<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:14pt"><div class="" style=""><a href="http://www.times-standard.com/localnews/ci_26283839/feds-cut-off-irrigation-some-klamath-project-farms" class="" style="">http://www.times-standard.com/localnews/ci_26283839/feds-cut-off-irrigation-some-klamath-project-farms</a><br class="" style=""></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 19px; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; " class=""><span class="" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; "><h1 id="articleTitle" class="" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 11.326px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.2; color: inherit;
text-rendering: optimizelegibility; font-size: 33px; white-space: normal !important; ">Feds cut off irrigation to some Klamath Project farms</h1><div id="articleSubTitle" class="" style="text-align: left; color: rgb(85, 85, 85); font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif !important; text-transform: none; -webkit-user-select: text; font-size: 20px; font-weight: bold !important; ">Decision comes a day after ending fish-kill preventative releases</div><div id="articleByline" class="" style="text-align: left; font-weight: normal; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: italic; font-size: 14px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 11.326px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/20px 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: italic; font-size: 14px; " class="">By Jeff Barnard</div><div
style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 11.326px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/20px 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: italic; font-size: 14px; " class="">The Associated Press</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 11.326px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/20px 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: italic; font-size: 14px; " class="">and Will Houston</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 11.326px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/20px 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: italic; font-size: 14px; " class=""><a href="mailto:whouston@times-standard.com" style="color: rgb(82, 120, 174);
text-decoration: none; -webkit-transition-property: initial; -webkit-transition-duration: 0.1s; -webkit-transition-timing-function: ease-out; -webkit-transition-delay: initial; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; " class="">whouston@times-standard.com</a> @Will_S_Houston on Twitter</div></div><div id="articleDate" class="" style="text-align: left; font: normal normal normal 10px/16.989px 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(128, 128, 128); text-transform: uppercase; white-space: nowrap; ">POSTED: 08/05/2014 10:58:53 PM PDT<a href="http://www.times-standard.com/localnews/ci_26283839/feds-cut-off-irrigation-some-klamath-project-farms#disqus_thread" data-disqus-identifier="ci_26283839" style="color: rgb(128, 128, 128); text-decoration: none; -webkit-transition-property: initial; -webkit-transition-duration: 0.1s; -webkit-transition-timing-function: ease-out; -webkit-transition-delay: initial; float: right; " class="">0
COMMENTS</a></div><div id="articleDate" class="" style="text-align: left; font: normal normal normal 10px/16.989px 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(128, 128, 128); text-transform: uppercase; white-space: nowrap; ">UPDATED: 08/05/2014 10:58:53 PM PDT</div><br class="" style=""><span fd-type="start" fd-id="default" class="" style=""></span><div class="" style="text-align: left; "></div><span fd-type="end" fd-id="default" class="" style=""></span><div id="articleBody" class="" style="text-align: left; font: normal normal normal 15px/normal Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 22.652px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><div class="" id="articleViewerGroup" style="text-align: left; float: right; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; "><span class="" style="text-align: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px;
margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; "></span><span fd-type="start" fd-id="default" class="" style=""></span><span fd-type="end" fd-id="default" class="" style=""></span></div><span fd-type="start" fd-id="default" class="" style=""></span><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 11.326px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 15px/normal Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif !important; line-height: 22.652px !important; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); " class=""><b style="font-weight: bold; " class="">GRANTS PASS, ORE. >></b> In a decision similar to last week's cessation of releases to the lower Klamath and Trinity rivers, water is being cut off to about one-third of the farms on a federal irrigation project in the drought-parched Klamath Basin of Oregon and California.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 11.326px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 15px/normal Georgia,
'Times New Roman', Times, serif !important; line-height: 22.652px !important; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); " class="">A July 31 letter from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to irrigation districts says that the flows into the Klamath Reclamation Project's primary reservoir have been below pre-season forecasts from the Natural Resources Conservation Service, forcing a reduction in releases to districts with junior claims on water in order to meet minimum water levels for endangered fish. The letter was signed by bureau Klamath Area Manager Sheryl L. Franklin.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 11.326px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 15px/normal Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif !important; line-height: 22.652px !important; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); " class="">The letter came a day after the bureau announced it would end fish-kill preventative releases to the lower Klamath and Trinity rivers from Trinity Lake,
and would only release water in an emergency situation — when fish sicken or die. The water will instead be released from the Lewiston Dam to the Sacramento River and Clear Creek tributary to protect federally endangered salmon as part of the bureau's Central Valley Project. The bureau had performed releases to the lower Klamath and Trinity rivers four times since 2003 to aid chinook salmon and steelhead during warm, low-water periods after a massive fish kill occurred on the Klamath River in 2002.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 11.326px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 15px/normal Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif !important; line-height: 22.652px !important; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); " class="">A population survey conducted in July on the Salmon River, a tributary of the Klamath River, found 54 dead adult chinook salmon and steelhead along with hundreds of dead juveniles.</div><div
