Left high and dry in the Klamath Basin?

The Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement has been much celebrated as the solution to decades of conflict over Klamath Basin water. Surely no one can object when competing interests, stakeholders we now call them, reach agreement. Well, at least a few people do object, and for good reason. Roger Nicholson and his neighbors have vested water rights the agreement will likely obliterate, yet they were excluded from the negotiations. Even if he had been allowed to participate, Nicholson would have been a mere stakeholder with rights no better than the guy from Portland who just doesn't like alfalfa where native grasses once grew. Nicholson's family settled in the Klamath Basin in 1891 and acquired water rights under Oregon law. If water rights were cards in a deck, he'd be holding kings, if not aces. Under Oregon law, when water is short, senior rights owners have priority over juniors. But notwithstanding his high cards, Nicholson is at risk of losing everything. He estimates that he and his neighbors have wagered more than a million dollars on litigation, yet now they could be put out of business. Without water, they are doomed. In poker parlance, they are "all in." They had no other choice...read more