Published Sunday April 3, 2005
Klamath
Falls Herald and News
By HOLLY OWENS
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Water began flowing down the A Canal Friday morning as
the headgates were opened for the start of the 2005 irrigation season.
A limited release of water from Upper Klamath Lake Thursday began to fill the
Klamath Reclamation Project canal system. The rate of flow through the headgates
will increase Monday.
It will take about two weeks to get the system charged
and ready for irrigation, and most orders for irrigation water will begin April
15, said Dave Solem, Klamath Irrigation District manager.
"There may be a few areas where the water will be available a few days
before that, but we try to get everything ready by the 15th," he said.
Solem said he's already gotten some hint of early water needs.
"We've had quite a few people call in and generally
tell us they will be using water fairly early on just because it's been so
dry," he said.
Conservation and efficiency are essential tools for water users and irrigation
districts this year.
Creating some new challenges is the water bank in which Project irrigators are
paid to idle their lands, use well water or put well water back into the canals.
"We are very efficient to begin with," Solem said. "As acres are
taken out, usually it becomes more difficult to operate more efficiently. When
we start taking acreage out with the water bank it makes things more difficult
to keep things working the way they're supposed to be working."
The opening of the headgates this year has special
significance for the Bureau as it celebrates 100 years in the Klamath Basin. The
Klamath Project was one of the first for the bureau, noted Dave Sabo, Klamath
Reclamation Project manager.
"It's a relief to begin to see the release of water," Sabo said.
"It's significant from a lot of different perspectives. The perspective of
a lot of folks is apprehension and uncertainty," Sabo said.
The Bureau will meet with irrigation districts in the next couple of weeks to
discuss its operations plan for the year. The operations plan will be based on
an April 1 streamflow forecast report from the Natural Resources Conservation
Service.
The last report released by the Conservation Service on
March 14 called for 210,000 acre-feet of water, or 41 percent of average, to
flow into Upper Klamath Lake from April through September. The actual inflow in
the summer of 2001, was measured at 231,000 acre-feet.
There are no mandatory irrigation reductions yet, but Cecil Lesley, chief of
land and operations for the Project said that the Bureau is asking people
voluntarily to voluntarily cut back. And it's drawing on its experience, he
said.
"Everything learned from the '92 and '93 droughts
have helped us to plan," Lesley said. "We hope we are wiser in what we
do this year."
Next to the headgates along the Link River, construction was completed in
January on a $3.2 million fish ladder to aid passage of endangered sucker fish.
The popular Link River Trail along the river has been
closed during construction and is set to reopen this spring as Slayden
Construction of Stayton finishes work contracted through the Bureau.
"The Bureau extended the contract on that job because there were some motor
operators that we had to do, and repave the north parking lot. When all that's
done we'll go in and seed and finish up the contract," said Craig Huston,
Slayden vice president.
Monitoring of suckers along the ladder can begin now that construction is complete. Automatic sensors installed in the fish ladder will detect the suckers that have been tagged, and the ladder will be monitored visually, as well, Lesley said.
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