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Klamath funds blocked; Walden tries alternative By JEFF BARNARD Prospects of appropriating $175 million within the 2002 farm bill for restoring water quality in the Klamath Basin appeared dead Friday, leaving lawmakers to seek other sources. U.S. House conferees rejected compromise language to earmark $175 million for Klamath Basin projects out of $750 million in water conservation funds, and insisted on a less specific way of directing spending, Josh Kardon, an aide to Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said from Portland. "It is a recipe for more one-sided underfunded government fumbling of the Klamath Basin situation," Kardon said. "They continue to insist on report language that does not have the force of law." While the major provisions of the farm bill have been settled by conferees, minor issues will be open to discussion into next week, Kardon said. U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Hood River, who did not support Wyden's efforts, said he was working on report language to insert in the farm bill directing the Department of Agriculture to send some of the $750 million in water conservation funds to the Klamath Basin. Walden said he recognized that report language does not have the force of law, but the White House has indicated in a preliminary way that it would follow it. Wyden and Walden had clashed over Wyden's efforts to send $175 million to the Klamath Basin for wetlands restoration and other projects to assure more water for both farms and wildlife after the federal government was forced to cut off water to farmers last summer to protect endangered fish. Wyden and Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., managed to insert the measure in the Senate version of the farm bill, but Walden suggested an alternative plan that was more palatable to farmers, which was never adopted by the House. Walden said Wyden's amendment fell victim to House leaders' desire to not earmark farm bill funding, so the Bush administration will have greater flexibility. Some federal funding for ecosystem restoration in the Klamath Basin is seen as necessary to meet the demands of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife's review of the impacts of the Klamath Reclamation Project irrigation system on endangered suckers living in Upper Klamath Lake. While stopping short of directing water cutbacks like last year, the agency's draft biological opinion released Thursday demands improvements in water quality and fish habitat. Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.