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Debating a diversion Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell Hyatt reservoir water levels are checked from a platform jutting out from the 1924 dam. Hyatt is one of the sources of water reserves that come from within the Klamath Basin but are diverted to the Rogue Basin to irrigate crops. Several groups suffering from drought in the Klamath Basin are eyeing the reserves, but local farmers say losing them would devastate the valley's $14 million pear industry. Many farmers in the Rogue Valley depend on water that originates in the Klamath Basin. But the drought in the Klamath has some folks east of the Cascades thinking that water should be theirs. By PAUL FATTIG Anyone thirsty for the water reserves stored in Howard Prairie and Hyatt reservoirs had better be mighty parched, warns Ron Meyer. Local farmers won't let it go without a vigorous fight, says the third-generation Rogue Valley pear grower. "We will fight like wildcats," said Meyer, who is also a board member of the Talent Irrigation District. "We don't have any extra water to give away." The water reserves are stored in the two reservoirs on the Dead Indian Plateau and in the Fourmile reservoir northeast of Fish Lake. All are east of the Cascade Divide; the water comes from within the Klamath Basin but is diverted through a series of canals to the Rogue Basin. A portion of the water flowing into Howard Prairie comes from the Rogue Basin drainage. The diverted water is vital to local orchardists, farmers and others dependent on irrigation water, said TID Manager Jim Pendleton. "That Klamath water wouldn't have been there if it weren't for our storage reservoirs," he said. "That's our stored water we're talking about." No one yet is making overt threats about reclaiming the nearly 30,000 acre-feet of stored water, which has been diverted annually for much of the past century out of the high-elevation reservoirs that store winter water. But the water war brewing in the Klamath Basin, sparked by a severe drought, could spill into the Rogue Valley. "We'd really like to see that diverted water back over here on this side," said Allen Foreman, chairman of the Klamath Tribes, basin inhabitants for thousands of years. The diverted water hasn't been forgotten, acknowledged Tessa Stuedli, executive director of the Klamath Water Users Association. "But we haven't taken a stand on whether to get that water back as of yet," she added. Nor has the Klamath Irrigation District, said district Manager Dave Solem. "But the federal government is expanding its view, and looking at all the water that impacts fish," he said. "Everybody in the West had better be concerned about what is happening over here." To help threatened coho salmon and endangered suckers survive the drought in the basin, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced early this month that it is cutting off irrigation water to hundreds of Klamath Basin farmers who depend on water from the nearly century-old Klamath Reclamation Project. As a result, about 90 percent of the Klamath Basin farmers, many of whom grow potatoes, will be left high and dry on 170,000 acres this year. That action was largely the result of a lawsuit brought last year by conservation groups and commercial fishermen who charged that the bureau had been violating the Endangered Species Act by not protecting the fish. A federal court judge decided in favor of the plaintiffs early this month. The suckers were declared an endangered species in 1988; the salmon were declared threatened in 1997. While the diverted water would flow into the Klamath River through Jenny Creek, well below the Klamath Reclamation Project, those who are eyeing it say it would augment the river flow, relieving the pressure on upstream water. In addition to an agricultural industry estimated to be worth more than $100 million annually, the basin is the home of vast national wildlife refuges and wetlands that support a rich variety of birds and fish. The basin supports the largest population of wintering bald eagles in North America, one of 260 bird species that rely on the basin's wetlands for survival. In conjunction with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other agencies, the bureau is taking a long look at how water is being allocated in the Klamath Basin - including the reserves that hold water diverted from the Klamath Basin. It would be unfair to Rogue Valley residents to deny them the diverted water, said Meyer, whose grandparents began growing pears in the Rogue Valley in 1910. Although he is semi-retired, he continues to grow pears and peaches on 110 acres. Local farmers, with the aid of Uncle Sam, helped build the complex water delivery system whose water rights go back to 1912, he