Klamath
Water Users Association
NEWS
RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 13, 2006
Contact: Greg Addington, Executive Director - greg@cvcwireless.net
On Wednesday, April 12th
the Oregon PUC issued an order that in technical terms will move Oregon Project
irrigators to a tariff based rate for irrigation and drainage pumping.
The practical result of the decision is that the Oregon PUC worked its
way through a very complicated issue and made a ruling in a timely and equitable
manner.
The good news for Project
irrigators in
Steve Kandra, President of
the Klamath Water Users Association said, “This order achieves most of what we
set out to do. They recognized that the Klamath River Basin Compact does mean
something and that there is an important relationship between irrigation and
power generation. The Commission also said irrigators are entitled to a rate
credit, provided we can quantify how we provide value to the hydro-production
facilities on the river”.
The Commission has outlined
the steps irrigators will need to take in order to make their case for receiving
a credit.
In the interim, the
Commission has established that irrigators will begin the transition as outlined
by the legislatively enacted SB 81 which provides a 7 year phase-in.
Klamath Project irrigators
are engaged in productive discussions with a variety of stakeholders regarding
hydro power re-licensing issues and are optimistic about the direction of those
discussions.
KWUA
To preserve, protect and defend the water
and power rights of the landowners of the