Commissioners not telling truth about dams   

Klamath Falls Herald and News

Letter to the Editor

October 7, 2010

   Many of us in Siskiyou County support Klamath County agriculture. We were at the 2001 Bucket Brigade March.

   We ask ourselves why any of our neighbors in Klamath County want to tear down our Klamath River dams.

   The answer is simple: Klamath County voters aren’t being told the whole truth. To say it accurately, you’re being lied to.

   Who’s doing the lying? Your Klamath County commissioners. They have repetitively told you that “these dams do not provide irrigation water to farms and ranches.” (Cheryl Hukill commentary, Sept. 19, Herald and News). With all of the free press, interviews and opeds that they have had, why haven’t they told you the whole truth?  

   Why haven’t they told you that Shasta Valley farmers have a senior water right of 60,000 acre feet of water storage behind those dams? Those dams also provide some flood protection.

   The answer is simple: If you knew, then you would be less likely to support the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement.

   If they have to leave out part of the facts to prove their argument, then they have no argument. Again, with all of the free press that they’ve had, by now they should have told you the entire truth. In other words, not lied.

   Shasta Valley farmers were not told during the secret KBRA negotiations that our rights were being negotiated away.

   We have been, and are, developing the ability to utilize that water right. It’s purely arrogant of the Klamath County commissioners to disregard our property rights. But then again, they also lied to you.   Tell them the truth by voting yes on Klamath County Measure 18-80 and stop the Klamath County commissioners from lying to support the KBRA. It’s pitiful that they’re pitting neighbor vs. neighbor when we should all be united.

   Leo Bergeron

   Montague Rancher

   Past California Grange Master