Chronicles: WATER AND DROUGHT

Drought relief

Who gets the $10 million

By SARA HOTTMAN 

H&N Staff Reporter

September 21, 2010

   When the $10 million first passed Congress in a federal appropriations bill, it was called “drought relief for the Western United States,” so there was some uncertainty over how much would go to the Klamath Basin, said Greg Addington, executive director of Klamath Water Users Association. On Thursday, officials announced that all of it would go to Klamath.

   Klamath Water and Power Authority, or KWAPA, an organization that represents water agencies in the Klamath Reclamation Project, received $8 million; and the Klamath Tribes received about $1.6 million to develop water conservation strategies.     

   About $290,000 will be used to provide motor pumps to wells in the Klamath Irrigation District, and $110,000 will go to the Horsefly Irrigation District, which is not part of KWAPA.

   Farmers in Langell Valley who received comparatively low reimbursement for idling their land — $40 an acre instead of the hundreds of dollars in other parts of the project — hoped they would get more relief money once the $10 million was awarded.

   But the irrigation district, which isn’t part of KWAPA, didn’t submit a request for money by the deadline, so it won’t get any additional reimbursement, said Hollie Cannon, KWAPA’s executive director.  

   The majority of KWAPA’s allotment will go to two programs — $3.6 million for land idling and $3.6 million to domestic well mitigation. The remainder will go to drought mitigation research and program implementation costs, including $165,000 for KWAPA expenses.

   “Because of the nature of these funds, we need to have them spent in a year,” Cannon said. “So we need to get busy.”  

   Land idling

   The $3.6 million land idling program is “to pick up the folks missed in the first programs,” Cannon said. “We have a three inch thick file of people who have signed up, and we’re still taking applications” through Friday.

   Irrigators on the Klamath Reclamation Project received about one-third of the surface water they would get in a non-drought year, forcing farmers to either use groundwater or to idle their land.

   In the spring, some farmers entered land idling programs in which they received a price per acre to not grow anything on their land. But some farmers weren’t in areas eligible for compensation.  

   Not included

   In particular, farmers in the Klamath Irrigation District, Klamath Drainage District and Tulelake Irrigation District were not included in those first programs, so they didn’t receive any money for late, or no water allotments, Cannon said.

   This land idling program will award $180 per acre to farmers who didn’t receive any water this year, and $90 per acre to farmers who didn’t receive surface water until mid-July, when the Bureau of Reclamation released 35,000 acre feet of water.

   “Everybody thought they were getting nothing, so the $180 per acre for not having irrigated is a wonderful thing,” Cannon said.  

   Well mitigation

   Domestic well users felt the impact of surface water shortages because farmers were forced to pump groundwater to water their crops.

   Domestic wells have a shallow reach compared with irrigators’ wells; dropping the water table below domestic wells’ reach became a major concern.

   The $3.6 million domestic well mitigation program will help domestic well users within the Klamath Reclamation Project deepen their wells.

   “We’ ll have domestic wells fixed so in the future, groundwater pumping does not impact domestic well use s, doesn’t cut them off,” Cannon said. “The application is ongoing because it’s going to be a major program   .”

   KWAPA is paying the Oregon Water Resources Department $195,000 to facilitate the program. Well owners will have the work done according to the department’s requirements; KWAPA will inspect the finished product, and then reimburse 75 percent of the cost up to $10,000.  

Side Bars

Horsefly Irrigation  District relief funds

   Klamath Water and Power Authority will collect information from irrigation districts and farmers to document what “worked exceptionally well and what we should avoid in the future,” said Hollie Cannon, executive director of KWAPA, so the organization can refer to that during future water crises.