Klamath irrigators continue legal fight

By Pat Arnold
For the Daily News
August 22, 2006

KLAMATH FALLS, OR. - Irrigators in the Klamath Basin are continuing their legal fight over water flows in the area that impact farmers and salmon.

Pacific Legal Foundation who represents the Klamath Water Users Association and the Tulelake Irrigation District, recently filed an appeal following the issuance of an injunction by U.S. District Court Judge Saundra Armstrong.

Armstrong's injunction ordered that the Bureau of Reclamation would provide prescribed amounts of water in the lower stem of the Klamath River for salon and puts into place a flow plan that was not to go into effect until the fall of 2010.

Klamath Water Users Association members say the implementation of the plan at this point could be disastrous to farmers. The injunction could allow water deliveries to be stopped which could have disastrous consequences to family farmers and wildlife.

A spokesperson for the PLF said the implementation of the plan in 2006 would not have much of an adverse effect on irrigators because of the large snow pack this year. However, PLF was quick to add that a below average rainfall year in 2007 could be a catastrophic for the Bureau of Reclamation if the bureau were required to deliver more water than it thought it had to provide. Those additional water deliveries would most likely come from water that would otherwise have been delivered to Klamath Basin water users.