<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:garamond, new york, times, serif;font-size:16px"><div class="" style="">http://www.heraldandnews.com/email_blast/bor-accused-of-misusing-water-funds/article_668d5078-b8cc-11e4-bcae-5be52329eee5.html </div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 16px; font-family: garamond, 'new york', times, serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;" class=""><iframe src="http://stats.townnews.com/heraldandnews.com/?title=BOR%20accused%20of%20misusing%20water%20funds%20-%20Herald%20and%20News%3A%20Email%20Blast&referrer=http%3A//www.heraldandnews.com/email_blast/bor-accused-of-misusing-water-funds/article_668d5078-b8cc-11e4-bcae-5be52329eee5.html&domain=heraldandnews.com&uri=/email_blast/bor-accused-of-misusing-water-funds/article_668d5078-b8cc-11e4-bcae-5be52329eee5.html%3Fmode%3Dprint" width="0" height="0" frameborder="0" style="font-size: 17px; outline: 0px;
margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 24px; ; width: 0px; height: 0px; float: none !important;" class=""></iframe><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 24px; font-weight: 700; line-height: 27px;">BOR accused of misusing water funds</span></div><div style="font-size: 17px; outline: 0px; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 24px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; background-image: none; float: none !important;" class=""><span style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-weight: 700;" class="">By LACEY JARRELL H&N Staff Reporter | Posted: Friday, February 20, 2015 12:00 am</span></div><div style="font-size: 17px; outline: 0px; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 24px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; background-image: none; float: none !important;" class="">A whistleblower’s claim lodged against the
Bureau of Reclamation says the agency has mismanaged several million dollars and lost sight of its goals in recent years.</div><div style="font-size: 17px; outline: 0px; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 24px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; background-image: none; float: none !important;" class="">The claim, filed Wednesday by the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), asserts that a federal program meant to help Klamath Basin fish has been hijacked for the sole benefit of Klamath Project irrigators.</div><div class="" style="font-size: 17px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 24px; float: none !important;"><div style="outline: 0px; margin-top: 10px; background-image: none; float: none !important;" class="">PEER filed the whistleblower disclosure on behalf of Todd Pederson, a current Bureau natural resources specialist, and Keith Schultz,
a former Bureau fisheries biologist. The disclosure was filed with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC), an independent federal investigative and prosecutorial agency.</div></div><div class="" style="font-size: 17px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 24px; float: none !important;"><div style="outline: 0px; margin-top: 10px; background-image: none; float: none !important;" class="">The OSC is charged with reviewing the scientists’ disclosure and deciding within 15 days whether it evidences a “substantial likelihood of validity,” according to a news release.</div></div><div class="" style="font-size: 17px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 24px; float: none !important;"><div style="outline: 0px; margin-top: 10px; background-image: none; float: none !important;" class="">PEER Senior Counsel Diana Dinerstein said the
OSC does not decide whether claims in the complaint are true, but whether the claims are valid enough to be referred back to the Department of Interior for comment.</div></div><div class="" style="font-size: 17px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 24px; float: none !important;"><div style="outline: 0px; margin-top: 10px; background-image: none; float: none !important;" class="">“Reclamation takes these complaints seriously, and if this matter is referred to the Secretary for investigation, we will conduct a full investigation and cooperate fully with the Office of Special Counsel,” Erin Curtis, a Bureau public affairs specialist, said in an email.</div></div><div class="" style="font-size: 17px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 24px; float: none !important;"><div style="outline: 0px; margin-top: 10px; background-image:
none; float: none !important;" class="">According to the claim, the Bureau has spent nearly $70 million dollars without legal authority to do so.</div></div><div class="" style="font-size: 17px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 24px; float: none !important;"><div style="outline: 0px; margin-top: 10px; background-image: none; float: none !important;" class="">Claimant Schultz, who left the Bureau in 2007, said he and Pederson have concerns about the authority the agency is citing to fund the Klamath Power and Water Agency (KWAPA), a joint powers/inter-governmental agency whose members are water agencies within the Klamath Project. He said the Bureau can only disburse funds to KWAPA for developing a water management feasibility study and if its activities benefit fish and wildlife.</div></div><div class="" style="font-size: 17px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: 'Times
