Editorial - Congress must act on Klamath water issues

(Klamath) Basin water issues remain unsettled and time is quickly slipping away.

Think things can't get worse? They can. And if there isn't a serious enough push from the local area to move the water settlement legislation in Congress, they will.

Several years have been spent developing good will among those who speak for irrigators and tribes and other water users. That resulted in the legislation pending in Congress. Things need to move. If not, what happens next? What happens after 2014?

While leaders of the various groups have the general support of those they represent, that support isn't unanimous and that applies to both the Tribes and irrigators. There is pressure from within to come up with results.

The Klamath Tribes agreed this year not to fully enforce the water rights granted them by the state. That left more water this year for those on the 240,000-acre Klamath Reclamation Project, who had negotiated a separate water agreement with the Tribes. How long the agreement lasts is up to the Tribes.

Water is the Basin's lifeblood, but Basin farmers and ranchers, who are part of an industry that produced $290 million in Klamath County sales last year, don't control the water. It was over-promised many decades ago, tribal treaties were largely disregarded and there was no such thing as the Endangered Species Act.

The treaties are now being enforced, most noticeably through adjudication that awarded the highest-priority water rights to the Klamath Tribes. Environmental concerns are now a major part of water management and there are endangered fish species at both ends of the river.

Other key points

Can there be an overall agreement on water allocations in the Basin without dam removal?
The answer's simple: No.

PacifiCorp owns the four dams on the Klamath River targeted for elimination. Their removal is inextricably woven into the fabric of the agreements pending in Congress. PacifiCorp has already said it wants to remove the dams, rather than make improvements, which would mean less power at a higher cost. Oregon and California public utility commissions in Oregon and California have given their approval.

Ratepayers have already begun paying a charge for dam removal through a 2 percent surcharge with a cap of $200 million for ratepayers.

It's worth remembering, too, that private enterprise built the dams, private enterprise ran them and private enterprise wants to remove them.

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