Study: Billions of dollars tied to resources-based industries in region

By TY BEAVER

H&N Staff Reporter

October 14, 2010

   Editor’s note: This is one in an ongoing series about the impact of the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement. An advisory measure about the KBRA and dam removal is on the Nov. 2 ballot.  

   The Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement would pump hundreds of millions of dollars into the Klamath Basin to improve fisheries, help irrigators and also provide economic development dollars to Klamath and Siskiyou counties.

   Whether those funds will positively or negatively impact the Klamath Basin economy is a point of contention between opponents and proponents of the agreement.  

   Study findings

   An economic study of the Basin conducted in 2004 and published as part of the report “Endangered and Threatened Fishes of the Klamath River Basin” indicated the region’s natural resources-based industries contributes about $2.7 billion annually to the regional economy.

   The bulk of that comes from agriculture, but commercial fishing and logging provide millions of dollars and thousands of jobs also.

   The KBRA aims to allocate water among stakeholders in the Klamath River Basin, stabilize power rates and improve fisheries. It also advocates removal of four Klamath   River dams.

   KBRA opponent Tom Mallams, an irrigator off the Klamath Reclamation Project and president of the Klamath Off Project Water Users, said the agreement would permanently downsize irrigated agriculture.

   Project irrigators would have a cap on how much water from Upper Klamath Lake that is below what they have received in the past. Mallams said federal agents would seek to buy off-Project lands with the oldest water rights, further cutting into production.

   “That’s some of the best ground there is around,” he said.

   Fisheries ultimately wouldn’t benefit from dam removal on the Klamath River, Mallams added, because it’s not the water from that river that endangered fish species need the most.  

   “The water that helps them is the cold water from the Trinity (River),” he said.

   The lack of impact to the fisheries and the negative impact to agriculture will only lead to lost jobs and a worsening local economy, Mallams said.  

   Type of jobs debated

   During a recent meeting of the Klamath Basin Coordinating Council, a group of stakeholders charged with advising federal agencies on the agreement’s implementation, opponents said any jobs the KBRA generated would be bureaucratic and not help the private sector.

   Proponents of the agreement, though, see only economic improvement with the KBRA in place.

   Environmentalist group California Trout and pro-KBRA group PROSPER commissioned a report on the agreement’s economic impacts from an economics professor at California State University-Chico.

   Steve Kandra, a Project irrigator, treasurer of PROSPER and a board member of the Klamath Water Users Association, said the initial findings of the report just look at the direct economic impacts of implementing the KBRA and conducting restoration work and other activity.

   Implementation would increase business revenues by more than $60 million in Siskiyou and Klamath counties, according to the report.   

   More than 1,000 part- and full-time jobs would be created and employ people such as truckers, construction workers and others with skills to work outdoors.

   Kandra said a study is still being done on how the KBRA would benefit the region’s agriculture and fishing industries. He said he expects the impact to be positive as irrigators and fishermen would be able to better plan for the future with stable water supplies.

   “When you give the agricultural economy assurances, we’re going to have security in making contracts,” he said.