of
Reclamation this month that there are “significant questions
about the science behind the dilution flows even if more
water was available in the basin.”
Both the flushing flow and dilution flow plans were drafted
by fisheries officials from the Yurok, Karuk and Hoopa
Valley tribes, and were agreed on by the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation last year as part of the federal court order.
Orcutt said the flow plans were developed using the best
available science including that from the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service’s Arcata office. The two flow plans were
meant to work together, Orcutt said, with the flushing flows
washing away the worms that host the parasites and the
dilution flows being used as an emergency backup in case the
parasite infection begins to spread.
“It’s a tandem action,” Orcutt said. “It’s not like you do
one and you don’t do the other.”
The federal court order requires the bureau hold 50,000 acre
feet of water in reserve for the dilution flows until June
15 or until 80 percent of the juvenile salmon migrate out of
the river.
Basin farmers have stated in court filings that
uncertainties about summer irrigation can result in
significant losses of revenue and impact business decisions.
Orcutt said that the bureau’s proposal prioritizes
irrigators and places the risk on salmon because it provides
water to irrigators, but not emergency flows to salmon when
they would need it most.
“It’s not like [irrigators are] not going to get the water,”
Orcutt said. “It just requires them to start later.”
APRIL HEARING
The
April 11 hearing will be before U.S. District Court Judge
William H. Orrick, who ruled in favor of the Hoopa Valley
Tribe, Yurok Tribe and environmental groups’s arguments in
February 2017 that the bureau and National Marine Fisheries
Service’s management of dams violated a 2013 biological
opinion to protect threatened coho salmon.
Orrick addressed the economic versus environmental
considerations in his ruling, stating that “courts are not
permitted to favor economic interests over potential harm to
endangered species.”
While Orcutt said he has confidence with the case going back
before Orrick again, Orcutt said “the only downside is that
the federal experts have changed their positions.”
Orcutt said the tribe plans to file a response by Wednesday.
White said the issue is not about economics, but is about
the science suggesting that there “really is no need for
these dilution flows.”
The bureau wrote in its court filing that it also evaluated
the option of releasing a smaller dilution flow, but that
the questions about these flows effectiveness still existed.
Including a smaller dilution flow would also cause a
complete irrigation shutoff in the Klamath Project until as
late as June 15, according to the bureau.
To implement its plan, the bureau says it will use 11,000
acre-feet of water drawn from the upper and lower Klamath
National Wildlife Refuge and another 10,500 acre-feet of
water from the Copco reservoir owned by the Oregon-based
hydroelectric power company PacifiCorp.
The bureau says it would repay these voluntary water
contributions by fall or winter, but does specify how in its
filing.
Three environmental groups — Audubon Society of Portland,
Oregon Wild and WaterWatch of Oregon — condemned the use of
wildlife refuge water on Monday, saying it “sets the stage
for yet another catastrophic bird kill” in order to provide
public water for agribusiness.
“The water and taxpayer funding for these refuges belongs to
the public, not private agribusiness interests. We simply
want our senators to do their job and reign in this renegade
agency before it causes even more harm to Oregon’s natural
heritage, economy, and taxpayers,” WaterWatch of Oregon
Southern Oregon Program Manager Jim McCarthy said in a
Monday statement.
