“I am willing and able to have a vigorous debate on the wisdom of certain policy options,” says Senator Whitsett. “What I am not willing to do is sit quietly while the ONRC makes up facts and spreads falsehoods about the hardworking men and women of the Klamath Basin who make their livelihood in agriculture.”

The following is a list of the accusations made by the ONRC as well as the actual facts of the situation in the Klamath Basin.

• Fallacy: Fish Kills have a direct relationship to the Klamath Farmers.
• Truth: National Academy of Sciences determination says the two are unrelated.

• Fallacy: This is an “antiquated electric power subsidy.”
• Truth: This is a power contract based on mutual benefits between the Basin farmers and Pacific Power last negotiated in 1956. There would be less water flowing down the Klamath River or behind the dams seasonally if BOR and farmers hadn’t developed the Klamath project.

• Fallacy: the Klamath Project and irrigators of the Basin are “wasting” water and can become more efficient.
• Truth: The Klamath Project irrigators are 97% efficient at the present time, as determined by studies by Cal Tech. It is one of the single most efficient irrigation systems in the US

• Fallacy: Oregon rate payers will subsidize Klamath Farmers.
• Truth: Oregon electric rate payers have been benefiting from, and will continue to benefit from cheap power rates due to the water provided for in stream flows down the Klamath.  Without the water provided by the Klamath irrigators to these hydro electric dams to operate, power would be more expensive and less available to the general public.

• Fallacy: This is a “secret tax” on Oregon families.
• Truth: This is a negotiated contract of 99 years duration and is in the public record. It is not secret.

• Fallacy: SB 81 is a raw deal for the environment.
• Truth: SB 81 provides continuing unheralded benefits for the environment through the
National Wildlife Refuges and for the myriad of wildlife existing in the irrigated areas of the Basin. In 2001, when irrigation was cut off to the Basin, the impact on wildlife was
profoundly devastating. This is a high desert area and without the irrigation water provided, hundreds of species will suffer irreparable harm.

• Fallacy: SB 81 is unfair.
• Truth: SB 81 is fair to PPL rate payers, by providing more and cheaper power
than if no water flowed down the Klamath. It is fair because it is a negotiated legal contract. It is fair because it provides adequate water for wildlife. It is fair because it is publicly disclosed. It is fair because the Klamath irrigators have utilized a maximum efficiency of 97% water usage in their system and cannot improve the system, according to the best scientific analysis in the world.

You can view the ONRC release at the following site: http://www.onrc.org/alerts/221.klamath.html

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Senator Doug Whitsett
Oregon State Capitol
900 Court Street NE, S-302
Salem, Oregon 97310