According to Frank, the Klamath Agreements are part of a vast conspiracy to wrest “local control” of water from the counties. The problem is that the county currently possesses zero control of surface waters. Where the county does have potential control – groundwater – they have abdicated responsibility, allowing anyone and everyone to pump what they like and use it as they please. As a result, our rivers and streams are being sucked dry. In other words, these so-called “leaders” are protecting certain private interests and trashing the public interest.

Tallerico and his running buddies on Siskiyou County’s Bored of Stuporvisors are suffering from a clear case of Sour Grapes. These folks were not concerned about “regional governors” and the loss of “local control” when they refused to allow Del Norte County supervisors into the multi-year negotiation that led to the Klamath Agreements. That exclusion was a cynical power play by a county representative who – like Tallerico – preaches the dogma of “local control.”

So what does that tell us about Siskiyou County’s current “leadership”?

The other problem with Frank’s “local control” mantra is – where does it stop? Why is the county the locus of sovereignty; why not my town or my own property? What right does Siskiyou County have to come in and tell me what I must do with MY sewage on MY own land?

Management of interstate rivers in the American West is traditionally accomplished through interstate compacts ratified by all participating states and the federal government. Sorry, Frank, but water is owned by the people of the state – not by the county, not by ranchers or irrigators ... but by the people of the state collectively.

I am no supporter of the KBRA. It IS undemocratic and unscientific in many respects (see KlamBlog for the details). But what we need is not Tallerico’s dream of “local control” or the KBRA’s dream of bureaucratic control but rather a new Klamath Compact – a federal and state law empowering a Klamath River Compact Commission to coordinate and harmonize water management and stream restoration in the Klamath River Basin under existing laws and authorities.

The Klamath River Compact Commission should have members representing all governments that have water management authority in the basin. The federal government, the two states, all the basin’s federal tribes and all the basin’s counties should be represented. Because commissioners would be appointed by elected representatives, the commission would be answerable to the citizens. Unlike KBRA negotiations, all meetings and all documents created by the commission and its staff would be open to all citizens.