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<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG><A
href="http://www.times-standard.com/Stories/0,1413,127%257E2896%257E2141144,00.html">http://www.times-standard.com/Stories/0,1413,127%257E2896%257E2141144,00.html</A></STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG>KLAMATH BASIN</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG>Reclamation crimps Klamath flows to 2002
levels</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG>Eureka Times-Standard -
5/11/04</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG>By John Driscoll, staff
writer</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<P><STRONG><U>A change in the amount of water that will be sent down the Klamath
River has prompted concerns from lower river communities that fear another fall
fish kill.</U></STRONG></P>
<P>The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has reworked its operation plan for the
summer, deeming the year "dry" instead of "below average." A lack of rain this
spring dropped the inflow of water to Upper Klamath Lake well below previously
expected levels. </P>
<P><STRONG><EM>The dry-year flows are the same as those during the fall of 2002,
when 34,000 salmon died. </EM></STRONG>The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
determined that year's run got trapped in the hot lower river, leaving them
susceptible to the diseases that killed them.</P>
<P><STRONG><U>The 3-year-old salmon that will return to the river this year are
the progeny of the 2001 run, when an estimated 200,000 young salmon died in the
spring. </U></STRONG></P>
<P>This year, a water bank is boosting flows from Iron Gate Dam during the
spring and summer months. Reclamation spokesman Jeff McCracken said 75,000 acre
feet has been purchased from farmers in the Upper Klamath basin, in keeping with
the biological opinion issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration. </P>
<P>But beginning in August, almost no additional water will supplement flows
some fear could again be lethal to migrating fish. </P>
<P>Flows from Iron Gate in August are now scheduled to be 581 cubic feet per
second, and in September 731 cfs. Flows in a below average year, for comparison,
would be 1,021 cfs in August and 1,168 in September. </P>
<P><EM><STRONG>"If we don't have a plan in place that's going to augment the
flow," said Humboldt County Supervisor Jimmy Smith, "when we get to the fall
we're going to be facing the same kind of horrible disaster we had two years
ago."</STRONG></EM></P>
<P>Regulations to limit the already tiny commercial take of salmon have been
tightened, with bag limits and the total number of fish taken commercially
reduced. </P>
<P>Fish managers also are watching anxiously to see how many 2-year-old salmon
-- called jacks -- return this year, the offspring of the 2002 run hit by the
fish kill. </P>
<P>A biologist with the Yurok Tribe said he had concerns with the flow schedule,
and was meeting with tribal officials Monday. The officials did not return the
Times-Standard's call by deadline. </P>
<P>Last year, Reclamation asked a federal district court judge overseeing a suit
on the Trinity River to free up 50,000 acre feet of water to stave off a fish
kill in the lower Klamath. Some credited the fall releases with protecting the
run of salmon. </P>
<P>The suit by Central Valley irrigator Westlands Water District has held up a
restoration plan for the Trinity River. Flows to that river, per order of the
9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, will be higher this spring than in years
past. </P>
<P>The big slug of water was scheduled by the Trinity Management Council, and
will be spent by mid-July. The council did not schedule releases in the
fall.</P>
<P><STRONG><EM>Reclamation's McCracken said he didn't know if the government
would go back to court to seek Trinity water to boost fall flows.
</EM></STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG><EM>On that front, Humboldt County has filed a complaint with the
State Water Resources Control Board, asking it to press Reclamation to honor a
45-year-old water contract for 50,000 acre feet, which the county has said it
would use to boost fall flows. #</EM></STRONG></P>
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