By SARA HOTTMAN 

H&N Staff Reporter

August 17, 2010

     Two city of Klamath Falls parks are near verdant again after nearly two months of mini mal watering caused some turf to brown.

   Moore and Kit Carson parks depend on Klamath Irrigation District water in the summer months, but as B users, their access to irrigation water was cut off until mid-July because of drought conditions and water shortages in the Klamath Basin.

   Water is divided among A, B and C users; A users have first priority to irrigation water, fol lowed by B and C. Water rights are determined by a state permit process.

   “(Moore Park’s) lawn will come back. It’s a good, seeded lawn and that’s the case in all those areas,” said John Bellon, superintendent of city parks operations and maintenance. “But we’ve had a few trees fail because of drought conditions.

   “When we don’t water, immediately we think about the effect on the lawn … but trees are our biggest concern. They’ve grown up on irrigation water, and they need the moisture they grew up on.”

   The city has received some calls asking why the parks were dry, but residents seem understanding of the situation, Bellon said.

 

H&N photo by Sara Hottman    The city of Klamath Falls parks department is trying to revive grass in Moore Park since irrigation water was turned on in mid-July, about two months after the city normally starts summer watering.

   Usual start date

   The city normally starts watering its 615 acres of parkland in May.

   Moore Park is the city’s largest at 435 acres. The other 180 acres are divided into 38 landscaped areas, six special-use areas, five mini-parks, and four neighborhood parks, according to the parks master plan.  

   Most city park areas are watered with municipal water from 11 wells connected to 21 tanks storing 16.6 million gallons. Neighborhood parks received their usual amount of water, Bellon said.

   But from May until mid-July, the city used municipal water to keep the grass from dying.  

   ‘Very inadequate’

   “It’s very inadequate,” Bellon said. “The municipal system doesn’t supply the same gallons and pressure as the (irrigation) pumps do.”

   Now the city is focusing on soil moisture. Bellon said irrigation water fertilizes the turf, so regular watering has revived Moore Park’s lawn.

   Kit Carson is still sprinkled with brown. The city shares that water system with the Oregon Department of Transportation but both entities are shorthanded, Bellon said, so repairs on the system have been delayed, hindering watering.

   “Typically we would work that out earlier in the season,” Bellon said, “but that was delayed because of no water.”  

Side Bar

The KBRA’s impact on city parks     

   While the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement seeks to divide irrigation water equitably among stakeholders, the city of Klamath Falls isn’t considered in the document.

   It outlines potential impacts on Klamath County, as well as Del Norte, Humboldt and Siskiyou counties in California, but the only city named in the agreement is Yreka, in reference to the impact of dam removal on its water system.