(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.
Issues of concern to people who live in the west: property rights, water rights, endangered species, livestock grazing, energy production, wilderness and western agriculture. Plus a few items on western history, western literature and the sport of rodeo... Frank DuBois served as the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003. DuBois is a former legislative assistant to a U.S. Senator, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior, and is the founder of the DuBois Rodeo Scholarship.
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1 comment:
Pacific Power told me that they do not want to remove the dams, but that they are part of the agreement that calls for dam removal. Removing the dams would be catastrophic to the Klamath River, eliminating flood control and water storage for summer release. Go figure!
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