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Irrigation
district members get look at water plan
About
100 people attend meeting in Merrill about settlement proposal
By
STEVE KADEL
H&N
Staff Writer
MERRILL
— About 100 people turned out Friday night to learn details of the
Klamath water settlement, and many heard something they already knew.
“It’s
complicated,” said Dave Solem, Klamath Irrigation District manager.
“There’s a lot of legalese so it’s sometimes hard to
understand.”
However,
he endorsed the 256 -page proposed settlement, saying, “My position is
the benefits outweigh the negatives.”
The irrigation district sponsored the meeting, which
was open to members of other irrigation districts and the general
public. The session was at the
By the numbers
Solem said one of the key provisions of the settlement
puts into effect a permanent limitation on the quantity of water that
can be diverted for irrigation.
The limits range from 330,000 acre-feet during a dry
year up to 385,000 acre-feet in a wet year. Solem said average delivery
to Klamath Project Irrigators from 1961 to 1985 was 340,000 acre feet.
Dry years
During dry years, irrigators may have to use
groundwater or idle land on a temporary basis.
“That’s when the battle begins, in the dry
years,” Solem said.
He said irrigators will still be required to deal with
provisions of the Endangered Species Act. However, the plan says there
will be a commitment to avoid or minimize any adverse impact in the form
of new regulations as a result of introduction or re-introduction of a
species.
Solem said a bright point for irrigators is that the
amount of water allocated to Project members will be given first, with
flows for fish following that. That’s different from the policy under
biological opinions, which have given fish first priority.
Electric power
As for electrical power, Solem said the settlement
includes a fund to keep power costs at three cents per kilowatt hour for
three years, both for on-Project and off-Project irrigators. There’s
also a provision for allocating reserve power from the
“We think we could get it for close to two cents,”
Solem said of the
In addition, $33 million is earmarked as incentive for
energy efficiency, conservation and renewable generation for on-Project
and off-Project users.
The settlement proposal also supports continued
lease-land farming on the Tulelake and
Political
future
Solem acknowledged the political horizon is an unknown
factor as settlement supporters try to garner congressional approval.
“We’re going to have a different president next
year and we don’t know what that means for the Project, but we’ll
have to deal with it,” he said.
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