AP: Drought forces low irrigation to meet salmon, sucker standards

Drought forces low irrigation to meet salmon, sucker standards

15 percent water reduction for farmers is required by Endangered Species Act

BY JEFF BARNARD
The Associated Press

April 9, 2005

Spring rain and snow have been too little, too late to avert irrigation cut on the Klamath Reclamation Project, where farmers will have to tighten their belts to sustain threatened and endangered fish in a drought.

The operations plan for the 2005 irrigation season released Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation cuts back water for farmers by 15 percent on the bulk of the 180,000-acre project straddling the Oregon-California border on the east side of the Cascade Range.

"Since this is shaping up to be the third-driest year on record, I am asking all Klamath Basin farmers, both on and off the reclamation project, to really tighten up on their water usage," said Dave Sabo, Reclamation's manager for the Klamath Project.

"As long as all of us upstream and downstream continue to make an effort, we'll be fine," said Bob Gasser, a fertilizer dealer and board member of the Klamath Water Users Association, which represents irrigators on the project.

The project controls the water available for endangered suckers in Upper Klamath Lake, the primary reservoir, and threatened coho salmon in the Klamath River, the lake's historical outflow. So under the Endangered Species Act, the Bureau of Reclamation must provide minimum amounts of water for fish in addition to irrigation for farms.

Because of the drought, the amount mandated for fish is less than in wet years. A water bank set up to increase flows for fish has ramped up to 100,000 acre feet this year -- about a third of which goes to irrigation. Farmers are being paid $7.6 million to leave 25,000 acres dry and divert wells. Nearby wildlife refuges are contributing 15,000 acre feet.

The 30,000 acres on the east side of the irrigation project will see even sharper cutbacks. Clear Lake Reservoir, which also has endangered suckers in it, will put out nothing, and Gerber Reservoir will provide about half of normal.

The drought is likely to also affect chinook salmon in the Klamath River, where low runs anticipated this year have triggered a severe cut in ocean salmon harvests off Oregon and California.

Sabo met with irrigation districts Friday to discuss rotations of three weeks on and one week off to conserve water without having to shut it off completely.