<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:garamond, new york, times, serif;font-size:16px"><div class="" style="">http://www.peer.org/news/news-releases/2015/02/18/federal-funds-for-drought-stricken-fish-siphoned-by-irrigators/<br style=""></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=""><span style="font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br></span></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 12px; font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;" class=""><span style="font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 1.5em;">For Immediate Release: Feb 18, 2015</span><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; line-height: 1.5em; font-size: 12px; font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif;"
class="">Contact: Kirsten Stade (202) 265-7337</div><div style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" class=""><h3 class="" style="margin-top: 0.8em; margin-bottom: 0.4em; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">FEDERAL FUNDS FOR DROUGHT-STRICKEN FISH SIPHONED BY IRRIGATORS</h3><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; line-height: 1.5em;" class="">Klamath Contracts Worsen Drought Conditions by Pumping More Groundwater</div><div class="" style="margin-bottom: 10px; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">Posted on Feb 18, 2015</span> <span class="" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"> | Tags: <a href="http://www.peer.org/news/news-releases/2015/02/18/federal-funds-for-drought-stricken-fish-siphoned-by-irrigators/news/news-releases/tags/California" class="" style="display: inline; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(0, 102, 0); font-weight:
bold;">California</a></span></div><div class="" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; line-height: 1.5em;" class=""></div><hr style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;" class=""><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; line-height: 1.5em;" class=""></div><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; line-height: 1.5em;" class="">Washington, DC — A federal program that was supposed to help drought-stressed fish populations in the Klamath Basin has been hijacked for the sole benefit of select irrigators, according to a whistleblower disclosure filed today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). Overall, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has spent nearly $70 million dollars without any apparent legal authority to do so.<br style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;" class=""><br style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;" class="">The Bureau of Reclamation operates the Klamath Project, the main water works in Northern California and southern Oregon. The
project provides water from Upper Klamath Lake and the Klamath River, including Clear Lake and Gerber Reservoirs, to 210,000 acres of cropland across a 5,700 square mile watershed, an area larger than Connecticut. In recent years, the area has been crippled by a series of droughts.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; line-height: 1.5em;" class="">While the Bureau is supposed to work with Klamath Project irrigators, the relationship has gotten much too close, according to biologists. They point to a 2008 Reclamation contract with Klamath Water and Power Agency (KWAPA) for a feasibility study on the potential for water marketing to increase water supplies in the Klamath Basin for the benefit of fish and wildlife. The original five-year contract has been amended 17 times and extended through 2023, at a cost several times the original estimate. The feasibility study was never done and is long forgotten. Instead funds have been used to –</div><ul
style="padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em;" class=""><li style="padding: 0px 0px 0px 12px; margin: 0.5em 0px 1em; line-height: 1.4em; list-style-position: inside;" class=""><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;" class="">Purchase water supply contracts benefitting a small group of irrigators despite a provision declaring that any water purchases would be “for the direct benefit of fish and wildlife habitat;”</span></li><li style="padding: 0px 0px 0px 12px; margin: 0.5em 0px 1em; line-height: 1.4em; list-style-position: inside;" class=""><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;" class="">Pursue counterproductive, unsustainable, and short-term fixes to Klamath Basin water woes, such as pumping large amounts of groundwater until private wells go dry. This has required well owners to dig new and deeper wells into ever shrinking groundwater supplies; and</span></li><li style="padding: 0px 0px 0px 12px; margin:
0.5em 0px 1em; line-height: 1.4em; list-style-position: inside;" class=""><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;" class="">Pay expenses of a semi-official association of Klamath Project irrigators, the KWAPA, including their salaries, fringe benefits, office space, equipment and travel.</span></li></ul><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; line-height: 1.5em;" class="">“This contract has morphed beyond any recognizable shape from a feasibility study into a direct subsidy bearing no relationship to fish and wildlife,” stated PEER Senior Counsel Paula Dinerstein who filed the scientists’ disclosure with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel. “It appears KWAPA just sucked in more and more government funds with little oversight and for no discernible benefit to the general public.”</div><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; line-height: 1.5em;" class="">The Office of Special Counsel, a federal whistleblower protection agency, is charged
with reviewing the scientists’ disclosure and deciding within 15 days whether it evidences a “substantial likelihood of validity.” If so, the Special Counsel is supposed to direct the Secretary of Interior to conduct a formal investigation into systemic violations. If the violations are confirmed it could result in the reimbursement of unauthorized payments as well as punishment for responsible Reclamation officials.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; line-height: 1.5em; text-align: center;" class="">###</div><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; line-height: 1.5em; text-align: center;" class=""><a href="http://www.peer.org/news/news-releases/2015/02/18/federal-funds-for-drought-stricken-fish-siphoned-by-irrigators/assets/docs/ca/2_18_15_Klamath_OSC%20disclosure.pdf" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(0, 102, 0); font-weight: bold;" class="">Read the scientists’ disclosure</a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; line-height: 1.5em;
text-align: center;" class=""><a href="http://www.peer.org/news/news-releases/2015/02/18/federal-funds-for-drought-stricken-fish-siphoned-by-irrigators/assets/docs/ca/2_18_15_Payment_Schedules.pdf" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(0, 102, 0); font-weight: bold;" class="">Look at schedule of contract payments</a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; line-height: 1.5em; text-align: center;" class=""><a href="https://osc.gov/Pages/DOW.aspx" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(0, 102, 0); font-weight: bold;" class="">View the Office of Special Counsel disclosure function</a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; line-height: 1.5em; text-align: center;" class=""><a href="http://www.peer.org/news/news-releases/2015/02/18/federal-funds-for-drought-stricken-fish-siphoned-by-irrigators/news/news-releases/2013/04/04/cadillac-contracts-cannibalize-agency-science-budget/" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(0, 102, 0); font-weight: bold;"
class="">See Reclamation history of lavish Klamath contracts</a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; line-height: 1.5em;" class=""> </div></div></div></div></body></html>