Reclamation announcement heightens West Coast irrigation concerns

The Klamath Water Users Association reported its disappointment with the April 14 announcement of water availability for the Klamath Project. “Family farms, rural  communities, and wildlife are going to suffer beyond imagination,” said KWUA President Ben DuVal.

This statement comes following the Bureau of Reclamation’s release of the Klamath Project 2021 Temporary Operations Plan, which was developed in response to consecutive years of drought conditions in the Kamath Basin, including the lowest historical inflows on recent into the Upper Klamath Lake this year.

Hundreds of farmers who rely on a massive irrigation project that spans the Oregon-California border learned through this announcement that they will get a tiny fraction of the water they need amid the worst drought in decades, as federal regulators attempt to balance the needs of agriculture against federally threatened and endangered fish species that are central to the heritage of several tribes.

Under the 2021 Reclamation Temporary Operations Plan, 33,000 acre-feet of water is available for Project water users. This allotment is around 6% of the need and not much more than necessary to fill the canals that convey water to over 175,000 acres that normally produce potatoes, alfalfa, grass hay and specialty crops such as mint, horseradish and dehydrated onions and garlic. These irrigated crops support wildlife that is a part of the Klamath landscape.

“This water year is unlike anything the Project has ever seen,” said Reclamation Deputy Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton. “We will continue to monitor the hydrology and look for opportunities for operational flexibility, provide assistance to Project water users and the Tribes, and keep an open dialogue with our stakeholders, the states, and across the federal government to get through this water year together.”

“This year the Klamath Basin faces drought conditions that have not been seen in decades. Much of the American West faces similar, unprecedented drought,” said Oregon Governor Kate Brown in a statement on April 14. “Prolonged drought creates hardships that impact people and ecosystems, farms, ranches and communities. My message to the people of the Klamath Basin today is this: You are not alone.”

According to the KWUA, “the devasting lack of irrigation water for yet another year is likely to prove too much to bear for the employees of the farmers and ranchers, who will be facing  severely reduced hours or no work at all. This impact is multiplied for the local businesses, the regional economy, and local public agencies that are dependent on the  contributions of agriculture into the economy. They are barely recovering from the twin hits of the COVID pandemic and last year’s near-catastrophic irrigation supply.”

KWUA Executive Director Paul Simmons said the Association is working to minimize the impacts on the irrigation community with funding. “Farmers are called producers for a reason. They would rather produce than be reduced to mitigation  funding that will never be sufficient to fill the gap left by the loss of irrigation water,” said  Mr. Simmons. “A long-term solution that guarantees a sustainable irrigation supply is  the only course of action that provides a future for the Klamath Basin.”

Reclamation also announced $15 million in immediate aid to the Klamath Project through the Klamath Project Drought Relief Agency, an additional $3 million in technical assistance to Tribes for ecosystem activities in the basin, as well as funding for groundwater monitoring in the basin.