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<P style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 3px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span face="Trebuchet MS"
color=#221f20 size=5><SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="FONT-SIZE: 17px"><B><A
href="http://www.northcoastjournal.com/issues/2008/05/22/drying/">http://www.northcoastjournal.com/issues/2008/05/22/drying/</A></B></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 3px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span face="Trebuchet MS"
color=#221f20 size=5><SPAN class=Apple-style-span
style="FONT-SIZE: 17px"><B></B></SPAN></FONT> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 3px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span face="Trebuchet MS"
color=#221f20 size=5><SPAN class=Apple-style-span
style="FONT-SIZE: 17px"><B>Drying Up</B></SPAN></FONT></P>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span face="Trebuchet MS"
color=#221f20 size=3><SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="FONT-SIZE: 11px">By
Hank Sims</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 6px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span face="Trebuchet MS"
color=#221f20>Is the Klamath Settlement Agreement dying? Not yet, but the
proposal to end years of one of the West's most vitriolic water wars isn't
looking too healthy right now. For the last couple of years, fishermen and
environmentalists and Indians and farmers sat around a table, trying to reach an
agreement that would share Klamath water, and to improve the overall health of
the river. They wanted to avoid the water shutdown of 2001, in which upstream
farmers were deprived of the ability to irrigate their crops in order to save
fish. And they wanted to avoid the fish kill of 2002, in which as many as 70,000
salmon died in the river in order to save the crops.</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 6px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span face="Trebuchet MS"
color=#221f20>Given all the vitriol that preceded the settlement talks, it is
remarkable that two of the major antagonists in the battle — the farmers and
(most of) the Native Americans — were able to find common ground. The settlement
they came to would institute an on-the-ground management team that would control
river flows at any given moment, within certain bounds set up by the agreement.
It seeks to account for nearly all of the species and interest groups that use
the river — not only the coho and chinook salmon and the people who depend on
them, but the upstream sturgeon, suckerfish and farmers as well. The agreement
is supposed to go to Congress with the support of all the interest groups, who
will be vigorously lobbying to make its provisions law.</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 6px"><SPAN class=Apple-style-span
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span face="Trebuchet MS"
color=#221f20><SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal">Now,
though, there are two hold-ups. For one, the agreement hinges on another
agreement. The groups involved are petitioning investor </SPAN></FONT><FONT
class=Apple-style-span face="Trebuchet MS" color=#221f20><SPAN
class=Apple-style-span style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><B>Warren
Buffett</B></SPAN></FONT><FONT class=Apple-style-span face="Trebuchet MS"
color=#221f20><SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal">, the
world's richest man, to agree to remove the four hydropower dams his PacifiCorp
company owns on the Klamath. PacifiCorp is under a court order to provide for
fish passage past the dams, and studies have shown that it would be cheaper in
the long run to remove them altogether and return much of the Klamath to the
wild. But PacifiCorp is nowhere to be seen. The settlement group has been
waiting two months for a promised PacificCorp status report on the dams, and
many are giving up hope that it will ever arrive.</SPAN></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 6px"><SPAN class=Apple-style-span
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span face="Trebuchet MS"
color=#221f20><SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal">Just as
troubling, parts of the coalition that sat around the table, hammering out that
agreement, are now crumbling. Unlike the </SPAN></FONT><FONT
class=Apple-style-span face="Trebuchet MS" color=#221f20><SPAN
class=Apple-style-span
style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><B>Karuk</B></SPAN></FONT><FONT
class=Apple-style-span face="Trebuchet MS" color=#221f20><SPAN
class=Apple-style-span style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal">, the </SPAN></FONT><FONT
