Water and power

 

	H&N photo by Gary Thain Excess water rushes down the Link River. While there is water in the Basin now, irrigators wonder what will happen come growing season.

January 9, 2006

Klamath Falls Herald and News

Story by Dylan Darling

The first day of 2006 Scott Seus woke up with a headache.

It wasn't because he had rang in the new year too hard, but because the time is now short for Klamath Basin irrigators who hope to keep their power rates low by getting PacifiCorp to agree to renew or rebuild a contract.

The current contract ends April 16, and when it does, rates could be on the rise.

It's a “pretty spooky situation to be in right now,” said Seus, who is chair of the Klamath Water Users Association's power committee.

And the cost of power is just one issue on the minds of Klamath Basin irrigators as the warm days of the growing season inch closer.

A 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision last year could lead to changes in how the Bureau of Reclamation runs the Klamath Reclamation Project. Federal scientists are reviewing the endangered status of sucker fish and whether enough is being done to save them. Then there is the potential for more lawsuits.

“Without a score sheet, it would be hard to keep track of all of this,” said Glen Spain, whose Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations brought the lawsuit that the 9th Circuit ruled on last year.

Behind all the litigation, scientific observation and plans for operation is the classic worry of a farmer or rancher - the weather, and what it will provide.

Winter had been white and wet in the Basin, with a series of storms in December piling up snow and pouring down rain. The influx of water raised flood concerns in parts above and below Upper Klamath Lake, the project's main reservoir.

While there is water in the Basin now, things could dry up come summer. Worry and controversy about water has become the norm in the Basin.

“It's an ongoing, daily thing - it's quality and quantity,” said Greg Addington, executive director of the Klamath Waters Association.

Ever since spring 2001, when the federal government didn't supply water to the 1,400 farms in the project to keep water in the Upper Klamath Lake for suckers and in the river for threatened coho salmon, irrigators keep a closed watch on winter weather because the amount of snow in the mountains tells how much water could be available in summer.

For the moment, the water supply situation looks good and the focus is on the power rate and the possible increase.

A 50-year-old contract between PacifiCorp's predecessor and irrigators has kept rates at about a half cent per kilowatt hour for project farmers and ranchers. The contract was a follow-up to a contract between the power company and irrigators when dams were first put on the Klamath River to create electricity.

“It basically froze rates at 1917 levels,” said Dave Kvamme, PacifiCorp spokesman.

With the contract set to expire, PacifiCorp officials said they wanted Basin irrigators to start paying what other irrigators around Oregon and Northern California pay, which would be a major increase. While a new Oregon law will prevent “rate shock” by gradually having rates go up over 10 years, that's not the case for those in the California side of the project.

“They are looking in April of going to 2,500 percent of what they have been paying for power,” Seus said.

Irrigators argue that the rates should stay where they are because the project allows PacifiCorp to better control flows on the river, making for more efficient power. The company says it's time for irrigators to start paying what others do.

There are four processes going on concerning the power rate:

n Review by the Oregon Public Utility Commission that will be done before the contract expires.

n Review by the California Public Utility Commission that is just starting.

n Review by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to determine whether the rate case should be linked to PacifiCorp's relicensing of its power dams on the Klamath River.

n Settlement talks behind closed doors involving the power company, irrigators, tribes, states and other stakeholders.

Though power is at the forefront, there remain questions about water supplies this year.

“The power doesn't mean much if you don't have water to pump with it,” Addington said.

The federal government had planned to ratchet up flows on the Klamath River over 10 years to benefit coho salmon. But a 9th Circuit decision to have a lower court decide if the plan is acceptable could lead to changes in how the project operates. The legal limbo has made for a wild card.

“That's got us really on pins and needles as to what will happen in terms of operations for this coming year,” said Dave Sabo, project manager.

In the long term, relief from worry could come with added room for Basin water storage.

Talk of turning the Long Lake valley, which runs to the west of Upper Klamath Lake, into a reservoir continues, and Addington said the possibility should be brought to the “front burner.”

But studying the valley is costly. Bureau officials estimates a full-fledged study would cost $15 million, and with tight budgets such a study isn't likely in the near future.

What could be done to increase storage is to put more land around the lake that had been “reclaimed” back into the lake, Sabo said. This is land that had turned from lake bed into farmland by a series of dikes and levees.

He said the lake could be 30 or 40 percent bigger than it is now.

The Bureau already has the Agency Lake Ranch and Barnes Ranch properties in its fold for storage, and the pair held 25,000 acre-feet last year. Sabo said if improvements are made to the dikes around the ranches then 30,000- to 50,000 acre-feet could be stored.

With a winter like this one, there is water to be stored. Flows from Link River Dam, which regulates the level of Upper Klamath Lake, have been eight times higher than what is required for the river's salmon.

If there a place to put it, that water could be stored.

“We probably could have captured 100,000 acre-feet,” Sabo said.

Changes also could come when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service completes its review of suckers in the Basin. Listed in 1988, the suckers were supposed to be reviewed five years later, but because of the “other priorities,” the suckers are being reviewed for the first time 18 years after their listing, said Curt Mullis, manager of the Service's Klamath Falls office.

Sucker numbers are in the “low tens of thousands in Upper Klamath Lake and Clear Lake,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Bureau continues to push forward on its conservation implementation plan, which is in its third draft. Such a plan eased tensions over water on the Colorado River, Sabo said, but it was started in the mid-1980s and is still being developed.

Irrigators in the Basin hope finding solutions and certainty for water won't take that long, and many say it starts with what happens with the power issue and water supplies this year.