In regards to the following article:
by Steve Cheyne
Sometimes I really wonder about the motivation behind articles such as this one. If people are going to make rational decisions regarding natural resource issues, they need accurate information. Sadly, accurate information is just what Ryan Masters does not quite produce in writing this article. He quotes a Tom Kanale, who also suffers from some acute misperception of the issue. That’s understandable because almost all of the newspaper articles, dealing with the Klamath River issue report the same misperceptions until, unfortunately, it seems that it is beginning to take on the veneer of truth. Mr. Kanale’s quote “ They’ve sacrificed all this salmon down here to farm potatoes and alfalfa in the Oregon High Desert”, is pretty typical of the perception being implanted into people who keep reading information sources like this. I have no quarrel with Mr. Kanale; he probably sincerely believes what he said. I happen to think he’s wrong.
Right after he quotes Mr. Kanale, Mr. Masters goes on to “explain” what happened. His assertion is the typical one. The Bureau of Reclamation diverted water from the Klamath River to farms. That is the typical refrain we see with nearly every article. Farmers get too much water from the river in critically dry water years, and as a result the salmon fisheries go to pot. The intent is clearly to paint the Bureau of Reclamation and the farmers of the Klamath Reclamation Project as villains. Yes there was a fish kill in 2002, and everybody jumped on the blame the farmer’s bandwagon before all of the fish had even stopped dying. However, some things seem never to get reported. Despite the heartbreaking number of dead fish, the run was still above average, with all hatchery quotas met. Nobody reports that the Klamath Water Users were also trying to tell everybody there was a disaster in the making. Turns out we were right. The water in the main stem Klamath River was too warm. There is no way you can take nearly 80 degree water from Upper Klamath Lake in the summer (UKL is a large hyper-eutrophic lake with naturally occurring warm water in the late summer to early fall) and run it downstream during hot summer days and somehow manage to turn it into 55 degree salmon water. The water temperatures of the Klamath River will mirror the ambient air temperature. Cooler water can’t be delivered until after the weather begins to cool off about the middle of September. Mr. Kanale’s assertion that the “water was too warm because there’s not enough flow” doesn’t hold up.
Remember the report issued by the California Fish and Game Department that blamed the Klamath Reclamation Diversion, practically before the last fish had died? That is the same report that did not stand scrutiny from the National Academy of Sciences. That is also the same report that got thrown out of court in the fish kill lawsuit that followed the 2002 event. The NAS conclusion was basically that we have a watershed wide problem. The NAS pointed out that blaming the Klamath Project was incorrect. This report surfaces in many articles of this nature. Mr. Masters just ignored it.
Unfortunately that fish kill was not the problem. The problem was whatever killed out migrating juveniles in 2003. What was the problem? Read any newspaper and you will find out that it those greedy farmers diverting all the water again. Again the same thing, the water from UKL is too warm for salmon. Crying for more and more of it will not help. Especially when the demand comes at a time when the lake water is at its warmest.
Farmers are tired of receiving all of the blame. The cold hard fact is that the Klamath Reclamation Project uses from 4-6% of the volume that the Klamath River discharges into the ocean. If agriculture in the Klamath Project were to vanish yesterday, the salmon would be worse off. What? How can that possibly be? Is this guy nuts? The fact is that the Klamath Reclamation Project stores the water it uses to irrigate during the summer months from water present in wetter winter months. Because it is the only source of additional water in the summer, I guess it is the only place non agriculture interests can go looking for water. The point is this. Why did we need to store it in the first place? The reason is that in times before the construction of the Link River Dam (behind which is stored the water everybody fights over) Link River (at the outlet of UKL) would often fall to low or no flow periods. In really dry years, it would actually dry up. When that happened, there was not any water for any use. The power generators in the river in those early times would not produce electricity from the low flows often present in the summer.
There is some degree of support for removal of the dams on the Klamath River. Well, guess what, if the Link River dam goes, so does the water that is stored behind it. With the low water we have had over the last several years, Link River would have gone dry again, just as it has done in the historical past. When that happens, there would have been NO water for maintaining river flows. Whatever flow went out of Link River Dam in the summer of these dry years is just that much more than natural conditions would have provided. When the lake level gets so low, nothing flows out. Without the stored water from the Klamath Reclamation Project, there would be NO water to argue over. It would have reached the ocean months before the need.
Agriculture realizes that we are going to have to change in the years to come. I do not write this to say “leave us alone we aren’t killing your fish”. Now, I have no doubt that more flow will help the salmon. However it has to be more flow of salmon water, clear and cold. More flows of warm UKL water will not help. I understand the fishermen. We all know what it is like to face the loss of most of your income, It is not an easy thing to deal with. What I say is simple. Don’t blame us for all of the problem. There are important aspects of the Klamath Project that go unreported. Writers should try to get at the basics before they write a half story that becomes taken for the full truth.
Steve Cheyne
Spring Lake Rd
Klamath Falls, Or. 97603
PS
I am a lifelong Klamath Project water user. Our family farm is 95 years old, I hope to see it make 100. I hope to see my nephew be able to run it in the future. I have a Master of Science in Biological Sciences. I am a current board member of the Klamath Bucket Brigade. I am a past member of the Klamath Basin Water Resources Advisory Committee. I am an advocate of wise use of water resources.
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