<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=windows-1252">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.6000.16414" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>
<H1 style="MARGIN: 0pt"><?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:place w:st="on"><B><FONT
face=Tahoma size=4><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">KLAMATH
RIVER</SPAN></FONT></B></st1:place><FONT face=Tahoma size=4><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">:<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></H1>
<H1 style="MARGIN: 0pt"><B><FONT face=Tahoma size=4><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">Discord threatens <st1:place
w:st="on">Klamath River</st1:place> water talks; Klamath: Refuge farms 'a
deal-killer'<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></B></H1>
<H1 style="MARGIN: 0pt"><st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><B><FONT
face=Tahoma size=4><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">Sacramento</SPAN></FONT></B></st1:place></st1:City><FONT
face=Tahoma size=4><SPAN lang=EN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">
Bee – 8/12/07<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></H1>
<H1 style="MARGIN: 0pt"><B><FONT face=Tahoma size=4><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">By David Whitney, staff
writer</SPAN></FONT></B><FONT size=4><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></H1>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><st1:State w:st="on"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=4><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">WASHINGTON</SPAN></FONT></st1:State><FONT size=4><SPAN
lang=EN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"> -- When the House Natural Resources Committee
met in July to discuss whether Vice President Dick Cheney had improperly
interfered in the battle over <st1:place w:st="on">Klamath River</st1:place>
water, Republicans complained that the hearing could derail negotiations to
settle the heated farming vs. fish fight.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">"Let's do what's best for the fish, farmers, the tribes
and the fishermen," Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., pleaded, with fellow GOP Reps.
John Doolittle of Roseville and Wally Herger of Marysville sitting in solidarity
with him at the witness table. "Let's encourage them to find common ground, not
rub salt in old wounds when they are so close to an historic agreement of
enormous significance."<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">But as the projected November deadline for a deal moves
steadily nearer, environmental and Indian tribal leaders are raising concerns
that the pact that everyone so desperately wants is in danger of slipping away
because of what they see as political manipulation.
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">"Whatever comes out of these negotiations has to have a
scientific basis, rather than a political basis," said Clifford Lyle Marshall,
Hoopa Valley Tribe chairman. "There were political strings being pulled before
the negotiations started -- and they are still in
play."<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">Critics warn that the evolving 60-year agreement is
being shaped by Bush administration officials and is looking more and more like
a $250 million-plus gift to irrigators, assuring them of ample water and
subsidized power to pump it in exchange for a huge but possibly elusive
environmental victory -- knocking down four dams on the
river.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">The hydroelectric dams are owned by Portland, Ore.-based
PacifiCorp, which is no longer involved in the
talks.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">"PacifiCorp hasn't committed to anything," said Steve
Pedery, spokesman and conservation director for Oregon Wild, an environmental
group now excluded from the talks because it wouldn't sign on to a binding
23-page "settlement framework" in January.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">"The framework is what we had to agree to in order to
get a seat at the table with PacifiCorp," Pedery
said.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">Greg Addington, director of the Klamath Water Users
Association and a strong advocate of a negotiated settlement, said he was
disappointed that critics are beginning to go public before a deal is done. "I'd
hope that we could work these things out amongst ourselves and not in the
media," he said. But he added that even among irrigators there are "big
concerns," despite assurances of water and subsidized
power.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">"The certainty to irrigators is a value to us," he said.
"But it comes at a cost to us. It is not all roses for us. The settlement, if
implemented as it is today, will be painful for
us."<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">Alex Pitts, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service official,
declined comment, other than to say the talks are not being directed by the
administration.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">Some 26 groups are involved in the secret talks,
including representatives of state and federal agencies, local governments,
Indian tribes, environmental groups, irrigators and fishing organizations.
Participants have signed confidentiality pledges.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">The fight over Klamath water is a textbook example of a
conflict so complex and long-standing that the best promise for success is a
negotiated settlement.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">Farmers rely on the same water for irrigation that
fishermen and Indian tribes need for the health of fish, and in many years there
is too little of it.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">Complicating the tensions are federal laws protecting
endangered fish and nearly a century of federal policies that drained once-rich
wetlands for migratory birds and converted them into irrigation-dependent
farmland for homesteaders.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">The problems came to a head in 2001 when outraged
farmers had their water supply turned off during a prolonged drought to save
water for salmon runs.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">The tables turned in 2002 when water was restored to
farmers while reduced downriver flows of sun-heated water created ideal
conditions for the spread of a pathogen that killed an estimated 70,000
salmon.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">That massive die-off, the worst in <st1:country-region
w:st="on">U.S.</st1:country-region> history, led to a fishery disaster in 2005
and 2006 as commercial fleets along 700 miles of the <st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">Pacific</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Coast</st1:PlaceType>
were idled to protect the diminished <st1:place w:st="on">Klamath
River</st1:place> run.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">Settlement talks began in 2005, about the time
PacifiCorp applied to relicense its dams for up to 50 years. Environmentalists
want the dams removed to reopen the upper Klamath to
salmon.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">Several participants said hopes for a balanced agreement
began to fade last fall and accelerated with the settlement group's release of
the January framework. Among its many principles, the details of which are now
being negotiated, is a pledge to increase minimum water supplies for irrigators,
and protect farming operations on the 39,000-acre Tule Lake National Wildlife
Refuge, where costly pumping drains rich lake-bottom lands for
farming.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">Environmentalists long have opposed refuge farming,
saying places like <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">Tule</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType
w:st="on">Lake</st1:PlaceType></st1:place> should be allowed to return to their
natural wetlands state. "This was a deal-killer for us," said Pedery of Oregon
Wild. "This is an effort by the Bush administration to lock in agriculture in
the refuge."<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">Felice Pace of the Klamath Forest Alliance said the deal
is looking more and more like a bargain with the devil -- the promise of dam
removals in exchange for binding water rights for farmers. Also troubling is the
decision to virtually exclude <st1:State w:st="on">California</st1:State>'s
Scott and Shasta rivers from the talks even though irrigation demands on them
affect 35 percent of the water flowing down the <st1:place w:st="on">Klamath
River</st1:place>, Pace said.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">"When and if this settlement happens, the governors of
<st1:State w:st="on">Oregon</st1:State> and <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:State
w:st="on">California</st1:State></st1:place> will be there to declare the water
wars are over and the Klamath is fixed," Pace said. "But what commitments are
the states making? I'll be there to protest if the Scott and Shasta rivers are
on their current trajectory with no commitments to stop their dewatering."
#<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><A
href="">http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/321042.html</A><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>