Water: What's next

Stakeholders seek support for settlement

By TY BEAVER
H&N Staff Writer

January 17, 2008

MERRILL — Merrill farmer Steve Kandra will spend the next several weeks talking with fellow irrigators about a historic settlement that allocates water resources in the Klamath River Basin .

As a board member of the Klamath Water Users Association, he will meet with members of four irrigation districts to talk about the agreement and ask them to sign on.

Stakeholders, who spent more than two years writing the deal, now need approval of affected organizations, from tribal governments and irrigation districts to state and federal agencies.

It won’t be easy.

A group of off-Project irrigators already is speaking in opposition, and stakeholders need to secure a dam removal agreement with Portland-based PacifiCorp.

But after years of litigation, Kandra believes the settlement is a way to move forward.

“You can litigate yourself to death and not help anyone,” he said.

The settlement was released to the public Tuesday. The 256-page document addresses a plethora of issues surrounding the Klamath River watershed, from fish and irrigated agriculture to tribal interests and wildlife refuges. It is estimated to cost $960 million over 10 years.

The agreement, Kandra says, would give Klamath Project irrigators a predictable source of water, depending on availability. Off-project irrigators would need to retire 30,000 acre-feet of water from use to help increase storage in Upper Klamath Lake .

Power

All irrigators would benefit from a stable three cents per kilowatt-hour power rate and all four PacifiCorp-owned dams on the Klamath River would be removed, he said.

The Klamath Tribes would drop their water adjudication claims against Project irrigators. All the stakeholders would support the Tribes’ efforts to acquire 90,000 acres of private forestland along Highway 97 in northern Klamath County .

Greg Addington, executive director of the Klamath Water Users Association, said nearly 49 organizations are directly involved in the settlement, but he hesitated to say how many would need to approve the agreement before it moves forward.

Signing on

For example, Addington’s organization represents about 24 different irrigation, improvement and drainage districts and companies in the Klamath Basin . He would like all to support the agreement but having a “convincing” consensus would be enough.

“I personally think it can’t be 51 percent,” he said.

Timeline is important as well. Kandra said a request for funding should be in congressional hands by mid-February.

He and Addington said that some irrigation districts could make decisions within a month or less. Negotiations with PacifiCorp could finish by then as well.

Public hearings

But local government approval could take longer. Klamath County and other county governments involved must abide by public hearing and public notice laws, possibly delaying their final decisions.

Kandra said he would like to get the settlement funded in Congress this year because stakeholders worked with the current administration. If diverse support is behind it, it would behoove a federal lawmaker to get on board as well.

“It’s a gift, I hope they take it,” he said.

Funding the agreement

Of the nearly $1 billion needed to implement the agreement, about $580 million would come from reallocation of funds for current federal, state and local projects. Stakeholders would need to campaign lawmakers and others for the other $400 million.

 “All those are things we haven’t really tackled yet,” said Steve Thompson, regional director for U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Then there’s PacifiCorp. The Portland-based power company’s cooperation is crucial to the agreement’s success. Cost of removing the four dams — J.C. Boyle, Copco 1, Copco 2 and Iron Gate — would fall entirely to the utility and its ratepayers.

Stakeholders are meeting with PacifiCorp officials and hope to have an agreement in the next few weeks.

Until then, those affected by the settlement will have time to weigh in on the document through public meetings with stakeholders and irrigation groups.

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Source:  http://www.heraldandnews.com/articles/2008/01/17/

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