said. "We have created something they would not have naturally," he said. "It's a fairly simple scenario as far as we see it. It's our water. It's critical to us. "Besides, our water would barely wet their ditches," he noted. TID Manager Pendleton, noting that the district normally receives about 20 percent of its water from the diverted storage, concurred. "It would make a huge difference to us if we didn't have that water," he said. The irrigation-dependent Rogue Valley pear industry alone is valued at about $14 million and covers about 8,000 acres, Meyer said. "The pear market is extremely tough now," he said, noting that local pears compete with those grown around the world. "But it all goes back to water," he said. "No water, no pears. We don't have any options. There is no other source. What we have is all we're going to get." In a normal water year, nearly 30,000 acre-feet of stored water is diverted from the Klamath Basin into the irrigation ditches feeding the TID, the Medford Irrigation District and the Rogue River Irrigation District, according to a bureau study. That includes an average 24,200 acre-feet from Howard Prairie and Hyatt reservoirs from the Jenny Creek drainage, which flows into the TID. However, more than half of that stored behind Howard Prairie dam comes from the Rogue drainage. Another 6,200 acre-feet from the Fourmile reservoir drainage in the Klamath Basin is diverted into Fish Lake, then flows into the north fork of Little Butte Creek to the MID and RRID. About 30 percent of that water is lost during conveyance, dropping the net transfer to Fish Lake to about 4,500 acre-feet, according to the bureau. But this isn't an average water year. Last month, Gov. John Kitzhaber declared a state of drought emergency in Klamath County. Only about 6,500 acre-feet of stored water that would otherwise run into the Klamath drainage will flow into the Rogue River drainage this year, estimated Richard Prange, a Bureau of Reclamation employee based in its Boise office. "It varies a little each year, but this is a very dry year," Prange said. "We're just not going to have the water we usually have." Evidence of the drought can be seen from the Howard Prairie dam, observed Richard Kerby, dam tender for the TID. "Ideally, we would want it to be spilling out the spillway now," Kerby said. "Instead, we're way down. This is not where we would like to see it." The water level is currently about 60 percent of normal in Howard Prairie reservoir, which can hold some 60,000 acre-feet. The story is the same at nearby Hyatt reservoir, also in the Klamath Basin, which holds about 16,000 acre-feet when brim full. Meanwhile, Klamath Basin irrigators have filed a lawsuit against the bureau, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service, claiming the federal government has failed to protect irrigators' contract rights. That lawsuit will be heard in federal court in Eugene on Friday. But even if the Endangered Species Act didn't exist, there still wouldn't be sufficient water to meet all the water needs this year, said Wendell Wood, regional field representative for the Oregon Natural Resource Council, an environmental watchdog group. "The water is over appropriated," he said. "There is an abundance of potatoes. There isn't an abundance of salmon." While the amount diverted into the Rogue drainage is small compared to the 350,000 acre-feet of water normally allotted to Klamath farmers, it is an important part of the debate, Wood said. "The water diverted into the Rogue Basin is a small part of the pie, but it still has to be factored in," he said. "We're hoping the bureau's process will adequately address the needs of the wildlife refuges and all the economies involved." Those economies include the fishing industry along the Northern California and Southern Oregon coasts, which depends on chinook salmon from the Klamath River, he said. "The ONRC's goal is to restore the normative function of the Klamath wetlands," he said. "We're not threatening any legal actions. But we would like to see the process of laws succeed." Bob Hunter, staff attorney for the WaterWatch environmental group, agreed. "We have over-allocated and over-promised that water," he said. "It's way out of balance. Our belief is that we need to restore that balance. "Some water is going to have to come out of agriculture production," he added. "There is no other way to do it if we're going to have a healthy river and wildlife system." The federal government as well as state officials must step in to ensure the delivery system is accountable, he added. "There also has to be a sharing of responsibility to meet the downstream flows," he added. "At some point in time, the Rogue Basin could be impacted." Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.