August 15, 2006
The unexpected 2,000-acre enlargement of Upper Klamath Lake along Highway 140 should be a constant reminder to local officials that dikes in Klamath County need to be inspected regularly.
Officials also need to find out who is responsible for maintaining which portions of the dikes.
Many of the levees along Upper Klamath are privately owned, and there are about 40 property owners who have land along them.
Water broke through a dike northwest of Klamath Falls June 7, closing Highway 140 for a time, doing millions of dollars damage to agricultural fields and equipment, and temporarily flooding three holes of the Running Y golf course.
Since then, officials have been trying to sort out who's responsible for what, a process that led to the larger issue of determining how safe the dikes are along other parts of the lake and elsewhere in Klamath County.
The 58,922-acre lake (oops, better make that 60,922 acres) is the reservoir for about 180,000 acres of the 240,000-acre Klamath Reclamation Project. It's the largest natural lake in Oregon.
At the moment, there is no list of who is responsible for maintaining the dikes, nor is anyone inspecting the dikes to make sure they're safe. The Corps of Engineers said it would inspect the dikes if asked, but almost nobody has.
The first responsibility to take care of the dikes should fall on their owners.
People who own land being protected by dikes should check to see what responsibilities they have to keep the dikes maintained. Problems from a broken dike can go far beyond the dike's owner and the land immediately behind it, as the June 7 break showed.
A couple of other emergency planning projects are on the local “to do” list ahead of sorting out the ownership and responsibility issues for the dikes. But the issue does need to move forward and, along with figuring out who the responsible parties are, the dikes should be examined periodically. Local officials should keep prodding the process along to make sure those things happens.
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