Chronicles: Water and drought 

 

 

 

By JILL AHO 

H&N Staff Writer

June 8, 2010

 

     Langell Valley irrigators whose water deliveries were cut last year might have qualified for financial relief through the same program that is providing money for land idling and groundwater pumping programs this year.

   They didn’t, though, because the east side of the project wasn’t mentioned in legislation that created the program.

   The Klamath Water and Power Agency, for example, had funds last year, but couldn’t use them for Langell Valley irrigators because they didn’t get their water from Upper Klamath Lake. Those funds were rolled over to this year’s land idling and groundwater programs.

   This year, the Langell Valley, on the east side of the Klamath Reclamation Project, was allocated $500,000 from a $2 million allocation authorized by Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Michael Conner.  

   Paltry allocation

   For the 40 irrigators in Langell Valley who are involuntarily participating in the land idling and groundwater pumping programs, the allocation was paltry compared to what some others in the Project are being paid.

   The Klamath Water and Power Agency paid $220 an acre to the Malin and Shasta View irrigation districts to idle their entire acreage.

   The Langell Valley and Horsefly Irrigation districts split the $500,000. Langell Valley opted to divide its $315,000 evenly by acreage, which amounted to about $40 per acre.

   Some hope final approval of a federal spending bill that includes $10 million for Klamath Reclamation Project farmers will bring more relief. The money could go to west side Project irrigators who haven’t received any relief funds, but it also could be allocated to east side irrigators.     

 

   The reason east side irrigators, who get water from Clear Lake or Gerber Reservoir, weren’t included in the initial bid process for $5.2 million from the Klamath Water and Power Agency program was because of a water bank agreement established after the Klamath Basin water crisis in 2001, officials said.

   As much as 100,000 acre-feet of water had to be “banked” in order to operate the Project, said Greg Addington, executive director of the Klamath Water Users Association.   The water bank became the Water User Mitigation Program that assists Klamath Reclamation Project farmers and ranchers with land idling and groundwater pumping.

   The agreement between the Bureau of Reclamation and the Klamath Water and Power Agency specifically mentions Upper Klamath Lake and the need for increased flows for coho salmon in the Klamath River, said Hollie Cannon, KWAPA executive director.

   “Nowhere in the agreement does it refer to Clear Lake or Gerber Reservoir,” Cannon said. “So the interpretation up until the special allocation authorized by the commissioner, the last $2 million, was the Water User Mitigation Program agreement (which) pertains to Upper Klamath Lake and the Klamath River.”

   “(KWAPA) did (the land idling program) under a competitive bid process, but the east side wasn’t in the competitive bid. They didn’t allow us to be in on that,” said Frank Hammerich, manager of the Langell Valley Irrigation District. “We’re without water and we get offered very little on the dollar, and that’s where we’re at today.”  

 

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