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<p><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-weight:bold'>Judge rejects Klamath farmers' water claim</span></font></b> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><a
href="http://www.kgw.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D8CB68JG0.html">http://www.kgw.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D8CB68JG0.html</a>
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>09/01/2005
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>By
WILLIAM McCALL / Associated Press <br>
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>A federal
judge on Wednesday rejected a $100 million claim by <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">Klamath</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">River Basin</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>
<br>
irrigators who argued the government owed them compensation for water diverted <br>
from agriculture in 2001 to protect salmon. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>U.S.
Court of Federal Claims Judge Francis M. Allegra called the claim
"unrealistic" and <br>
a "fantasy" in a 52-page opinion issued in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City
w:st="on">Washington</st1:City>, <st1:State w:st="on">D.C.</st1:State></st1:place>
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>He said
the irrigators had no property rights to the water, rejecting their argument
that <br>
diverting it for salmon amounted to an unconstitutional "taking" of
private property by <br>
the government. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"This
ruling is important because it rejects a pretty extreme view of property rights
and <br>
water law," said Todd True, an attorney for Earthjustice, an environmental
law firm <br>
involved in the case. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Roger
Marzulla, the attorney for the association, which represents about two dozen <br>
irrigators, said an appeal was likely. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"What's
wrong with this decision is it reverses 100 years of reclamation law,"
Marzulla <br>
said. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>He said
the ruling gives the federal government "absolute authority and control
over all <br>
irrigation in the West" — control that is "a very scary
prospect for farmers." <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>One of
the farmers leading the battle also called it a bad decision. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"I
would give you a bigger perspective that it is bad for <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region> when
citizens are <br>
deprived of the ability to make a living," said Lynn Long, a member of the
Klamath <br>
Water Users Association board of directors. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>He said
courts have been too liberal in interpreting property rights laws, causing <br>
problems for farmers and areas of the country that rely heavily on agriculture.
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"We
don't have a water crisis in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region>,
we have a judicial crisis," Long said. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>True,
however, said the ruling reflects a more mainstream legal view about property <br>
rights. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"Water
is a resource that has to be shared and does not belong to one group,"
True said. <br>
"And there has to be a fair balance about how it's used." <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Deciding
how to manage and allocate water has been a difficult problem in the <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Klamath</st1:PlaceName> <br>
<st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Basin</st1:PlaceType></st1:place> ever since the
Klamath Project to reclaim farm land was first authorized by <br>
Congress in 1905. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The U.S.
Bureau of Reclamation must balance the needs of endangered sucker fish in <br>
Upper Klamath Lake and threatened coho salmon in the Klamath River with more
than <br>
1,000 farms in the Klamath Reclamation District, a sprawling area which lies in
the dry <br>
highlands east of the Cascade Range along the <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">California</st1:place></st1:State> border. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Allegra
ruled that fishermen and American Indian tribes also had to be considered by <br>
federal water managers, along with fish and wildlife — key arguments by
the <br>
government and the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, which
was <br>
allowed to intervene in the case and represented by Earthjustice. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The
federation and Earthjustice also argued that requiring payment for water used
to <br>
protect threatened or endangered species could undermine the Endangered Species
Act <br>
by making it too costly to enforce. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Allegra
said the irrigators may have a contractual claim to the water, but suggested
the <br>
case was weak and they "face an uphill battle." <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The
Klamath Water Users Association orginally had claimed irrigators were owed $1 <br>
billion in compensation for the diversions water that sent about a third of
their allotted <br>
water to help threatened coho salmon in 2001. The association later reduced
that claim <br>
to $100 million. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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