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<P class=MsoNormal><B><FONT face=Tahoma size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">Water forecast
poor for Klamath farmers, fish<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on"><B><FONT face=Tahoma size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">Napa</SPAN></FONT></B></st1:PlaceName><B><FONT
face=Tahoma size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"> <st1:PlaceType
w:st="on">Valley</st1:PlaceType></SPAN></FONT></B></st1:place><B><FONT
face=Tahoma size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"> News –
3/17/05<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><B><FONT face=Tahoma size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">By Jeff Barnard,
Associated Press</SPAN></FONT></B><B><FONT face=Tahoma size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></B></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal><st1:City w:st="on"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">GRANTS PASS</SPAN></FONT></st1:City><FONT size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">, <st1:State w:st="on">Ore.</st1:State> -- The water
forecast for the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">Klamath</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType
w:st="on">Basin</st1:PlaceType></st1:place> continues to worsen, with a skinny
snowpack that is quickly melting and little rain in sight, but federal
irrigation managers say they hope to meet most of their obligations for both
farms and endangered fish.<BR><BR>Snowpack in the mountains above the Klamath
Reclamation Project is 28 percent of normal, declining about 1 percent a day.
The latest forecast for water running into the primary reservoir serving the
federal irrigation system dropped by 20 percent the past two weeks to 210,000
acre-feet, Klamath project manager Dave Sabo said Wednesday.<BR><BR>"That is
putting us down into one of the three or four driest years on record since
1961," Sabo said.<BR><BR>The Klamath Reclamation Project serves about 1,400
farms on 180,000 acres straddling the Oregon-California border south of
<st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Klamath Falls</st1:place></st1:City>.
It has been the focus of intense political and legal battles between farmers,
commercial fishermen, Indian tribes, environmentalists and the Bush
administration over allocating limited water.<BR><BR>A 2001 drought led the U.S.
Bureau of Reclamation to shut off water to most of the project to meet
Endangered Species Act demands for fish. Though water was restored later in the
summer of 2001, the shutoff kicked off an uproar from farmers. Federal marshals
were called in to guard headgates where water to the main canal was shut
off.<BR><BR>"There will not be a shutoff this year," for the bulk of the
project, Sabo said. "I can say that with some definition."<BR><BR>However,
30,000 acres served by the Gerber and <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">Clear</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType
w:st="on">Lake</st1:PlaceType></st1:place> reservoirs on the east side of the
project may not get any water this year, though they got water in 2001.
Forecasts call for no water out of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">Clear</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType
w:st="on">Lake</st1:PlaceType></st1:place> and 50 percent of normal out of
Gerber Reservoir, Sabo said.<BR><BR>He is asking farmers on the remaining
150,000 acres served by <st1:place w:st="on">Upper Klamath Lake</st1:place> to
suggest ways to cut their water use by up to 20 percent when irrigation season
begins in April.<BR><BR>"Some farmers who may have been planning on planting new
fields may want to hold off this year," Sabo said. "Some who want to expand
production may not be able to."<BR><BR>The bureau is spending about $7.5 million
dollars on a water bank to assure 100,000 acre feet of water for endangered
suckers in Upper Klamath Lake and threatened coho salmon in the <st1:place
w:st="on">Klamath River</st1:place> under terms of the Endangered Species Act.
The water bank is filled by buying water from private wells and paying people to
leave their farmland dry.<BR><BR>Oregon Natural Resources Council spokesman
Steve Pedery complained that in the four years since the 2001 shutoff, nothing
has been done to significantly reduce water demand, such as buyouts or longterm
leases to idle farmland.<BR><BR>"Every year is a drought year for fish and
wildlife in the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">Klamath</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType
w:st="on">Basin</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>," Pedery said. "As bad as it is this
year for agriculture, it was just as bad last year for fish. We've promised too
much water to too many interests."<BR><BR>But Sabo said buying farmland to
permanently reduce water demand would not produce increased flows at the times
they would benefit fish, such as the spring, when juvenile salmon swim to the
ocean.<BR><BR>Bob Gasser, a fertilizer and pesticide supplier with the Klamath
Water Users Association, said <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Clear</st1:PlaceName>
<st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Lake</st1:PlaceType> was down because water was sent
down the <st1:place w:st="on">Klamath River</st1:place> two years ago for
salmon.<BR><BR>"It's going to be very tight," Gasser said. "... Drying up land
is the last option we like to see. But it is going to happen this year."
#<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
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