New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 24px; float: none !important;"><div style="outline: 0px; margin-top: 10px; background-image: none; float: none !important;" class="">“Neither of those are happening,” Schultz said.</div></div><div class="" style="font-size: 17px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 24px; float: none !important;"><div style="outline: 0px; margin-top: 10px; background-image: none; float: none !important;" class="">Cross-benefits claimed</div></div><div class="" style="font-size: 17px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 24px; float: none !important;"><div style="outline: 0px; margin-top: 10px; background-image: none; float: none !important;" class="">Schultz’s and Pederson’s PEER claim asserts that the Water Use Mitigation Plan (WUMP) administered by KWAPA does not adhere to funding guidelines. In
past years, irrigators participating in WUMP “bid” their application by providing a dollar amount per acre they would like to be paid in return for not diverting surface water to grow crops.</div></div><div class="" style="font-size: 17px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 24px; float: none !important;"><div style="outline: 0px; margin-top: 10px; background-image: none; float: none !important;" class="">KWAPA Executive Director Hollie Cannon told the Herald and News the WUMP program has provided a tremendous benefit to fish and wildlife habitat. He pointed out that waterfowl often look to private farmland for habitat and food. If fields aren’t irrigated, no resources are available for birds.</div></div><div class="" style="font-size: 17px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 24px; float: none !important;"><div
style="outline: 0px; margin-top: 10px; background-image: none; float: none !important;" class="">“There is no question that the programs the Bureau has funded have kept the Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge whole,” Cannon said, referring irrigators’ ability to lease refuge land to grow grains.</div></div><div class="" style="font-size: 17px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 24px; float: none !important;"><div style="outline: 0px; margin-top: 10px; background-image: none; float: none !important;" class="">Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge received water in 2010, ’12 and ’13 — years the refuge was not slated to receive anything — in conjunction with water management under the WUMP program, according to Cannon.</div></div><div class="" style="font-size: 17px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 24px; float:
none !important;"><div style="outline: 0px; margin-top: 10px; background-image: none; float: none !important;" class="">Pederson said the program is “a waste of money.”</div></div><div class="" style="font-size: 17px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 24px; float: none !important;"><div style="outline: 0px; margin-top: 10px; background-image: none; float: none !important;" class="">According to Curtis, the cooperative agreement between the Bureau and KWAPA to administer and implement the WUMP will terminate Dec. 31, 2015. She said by that time KWAPA will have completed its analysis of WUMP’s performance.</div></div><div class="" style="font-size: 17px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 24px; float: none !important;"><div style="outline: 0px; margin-top: 10px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"
class="">Cannon said as KWAPA’s executive director, he has administered funds in accordance with Bureau requirements and other federal guidelines. He said KWAPA undergoes an audit every year and that it has undergone a procedural review by the Bureau.</div></div><div class="" style="font-size: 17px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 24px; float: none !important;"><div style="outline: 0px; margin-top: 10px; background-image: none; float: none !important;" class="">“We passed everything with flying colors,” Cannon said.</div></div><div class="" style="font-size: 17px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 24px; float: none !important;"><div style="outline: 0px; margin-top: 10px; background-image: none; float: none !important;" class="">Past complaints</div></div><div class="" style="font-size: 17px; outline: 0px; margin:
0px; padding: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 24px; float: none !important;"><div style="outline: 0px; margin-top: 10px; background-image: none; float: none !important;" class="">Pederson said he hopes the PEER claim will resolve some of the long-standing resource issues in the Klamath Basin. Pederson has been employed by the Bureau for 13 years and he is also union president of the National Federation of Federal Employees, Local 0951.</div></div><div class="" style="font-size: 17px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 24px; float: none !important;"><div style="outline: 0px; margin-top: 10px; background-image: none; float: none !important;" class="">Schultz said he and Pederson filed an earlier integrity complaint against the Bureau, also through PEER, in 2012. He said the complaint was filed after managers at the Klamath Basin Area Office proposed disbanding
the fisheries branch due to budgetary constraints. That was eventually settled.</div></div><div class="" style="font-size: 17px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 24px; float: none !important;"><div style="outline: 0px; margin-top: 10px; background-image: none; float: none !important;" class="">Cannon called Schultz a “disgruntled past employee.”</div></div><div class="" style="font-size: 17px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 24px; float: none !important;"><div style="outline: 0px; margin-top: 10px; background-image: none; float: none !important;" class=""><a href="mailto:ljarrell@heraldandnews.com" style="outline-width: 0px; color: black; text-decoration: none; float: none !important;" class="">ljarrell@heraldandnews.com</a>; @LMJatHandN</div></div></div></body></html>