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STATE REP. BILL GARRARD, Republican, Klamath Falls
‘Our community was divided’
By ELON GLUCKLICH
H&N Staff Reporter
November 7, 2010
Both had devastating impacts on agricultural output.
But while the 2001 drought brought the Basin’s hundreds of farmers together, a similar situation this year created a drastically different climate.
The past year has been “much more derisive, because our own community was divided,” Garrard said.
The Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement, a document that aims to resolve water conflicts in the Klamath River watershed, added a politically charged environment to the equation.
The issue has divided agricultural workers whose overall interests are similar, if not the same, Garrard said.
Some feel the KBRA would stabilize water deliveries and power rates. Others feel the agreement would mean higher power rates while creating a host of other problems.
Garrard said he has heard the concerns and complaints on both sides.
The politically charged environment was compounded by weather related problems that made this year among the roughest growing seasons in recent history.
The federal government in March declared a drought in the Klamath Basin. That opened the region up to a slew of emergency maneuvers, including the drilling of ground wells to compensate for the short lake water supply.
But the number of new wells tapped lowered the level of groundwater in many places. Residents in Merrill were without water for several days this summer when the groundwater level retreated below the depth of the community’s well pump.
“One of the main concerns I got calls about during the summer was about the individual wells that were going dry,” Garrard said.
In the end, dealing with water shortages has proven to be one of the toughest issues, Garrard said, because there is little he can do about it.
“Mother Nature gets the final say as to
how much water will be in the Basin,” he said.
Side Bars
KLAMATH TRIBES, Don Gentry, Jeff Mitchell, Will Hatcher, Bud Ullman and Larry Dunsmoor
Better relationships key to ongoing water shortage solutions
Compared with 2001, this year’s drought was less acute, the Tribes’ negotiating team said, and farmers knew that some irrigation water would be available.
Problems from the shortage include the possible loss of production from this year’s in-lake spawning suckers because there was not enough water for them to access spawning sites.
“From a community standpoint we could draw on the experience of working together toward a common goal accomplished through the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement and the Klamath Hydro Settlement Agreement negotiations. This helped us find some solutions this year,” the group said in a joint statement.
The group said the changed relationships between the Tribes and Klamath Reclamation Project users “stood up under intense pressure, and made a real difference.
“Extensive communication, mutual concern and productive problem solving characterized our interactions with the Project irrigators. If the relationships had been as they were in 2001 this year would have been a catastrophe. As bad as it was, it would have been much worse.”
David Bitts, 61, commercial salmon and crab fisherman, president of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fisherman's Associations, Fort Bragg, Calif.
FORT BRAGG, Calif. — Fisherman David Bitts was glad there was some form of salmon fishing this season, though he described it as a “token” season.
“That’s what happened, I caught a few,” he said.
The fishery is still struggling, even though research showed most problems with salmon this season were coming from the Sacramento River, not the Klamath River. Preliminary estimates actually showed the Klamath River providing more salmon this year than the Sacramento did.
“We’re still trying to understand this thing,” Bitts said.
Bitts said he sees things changing for the better, but until then, everyone is just looking for a way to survive to the next season.
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