[env-trinity] Two Rivers Tribune Opinion- Felice Pace

[Tom Stokely]

http://www.tworiverstribune.com/2012/04/opinions-felice-pace-klamath-ca-7/ 
Opinions (Felice Pace–Klamath, CA)
By Felice Pace, Author of KlamBlog.blogspot.com

Who is responsible for 10,000 geese, ducks and other birds dying on Lower Klamath and Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuges this winter and spring? To read the local Herald and News – the Upper Klamath River Basin’s newspaper of record – one would think the event was the unfortunate consequence of a dry winter…an act of nature which humans could not prevent. That editorial position reflects spin which the Klamath Water Users Association and other “parties” to the KBRA Water Deal have put out in response to the deaths. But it does not reflect reality.

To find those responsible, we need to go back to the fall and winter of 2011.  The KBRA was newly signed and the National Marine Fisheries Service had recently issued a new Biological Opinion for Klamath Coho Salmon. The “Bi-Op” prescribes how much water the Bureau of Reclamation’s Klamath Irrigation Project must allow to flow in the Klamath River each month of the year. Bi-Op prescribed river flows closely reflect flows negotiated in the KBRA Water Deal; NMFS managers intentionally delayed the Bi-Op until the KBRA was finalized and signed.

Like the KBRA, the Bi-Op called for higher winter and spring Klamath River flows and lower summer and fall flows. BOR manager Jason Phillips was implementing the Bi-Op as written. That is until the Klamath Water Users Association (KWUA) and the Klamath County Chamber of Commerce (KCCC) launched a public campaign to pressure Phillips – a campaign which was reported by the Herald and News. KWUA and KCCC wanted Phillips to make filling Upper Klamath Lake early inthe year the Bureau’s top priority. Filling Upper Klamath Lake as early in the year as possible would result in maximum irrigation deliveries the following summer.

Under intense pressure, Jason Phillips went to the responsible NMFS manager – Irma Lagomarcino – for help. Lagomarcino agreed to cut winter flows in the Klamath to facilitate early filling of Upper Klamath Lake (UKL).  With that agreement in hand, Phillips was able to comply with the KWUA/KCCC demand.  In press releases and news reports, the BOR spun the new operational priority as necessary to provide for ESA-listed Lost River and Shortnose Sucker fish. However, the Sucker Bi-Op does not call for filling the lake early and prior to snowmelt as demanded by KWUA/KCCC.

Filling UKL early was easy in 2010 – a wet year – but not so easy this winter. Nevertheless, Phillips did not deviate from the priority demanded by Klamath Project irrigation interests.  In order to fill UKL before spring snow melt began, Phillips cut-off water to the Lower Klamath and Tule Lake Refuges for 2 ½ months beginning on January 2nd. That cut-off dried up 15,000 acres of wetlands resulting in severe overcrowding as 80 percent of Pacific Flyway birds stopped over in the Basin on their way north. Under those conditions, an epidemic of avian cholera was likely if not inevitable.

In a recently published news report, a BOR spokesperson claimed that Phillips and the rest of the BOR did not know about the bird deaths until mid-March. If that is true why didn’t refuge manager Ron Cole pick up the phone? And why didn’t the Klamath Basin Coordinating Council – set up as part of KBRA implementation specifically to deal with water conflicts – get involved?

The Karuk Tribe’s Craig Tucker and other promoters of the KBRA are now saying that the refuges were dewatered because KBRA legislation has not passed Congress. But the recent publication of a 106 page report detailing “progress” made implementing the KBRA puts the lie to that claim.  Hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars have already been expended implementing KBRA provisions.

The KBRA has been advertized as providing a new era of balanced water management; no longer, we were told, would one interest be sacrificed in order to advance another interest; the refuges were valued and would be cared for by Klamath

Project Irrigators. It is true that in this new KBRA era there is nothing that prevents irrigation interests and the BOR from making sure that the refuges are not sacrificed to maximize irrigation deliveries…nothing, that is, except the insistence of the Klamath’s Irrigation Elite that their interests be prioritized over all others. This new KBRA era is looking a lot like the good old days when federal irrigation was always the priority no matter what the consequences for fish and wildlife.

The Second Annual Report on KBRA implementation has a picture of Lower Klamath Wildlife refuge on its cover. We see the iconic view with thousands of snow geese and Mt. Shasta in the background. The report even has a section on the refuges which talks about “negotiations” with irrigation interests over refuge water rights in Oregon’s Klamath Adjudication.

My guess is those negotiations between federal irrigation interests and refuge folks were part of advancing another of the Irrigation Elite’s objectives – preventing the refuges from obtaining an independent water right under Oregon law and from using groundwater. That would effectively keep the refuges dependent on the BOR’s Klamath Project for a water supply.

Who is responsible for an estimated 10,000 bird deaths on Lower Klamath and Tule Lake Refuges? Now that you have the facts and not just the spin, I think you can decide for yourself.

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