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Water
settlement
Council
voices concern with deal
County
advisory board postpones recommendation
By
TY BEAVER
H&N Staff Writer
Page
A1
Members
of Klamath County’s Natural Resource Advisory Council say they have
major concerns with Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement, but aren’t
ready to reject it yet.
The
panel postponed making a recommendation to
“Just
to say no to it isn’t an answer,” said advisory council member
Tracey Liskey.
The
water agreement allocates water in the
Several
advisory council members voiced concerns with the agreement and said
they couldn’t support it. Others said they couldn’t just reject it
and wanted more time for information to be available and those affected
to meet.
The
council was supportive of commissioners arranging a facilitated meeting
between irrigators off and on the Klamath Reclamation Project and the
Klamath Tribes. That meeting was canceled earlier this week after the
Klamath Water Users Association, representing on-Project irrigators,
said it would be unable to participate.
The
Tribes initially said they weren’t able to give an answer. Jeff
Mitchell, tribal council member, said Thursday night that a variety of
reasons now prevent the Tribes from participating in a facilitated
meeting, including representation issues.
“We
don’t believe there can be any effective representation of off-Project
landowners,” he said.
Members’
opinions
Advisory
council members expressed a variety of concerns with the agreement. Bill
Ransom said he couldn’t support taking land off the tax rolls to
fulfill a tribal land sale or removing dams.
Glenn
Barrett said he understood the position of on-Project irrigators
supporting the agreement, as it would likely be good for them, but said
it is unclear how it would impact off-Project irrigators.
“I’ve
been wanting a Basin-wide settlement for a long time, but I don’t
think this is a Basin-wide settlement,” he said.
Chairwoman
Andréa Rabe, an off-Project irrigator, said she’d spent weeks trying
to arrange further negotiations to iron out problems. Unfortunately, no
one wants to come back to the table. Rabe said she can’t live with the
agreement as is and cannot support it.
But
Liskey said that despite the concerns, to reject the agreement would
potentially invite more trouble or a return to situations such as the
2001 water crisis. Liskey said it’s possible biological opinions could
begin affecting off-Project irrigators.
Advisory council member Karl Scronce, who has land on
and off the Project, said he preferred to wait and see what could be
done in the next month. He also wanted to see where negotiations with
PacifiCorp end up.
He’d recently met with tribal officials and other
off-Project irrigators and spoken with a U.S. Department of Interior
official and said he felt more could be accomplished.
“If we kill the agreement, I know where I’ll be.
I’ll be dry every year,” Scronce said.
Craig Ditman, another advisory council member, said he
considered the agreement flawed and in need of work, but would like the
council to support the tribal land acquisition, saying it could benefit
the county.
Council member Vince Belleci said he was concerned
that if the county dragged its feet, state and federal officials will
determine the county’s decision themselves. Commissioner Bill Brown
said he did not think that the county would prevent agreement proponents
from moving forward.
Two advisory council members — Rabe and Barrett —
voted against postponing the decision. The council will revisit the
issue at its May 15 meeting.
Brown said commissioners could move forward with a
vote before the advisory council’s next meeting, but likely will wait
for a recommendation.
Side Bar
PacifiCorp talks
Details
of PacifiCorp’s role in the proposed Klamath Basin Restoration
Agreement could be better known in mid-May.
Bud
Ullman, attorney for the Klamath Tribes, said during a meeting of
Ullman
declined to comment further on the issue.
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