class=Apple-style-span face="Trebuchet MS" color=#221f20><SPAN
class=Apple-style-span
style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><B>Yurok</B></SPAN></FONT><FONT
class=Apple-style-span face="Trebuchet MS" color=#221f20><SPAN
class=Apple-style-span style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"> and the upstream
</SPAN></FONT><FONT class=Apple-style-span face="Trebuchet MS"
color=#221f20><SPAN class=Apple-style-span
style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><B>Klamath</B></SPAN></FONT><FONT
class=Apple-style-span face="Trebuchet MS" color=#221f20><SPAN
class=Apple-style-span style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"> tribes, the
</SPAN></FONT><FONT class=Apple-style-span face="Trebuchet MS"
color=#221f20><SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><B>Hoopa
Valley Tribe</B></SPAN></FONT><FONT class=Apple-style-span face="Trebuchet MS"
color=#221f20><SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"> has
refused to sign on, concerned that the agreement does not offer enough
guaranteed protection for salmon. Two Oregonian environmental groups departed
company from the settlement coalition last year, saying that the Bush
administration had hijacked the process and guaranteed farmers too
much.</SPAN></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 6px"><SPAN class=Apple-style-span
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span face="Trebuchet MS"
color=#221f20><SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal">Now, the
local </SPAN></FONT><FONT class=Apple-style-span face="Trebuchet MS"
color=#221f20><SPAN class=Apple-style-span
style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><B>Northcoast Environmental</B></SPAN></FONT><FONT
class=Apple-style-span face="Trebuchet MS" color=#221f20><SPAN
class=Apple-style-span style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"> </SPAN></FONT><FONT
class=Apple-style-span face="Trebuchet MS" color=#221f20><SPAN
class=Apple-style-span
style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><B>Center</B></SPAN></FONT><FONT
class=Apple-style-span face="Trebuchet MS" color=#221f20><SPAN
class=Apple-style-span style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"> has dropped out, and with
the stakes this high that's led to some immense frustration. "I just felt like
the NEC has shot from the hip, and they became critical of the agreement before
they did their homework," said Karuk Tribe spokesperson </SPAN></FONT><FONT
class=Apple-style-span face="Trebuchet MS" color=#221f20><SPAN
class=Apple-style-span style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><B>Craig
Tucker</B></SPAN></FONT><FONT class=Apple-style-span face="Trebuchet MS"
color=#221f20><SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"> last
week.</SPAN></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 6px"><SPAN class=Apple-style-span
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span face="Trebuchet MS"
color=#221f20><SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal">After the
agreement was published, the NEC hired two scientists to review it. The
conclusion they came to was that it contained insufficient protections for
salmon runs. After the group received the scientists' report, they pulled out of
the agreement. But that seemed to fly in the face of the science that had gone
into drafting the report, and earlier this month the parties to the agreement
held a "science summit" to address the NEC scientists' concerns. One of the two
scientists recanted, especially after Dr. </SPAN></FONT><FONT
class=Apple-style-span face="Trebuchet MS" color=#221f20><SPAN
class=Apple-style-span style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><B>Thomas
Hardy</B></SPAN></FONT><FONT class=Apple-style-span face="Trebuchet MS"
color=#221f20><SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal">, widely
acknowledged as the most knowledgeable person on the Klamath system, endorsed
the settlement. The other of the NEC's scientist had not yet changed his view,
and the NEC is holding out for his follow-up report before reconsidering its
position.</SPAN></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 6px"><SPAN class=Apple-style-span
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span face="Trebuchet MS"
color=#221f20><SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal">There's a
lot of hard feelings right now. NEC Executive Director </SPAN></FONT><FONT
class=Apple-style-span face="Trebuchet MS" color=#221f20><SPAN
class=Apple-style-span style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><B>Greg
King</B></SPAN></FONT><FONT class=Apple-style-span face="Trebuchet MS"
color=#221f20><SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"> said
