A more reliable water supply

Group’s director urges people to give settlement plan a chance

By STEVE KADEL

H&N Staff Writer

January 11, 2008

   Klamath Project irrigators nearly had their water shut off three times last summer. 

   But a water official says the Klamath River settlement agreement due to be released any day will offer more reliable water allocation for the Project than it currently has. 

   Keeping the status quo means Upper Klamath Lake and the Klamath River get priority for water ahead of irrigators, said Greg Addington, executive director of the Klamath Water Users Association. 

   He called that “a loser” for irrigators. 

   Addington, who represented on-Project irrigators during settlement talks, spoke about the impending settlement Thursday during a meeting of the Klamath County Rotary Club. 

   He acknowledged that the agreement hammered out by 26 stakeholder groups isn’t

perfect, although he said what is in place now is “no way to run a farm.” 

   Addington said biological opinions dictating lake level and river flow rates nearly caused water to be shut off to irrigators last summer. Project officials feared a shutoff at the end of June, end of July and end of August, but weather conditions improved when needed to avoid a catastrophe. 

   “This deal will not be w thout controversy,” Addington told Rotary members. “But give it a chance. Evaluate all sides of it. We’ve done the best we can.” 

   He was prevented by a confidentiality agreement from releasing details of the plan, although he could talk in general terms. He said one benef it of the stakeholder meetings — held over the past two and a half years — is that dialogue began between groups that traditionally didn’t talk to one another. 

   Besides irrigators, the negotiations included tribes, fishermen and environmentalists. 

   “These are parties we’ve been bitter enemies with for many years,” Addington said. 

   Instead, trust was built among participants during the long course of discussions, he said. 

   Although negotiations were in private, Addington emphasized the Klamath County commissioners and other groups would host public meetings to take citizen input on the document after it is released.

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