Klamath Basin water users, embroiled for months in a bitter dispute with the federal government over a cutoff of water deliveries, have called a truce because of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. "We realized that the national emergency takes precedence over our cause," said Bill Ransom, a leader of Klamath Relief Fund, the group that led many of the protests.
"We have a national crisis," added Debra Crisp, executive director of a group representing farmers near Tulelake, Modoc County.
"We've all got to come together and do whatever we can to support our country. We disagree with what's happened here in Klamath, but we're still Americans." Protesters removed their encampment near the Klamath Project's headgates.
Meanwhile, a class action lawsuit was filed last month in Siskiyou County Superior Court in Yreka. The suit alleges environmental and fishing groups conspired to use false information in litigation that led to the Interior Department's decision earlier this year to deny irrigation water deliveries to Klamath Basin farmers. The action was taken under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) to help endangered sucker fish and threatened coho salmon.
Walnut Creek attorney Robert Hannon filed the suit on behalf of about 1,400 farmers and landowners. The complaint alleges the environmental groups overstated the risk of low water to coho salmon and sucker fish. Hannon was quoted in news reports as saying "The facts that were presented to the court were wrong. It's a sham. They are doing this as a furtherance of their scheme to convert a lot of land to the public."
Denying the assertion was Todd True, an Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund lawyer who represented environmental groups in federal court litigation against the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in a U.S. District Court in Oregon. "They appear to be a recycling of claims that were made in litigation by the irrigators in federal court in Eugene," said True. "And the court, as it should have, rejected the claims there."
A Klamath Project water run that began belatedly in late July came to an end August 21 to the bitter dismay of residents. As the A Canal gates were closed in predawn darkness, shouts of protests were directed at federal workers. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation took apart the operating mechanism. Bureau of Land Management rangers guarded the installation. About 70,000 acre feet of water authorized by Interior Secretary Gale Norton were released. Most came too late to help save crops although pasture lands were aided.
The brief water run's conclusion was accompanied by an upsurge of protests and aid in California and Oregon in support of the Klamath farmers' plight. Convoys of trucks and other vehicles descended upon the Klamath Falls, Oregon, area from the San Joaquin Valley, and other parts of California and the West. San Joaquin Valley rallies were held in support of Klamath farmers in Tulare at the Heritage Complex and in Fresno at the Fresno County Farm Bureau. More than $6,000 was raised in Tulare by auction of donated merchandise and services within less than an hour to aid Klamath Basin farmers who lost all or part of their crops as a result of this year's irrigation supply curtailment.
"If reallocation of water rights can happen to them, it can happen to us," Tulare County Farm Bureau President Kerry Whitson said.
http://www.fwua.org/Waterline/2001/sept01/Klamath_(Revised).pdf