style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 11.326px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 15px/normal Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif !important; line-height: 22.652px !important; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); " class="">Regarding the bureau's reasoning behind curtailing the Klamath and Trinity rivers pre-emptive releases, Karuk Tribe Klamath Coordinator Craig Tucker said he is not convinced.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 11.326px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 15px/normal Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif !important; line-height: 22.652px !important; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); " class="">"The divide of water that is being requested for the Trinity releases, relative to how much is being diverted to the Central Valley, is not nearly as much," Tucker said. "I'm not sure if I accept the bureau's explanation there."</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px;
margin-bottom: 11.326px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 15px/normal Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif !important; line-height: 22.652px !important; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); " class="">Greg Addington of the Klamath Water Users Association said Tuesday that the most recent cutoff means no more water for 50,000 acres of the project. Most of those farms produce hay, and losing irrigation will mean they lose up to half their crop for the year, he said.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 11.326px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 15px/normal Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif !important; line-height: 22.652px !important; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); " class="">Addington expects there will be enough water for the remaining farms on the project to finish the season.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 11.326px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal
15px/normal Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif !important; line-height: 22.652px !important; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); " class="">Rain and snowfall over the winter was the lowest in 20 years and the third lowest on record, he said. The drought is worse than in 2001, when irrigation was shut off to nearly all of the project to maintain water for endangered sucker fish in Upper Klamath Lake and threatened coho salmon in the Klamath River.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 11.326px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 15px/normal Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif !important; line-height: 22.652px !important; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); " class="">The lake is the project's primary reservoir. The river is the lake's natural outflow.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 11.326px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 15px/normal Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif
!important; line-height: 22.652px !important; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); " class="">"It's a mess," Addington said. "Our guys have seen this train wreck coming for a while. We have worked hard with other stakeholders to try to address these issues. We are not there yet. We've got a bill in Congress. That doesn't help us on the ground today."</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 11.326px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 15px/normal Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif !important; line-height: 22.652px !important; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); " class="">Tucker also spoke with Addington recently on the two bureau decisions.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 11.326px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 15px/normal Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif !important; line-height: 22.652px !important; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); " class="">"I was telling him how bad things are for
fish down here, and he was telling me how bad things are for farmers up there," Tucker said. "Years like this, everybody suffers from one end of the basin to the other. The irrigators on the Klamath Project have gotten a lot less water this year than they're used to getting, and there's no doubt about that."</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 11.326px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 15px/normal Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif !important; line-height: 22.652px !important; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); " class="">The region's perennial water problems prompted the development of plans to remove four dams from the Klamath River to help salmon and give farmers greater certainty on irrigation expectations. But the proposals have stalled in Congress, where they have been opposed by House Republicans.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 11.326px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal
normal normal 15px/normal Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif !important; line-height: 22.652px !important; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); " class="">Tucker said U.S. Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon plans to reintroduce the bill to the Senate Committee of Finance, which he chairs, to get the wheels turning again.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 11.326px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 15px/normal Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif !important; line-height: 22.652px !important; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); " class="">"I think because he wants to be the one who controls when the bill gets voted on," Tucker said. "I think this is a positive move forward."</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 11.326px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 15px/normal Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif !important; line-height: 22.652px !important; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); " class="">The
Bureau of Reclamation did not immediately return telephone calls and an email seeking comment.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 11.326px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 15px/normal Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif !important; line-height: 22.652px !important; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); " class="">The bureau has already turned down requests from tribes and others to increase flows down the Klamath River to prevent an outbreak of a parasite that attacks salmon in low water conditions.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 11.326px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 15px/normal Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif !important; line-height: 22.652px !important; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); " class=""><em style="font-style: italic; " class="">Will Houston can be reached at 707-441-0504.</em></div></div></span></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 19px;
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