I've owned a house in Klamath county for 3 years now and lived here full time since last October. I still don't really get all of the nuances of the water situation here. On the one hand, you have...
I've owned a house in Klamath county for 3 years now and lived here full time since last October. I still don't really get all of the nuances of the water situation here. On the one hand, you have the need to keep the water level in Upper Klamath lake high enough to support the sucker fish, which are important to the local tribes' traditional way of life, but on the other hand the lake is so polluted by upstream agricultural runoff that you virtually never see boats or other recreation on the lake, and mass die offs following algae blooms are common.
I don't see what realistic option there is besides moving agriculture out of the dry climates in California and Oregon. There just isn't enough water to support it anymore.
On Wednesday, the Bureau of Reclamation, which operates the 114-year-old Klamath water project, announced that for the first time ever, the “A” canal will be closed for the season – meaning no water will be drawn from Upper Klamath Lake for irrigators in the federally-managed Klamath Project.
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Reclamation cited the need to maintain a minimal level in the lake to protect two endangered species of sucker fish which are of deep importance to the Klamath Tribes.
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The effects of nearly all the baby salmon in the river being killed off are likely to be far-reaching, and extend up and down the Oregon and California coastlines.
“We are wiping out an entire year class of not only (Endangered Species Act) listed coho but Chinook salmon, which are really the workhorse of the salmon fishery,” Tucker said.
That’s the road to extinction, said Glen Spain, northwest regional director for the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, which represents small and medium-sized commercial fishing operations.
“We’re dealing with three simultaneous crises - Upper Basin, Middle Basin, and lower Basin and coast,” Spain told Jefferson Public Radio.
“And the coastal problem is that we’ve got a complete closure from the California salmon fishery because of weak salmon stocks coming back to the Klamath,” he added.
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Klamath Project irrigators can be compensated for their losses and the process could start next month.
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But government money to try to ease the pain of at least some of the people who stand to lose by the growing shortage of water in the Klamath Basin will only go so far. The climate trends are all headed in the direction of deeper and more frequent drought, less snowpack and less water in the system. And there are few plausible plans for somehow getting the one thing everyone who depends on the Basin needs; a reliable, adequate supply of water.
I've owned a house in Klamath county for 3 years now and lived here full time since last October. I still don't really get all of the nuances of the water situation here. On the one hand, you have the need to keep the water level in Upper Klamath lake high enough to support the sucker fish, which are important to the local tribes' traditional way of life, but on the other hand the lake is so polluted by upstream agricultural runoff that you virtually never see boats or other recreation on the lake, and mass die offs following algae blooms are common.
I don't see what realistic option there is besides moving agriculture out of the dry climates in California and Oregon. There just isn't enough water to support it anymore.
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