last week that the stakes are too high not to be absolutely certain. "We can't
have the fish on the brink of extinction year after year," he said. He said that
his organization, like Hoopa Valley, would like to see guaranteed amounts of
water for salmon, and also an end to farming in wildlife refuges in the upper
basin.</SPAN></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 6px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span face="Trebuchet MS"
color=#221f20>But Tucker — while insisting that he still respects the NEC — said
that the group had plenty of opportunities to bring any concerns to the table
while the agreement was being hashed out, and failed to do so. Now time has run
out, and the stakes on the river are too high for quibbling.</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 6px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span face="Trebuchet MS"
color=#221f20>"I wouldn't say it's not their place to bring up a concern,"
Tucker said. "But, shit, they had two years."</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 6px"><FONT face="Trebuchet MS"
color=#221f20></FONT> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 6px"><FONT face="Trebuchet MS" color=#221f20><A
href="http://www.northcoastjournal.com/issues/2008/05/29/kings-salmon/">http://www.northcoastjournal.com/issues/2008/05/29/kings-salmon/</A></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 6px"> </P>
<H2>King's Salmon</H2>
<P>By North Coast Journal Readers</P>
<DIV id=article_body>
<P>Editor: </P>
<P>The Karuk Tribe’s representative Craig Tucker has been making the rounds,
both on the media front and in the rumor mill, to discredit the Northcoast
Environmental Center’s position on Klamath dam settlement talks. <A
href="http://www.northcoastjournal.com/issues/2008/05/22/drying/">(“Town Dandy,”
May 22)</A> </P>
<P>Tucker’s pitch is unfortunate. He contends that the NEC has had “two years”
to bring up our concerns. He says we “shot from the hip” and “didn’t do (our)
homework” before stating our position. Tucker knows these statements are untrue.
</P>
<P>First, two years is a short time to craft an agreement of this magnitude. The
settlement group has been through 11 drafts of the agreement, and we’ve been
waiting three months for draft 12 to see what, if any, of the NEC’s proposed
changes — the result of real homework — have actually made it into the
Agreement. </P>
<P>Obviously the NEC has not “dropped out” of the settlement process, as I made
clear to Hank Sims when we spoke on this point. We attend every three-day
meeting held by the settlement group, and we continue to stretch our budget to
pay scientists and lawyers to identify and correct some of the potentially
devastating elements of the settlement agreement. This effort has resulted in a
thorough vetting of the scientific assumptions contained in the agreement, in
essence compelling federal scientists to do more of their own homework to
provide the settlement group with a full set of environmental documents, which
has occurred during the last month. </P>
<P>Problems remain. The only water guarantee in the Settlement Agreement goes to
Upper Basin farmers. Water for fish? Sorry, no guarantees. There’s no minimum
flow requirement to protect fish. Meanwhile, under the agreement the ag
allocation in dry years could reach 40,000 acre feet <EM>more</EM> than the
amount currently allowed under a court-imposed biological opinion issued to
protect Coho salmon. Even if we had a dam removal deal in front of us today
those dams wouldn’t come down for another 15 to 20 years, quite possibly longer.
(And of course we still have no agreement with PacifiCorp.) What will happen in
the interim? The guaranteed allocation for farmers with dams still in could
result in another disastrous fish kill. </P>
<P>In addition, the agreement insists that all parties support
chemical-intensive farming in the Klamath National Wildlife Refuge, something
the NEC has always opposed. Last year two settlement parties that objected to
these provisions — Oregon Wild and WaterWatch — were ejected from the
negotiations. (They didn’t “depart company,” as Sims wrote.) </P>
<P>This is not some kumbaya moment. Klamath settlement has been a hardcore
negotiating process, often dominated by upriver irrigators, their skillful (and
well-paid) Sacramento attorney and the Bush administration. The NEC has hung in
there and insisted on good science and water for fish, as our 6,000 members
expect. We do not appreciate Craig Tucker’s almost daily issuance of
misinformation about our work. We need to work together to get those dams out,
and to provide fish with the water they need. </P>
<P><EM>Greg King, Executive Director, Northcoast Environmental Center</EM>
</P></DIV>
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