Local water advocates said they believe negotiations that resulted in the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement, a document that seeks to settle water disputes in the Klamath Basin, are the reason that Klamath Reclamation Project irrigators are getting federal financial assistance.

   Becky Hyde, a consultant to Sustainable Northwest and a participant in KBRA negotiations, recently spoke to members of the Langell Valley and Horsefly irrigation districts because the members were largely left out of KBRA discussions.  

   Independence

   “I think they appreciate their independence,” Hyde said. “They are not related to some of the issues the rest of us are related to. I can understand why they choose to stay out of those conversations.”

   But, Hyde said, the strength in banding together to protect the Basin’s interests is apparent this year.  

   “Just to be honest, the reason that anybody in the Basin is getting dollars this year has a lot to do with the KBRA family in full swing trying to take care of irrigated agriculture this summer,” Hyde said. “We need to be pulling together as an agricultural community across the Basin to deal with these drought issues. There shouldn’t be division.”

   KBRA opponent Tom Mallams said he believes there is validity in the idea that without the KBRA negotiations, financial relief may not have come to the Basin this year.  

   “It would have been absolute insanity for them to not give (Project irrigators) anything this year,” Mallams said. “Sure, they can work with everybody, but they can work with everybody without the KBRA in place.”

   Greg Addington, executive director of the Klamath Water Users Association, said this year illustrates how important having a plan is for the years when there simply isn’t enough water to go around.

   “It’s not the last time it is going to be dry here,” Addington said. “The Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement lines out, ‘Here’s how we’re going to live with a certain amount of water in any given year.’ Starting in March, you know what the situation is, not May and June.”  

   Politics, precipitation

   Mallams countered that the KBRA does nothing to change the Endangered Species Act or biological opinions that dictate water for fish, and said he believes this year’s drought is more about politics than it is about a lack of precipitation.