|
Become a friend of the Klamath Bucket Brigade All donations are tax deductible |
|
This Website is Dedicated to Alvin Alexander Cheyne January 10, 1921 - June 17, 2005 |
GovTrack.us is an independent tool to help the public research and track the activities in the U.S. Congress, promoting government transparency and civic education through novel uses of technology.
Winter determines future irrigation seasons
By SARA HOTTMAN
H&N Staff Reporter
September 5, 2010
But that marks the beginning of a more foreboding period: winter, the season that will carry the most influence over next year’s water deliveries.
Stakeholders in Klamath Reclamation Project water are hoping for a wet winter, the only way to prevent another drought.
“We hope we have a real good winter, but we can’t count on it,” said Bob Gasser, who co-owns Basin Fertilizer and Chemical Co. in Merrill. “We hope the agencies do the right thing and fill the lake this year, but we can’t count on the agencies either.
“You can be sure
everybody is looking for fields for next year, just in case this
happens again.”
The drought will officially end Dec. 31. The government agencies that control who gets water will start preparing for the next growing season at the beginning of January, said Kyle Gorman, a regional director for the Oregon Water Resources Department.
Drought conditions were the seed of producers’ issues this year, but the persistent problems stem from late water allotments from the Bureau of Reclamation. Growers didn’t know until May where water would go, which forced last-minute decisions that in many cases led to leasing fields unfit for food crops, so they had soil and pest problems that will likely result in lower yields.
When weather is the deciding factor, Gorman said, there’s little the agencies can do to prevent the same issue next year.
“November and
December can be so variable, trying to predict the water year
“By January, we’ll have a good feel for what kind of water year we’re going to have. At that point, we can start meeting with folks, talking about water allocations.”
The Basin depends on snow pack in the winter — it melts and fills bodies of water — to supply water for spring.
“If you have a strong winter … it fills the soil profile with water, then it takes less water to fill that soil profile up during the summer,” said Willie Riggs, director of the Oregon State University extension office in Klamath Falls.
The state will watch
its water monitoring systems — sites that measure precipitation,
snow pack in the mountains, flows
Gorman emphasized that the more surface water and groundwater users conserve now, the more they’ll start with next year.
“We still need to be very conscious and mindful of water use, because any water that is not used … is water that can be used for next year,” he said.
Alfalfa and grains are already being harvested, and the last crops of the season, potatoes and onions, are just weeks from that point, which means there’s less of a demand for water.
“We need to bring that water table back up, get some storage in the aquifer and storage in lakes,” Gorman said. “We need some recovery this winter.”
Shopping in Tulelake
Help for farmers? ‘California doesn’t have any money’
By JOEL ASCHBRENNER
H&N Staff Reporter
September 5, 2010
 |
|
H&N photo by Andrew Mariman Tony Giacomelli, owner of Jock’s Super Market in Tulelake, stands in front of his store Tuesday. The market, like other businesses, has been negatively impacted by the drought in the Klamath Basin.
|
The impact of the 2001 drought on the Giacomelli, owner of Jock’s Super Market in Tulelake, and other Tulelake-area residents was mitigated by state aid, he said, which helped keep people employed and shopping at area businesses, like his.
“That’s not going to happen this year,” he said. “California doesn’t have any money.”
While this year’s drought has been tough for the grocer, it won’t be devastating, he said. He estimates profits are down 10 percent at the supermarket he has owned since 1986. To make up for the loss, Giacomelli cut one job through attrition and works seven days a week most weeks.
There are simply fewer people shopping this year, he said. Many farm workers who usually live nearby moved elsewhere in search of work. That has a direct effect on local businesses.
“There’s less money
to go around,” he said. “That’s all there is to it.”
The drought was no surprise, he said. A dry winter led area irrigators to prepare for a summer water shortage. This was not the case in 2001, when irrigators who had owned water rights for decades were shocked when, for the first time, they did not have water for their fields.
“It wasn’t a shock this time,” the Tulelake native said. “You could pretty much see it coming. The farmers were aware of the possibility that the water could be shut off a lot more than in 2001.”
Still, there is uncertainty around Tulelake, Giacomelli said, and it all stems from water. Irrigators don’t know how late they will have water. Farm workers don’t know how long they’ll have jobs. Owners of area potato-packing sheds don’t know if they’ll have potatoes to pack in the winter.
“There used to be a certainty of water, but that’s gone away in the last 10 years,” he said. “That affects people.”
The one certainty that remains, Giacomelli said, is Jock’s, which has been in his family since 1956, will stay in Tulelake.
“We’ve been here a long time, and we’re not going anywhere,” he
said.
Extension center crops move to Merrill
WILLIE RIGGS, director, Klamath Basin Research and Extension Center
That uncertainty led KBREC to plant a portion of its experimental crops in privately owned fields throughout the area, director Willie Riggs said.
This year, the experiment station planted about 20 acres of experimental crops in fields near Merrill, Dairy and north of Lower Klamath Lake, Riggs said.
Riggs said the research center could not risk planting all crops at the experiment station and running out of water. Most of the crop experiments are multi-year trials, which require the same amount of water each year.
“We have to keep those factors consistent,” he said.
Riggs said outsourcing land for the crop experiment plots creates extra work and expenses because employees have to drive and haul farming equipment all over the Basin.
The costs add up, he said, especially when the experiment station saw its budget cut by nearly 19 percent this year.
NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, any copyrighted
material herein is distributed without profit or payment to those who have
expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit
research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml