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Following
the dollar
The
By
DD BIXBY
H&N Staff Writer
Of
that amount, $580 million is already allocated for existing programs —
that money will be reallocated to serve the needs of the agreement. The
remaining $405 million will be new and additional funding.
“People
get blown away by the sticker shock,” says Greg Addington, executive
director of the Klamath Water Users Association. “But when you look at
it … (the settlement) is a watershedwide approach to conservation.”
The
$405 million over 10 years of new money will come from a variety of
Much
of the new money will go for additional services (such as monitoring and
research) from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service.
David
Diamond, assistant to the regional director of the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service, acted as a representative of the Department of
Interior in collecting and compiling the budget demands of all 26
parties involved at the negotiating tables.
“It’s
a snapshot in time,” Diamond says. “It’s what the parties think
their needs will be to complete the agreement.” It represents a
commitment by the parties involved to seek out funding for their needs,
Diamond says.
“Federal
and state funding is about $60 million a year right now,” Diamond
says. “The group believes that current existing fisheries efforts can
be reallocated so the total additional funding will be about $40 million
a year.”
The
agreement budget, which appears in appendix B-2 of the 256-page
document, expects beginning costs in 2008 to run about $32.1 million. It
is the lowest budgeted year because the possible start date is in the
middle of the year.
Diamond
says there are options for the settlement if it doesn’t pass in 2008
— it could be bumped a year.
U.S.
Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., told the Herald and News in late January that
it was unlikely any legislation pertaining to the agreement could make
it through Congress in 2008.
A
later start date wouldn’t change the budget significantly since much
of it funds restoration projects that would need to happen step by step,
Diamond said.
There
are seven main sections in the 10-year budget:
Governance
If
passed, a council, currently referred to as the Klamath Basin
Coordinating Council, will be formed from involved parties and existing
agencies to oversee allocations and to mediate disputes.
The
council will be funded with $3.3 million, which helps pay for outreach
efforts, such as renting meeting spaces and facilitators’ salaries.
Diamond
says that amount represents some of the money already flowing into the
Basin to many of the involved agencies.
Fisheries
Three
sub-programs — restoration, reintroduction and monitoring — of
fisheries represent 50 percent of the total budget at $493 million. More
than $320 million of the fisheries budget is devoted to restoration.
Water
resources
This
program will receive about 30 percent of the pie at more than $296
million.
¦
$92.5 million is for implementation of an on-Project water plan,
reflecting the water users’ estimate of what it will take to keep them
under their yearly water allocation in perpetuity. Such attempts could
include ground water investigations, private contracts with landowners
to idle irrigated lands during drier years and/or improving the
efficiency of diversions and irrigations systems.
¦
$2.8 million for various Klamath Basin Wildlife Refuges projects.
¦
$641,000 for a technical investigation into groundwater.
¦
$9 million would go to the D Pumping Plant for refuges and flood
control.
¦
$2.5 million for on-Project plan development.
¦
$45 million for the retirement of 30,000 acre-feet of water for
off-Project lands above the
¦
$250,000 would be spent developing a drought plan, aimed at avoiding
situations in which water users aren’t compensated for loss of water.
¦
$6 million pays for a drought plan restoration agreement fund. The plan
is expected to be completed in 2010.
¦
$4.5 million is budgeted for the maintenance of the Link River Dam and
operation of Keno Dam. This item is contingent on the success of the
separate hydropower agreement, said Pablo Arroyave, BOR area manager.
¦
$9 million for an emergency response fund for compensation or other
needs during drought years.
¦
About $17 million will be used for data analysis and evaluation,
technique development, various assessments, updating monitoring
equipment and management on the
¦
$100 million is budgeted for the “Interim Flow and Lake Level
Program,” which Diamond says would be used while an allocation plan is
put in place and help the water users gradually step into the plan. The
interim program resembles the current water bank program, through which
the BOR contracts with willing irrigators to forgo irrigating, or pump
ground water instead.
The
agreement will be in effect until the on-Project irrigation plan is
implemented; 30,000 acre-feet of water has been retired in the Upper
Basin; and, restoration projects at Williamson River Delta, Barnes
Ranch/Agency Lake Ranch and the Wood River are in place, says Arroyave.
If these stipulations are met before the 10-year period is over, the
interim program would be moot. ¦ $7.5 million is budgeted for the
Regulatory assurances
With
$47.5 million, regulatory assurances account for 4.8 percent of the
settlement.
Addington
says this item in the budget is a failsafe for water users to rely upon
if salmon return to the
“We’re
worried about salmon coming regardless of settlement,” Addington says.
“Whether
the dams come out or stay, there will be some type of fish passage. We
didn’t want to be in a position of ‘who’s gonna pay.’ ”
In
the budget, $25 million is set aside specifically for fish screening at
the Keno Reservoir. About $9 million is dedicated to complying with the
California Endangered Species Act,
About
$13.5 million is dedicated to a federal general conservation plan, led
by the National Marine Fisheries Services and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service. The money would go toward plan development and various steps
needed to satisfy criteria of an incidental take permit.
Power
The agreement includes $41.7 million, or 4.2 percent of the budget, for
power supply for water users.
Addington
says the water users he represents envision that money will be used in a
variety of ways to offset the rising cost of power for pumping water.
For
50 years, a contract set electric rates for those
In
2006 that ended, and new electric rates are being phased in over a
seven-year period in
With an investment over a four-year period in
Currently,
the irrigation tariff is just under 8 cents per kwh in other parts of
Current
rates in
About
$33 million of the power budget will be for investing in renewable and
alternative energy programs such as wind farms or solar power, Addington
says.
The
rest of the money for power will be used to directly offset the tariffs
during the time it took to set up the investment portfolio.
Counties
Although
it isn’t budgeted in the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement, the
stakeholders have agreed to support
Elliott
says the settlement parties felt this item could be achieved without
being included in the budget.
“It
reflects at the very least what
Elliott
worked with the county assessor to come up with the $3.2 million figure
by comparing property tax values on irrigated and non-irrigated acreage.
“The
tax loss figure was applied to the 18,000 acres off-Project and the
25,000 on-Project acres (retired from irrigation),” Elliott says.
The
projected loss was extended over a 20-year period and included the
maximum 3 percent per year property tax increase allowed. A 5 percent
rate of increase also was assumed.
Tribes
The
Klamath Tribes, the
That
money, a little more than 8 percent of the total settlement budget, goes
for various projects.
Each
tribe will receive $9.5 million for fisheries management, $5 million for
conservation management and money for economic development.
Additionally,
the Klamath Tribes will receive $21 million, which will go toward the
purchase of the Mazama Tree Farm. The Tribes will pay for the remainder
of the purchase after negotiations.
The
last time the Mazama Tree Farm came up for bid in November 2006, a $30
million price tag was tossed around, said Will Hatcher, a tribal
councilman. Currently, Hatcher said, no price has been set and would be
subject to negotiations.
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