<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"><head><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml><o:OfficeDocumentSettings><o:AllowPNG/><o:PixelsPerInch>96</o:PixelsPerInch></o:OfficeDocumentSettings></xml><![endif]--></head><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:garamond, new york, times, serif;font-size:16px"><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243089" dir="ltr"><a href="http://www.times-standard.com/general-news/20180314/klamath-river-fish-kill-preventive-dam-releases-challenged-by-farmers-water-districts&template=printart" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243403" class="">http://www.times-standard.com/general-news/20180314/klamath-river-fish-kill-preventive-dam-releases-challenged-by-farmers-water-districts&template=printart</a><br></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243412"><br></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243484"><span style="font-size: 1.17em; font-weight: 700; font-family: -webkit-standard;">Klamath River fish-kill preventive dam releases challenged by farmers, water districts</span><br></div><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243264"><h4 id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243266">Local tribes question arguments made by basin water districts</h4><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243267"></div><div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: italic;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243268">By Will Houston, Eureka Times-Standard</div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243269"></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243270">Wednesday, March 14, 2018</div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243271"></div></div><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard; border-bottom-style: none;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243272"><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243273"><div style="margin: 10px !important; float: left; width: 250px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243274"><img src="http://image.times-standard.com/storyimage/NJ/20180314/NEWS/180319904/AR/0/AR-180319904.jpg&MaxW=250" alt="Six Klamath Basin water districts, organizations and farmers are seeking to overturn federally-mandated dam water releases on the Klamath River meant to protect juvenile coho salmon (pictured) from deadly parasitic outbreaks like those that occurred in 2014 and 2015." id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243275" class="" data-id="9760d3c0-c578-0eb5-5d7b-1d474697660a"></div></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243276"></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243277"><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243278">Local tribes’ say critically important dam water releases meant to protect threatened salmon on the Klamath River from deadly parasitic disease outbreaks are being contested by irrigators and water districts in the Klamath Basin as they face drought conditions.</div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243279">Basin ranchers, farmers and water districts argue in a federal court filing this month that the potential for fish disease outbreaks this year is low, but that the drought conditions the basin faces could cause significant economic impacts to their region.</div></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243280"><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243281">“The potential ruinous impacts for family farms and ranches in 2018 are real,” the six water districts, irrigators and organizations stated in a March 7 court filing to the U.S. District Court in San Francisco.</div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243282">Since the filing was made, a drought was declared by Oregon Gov. Kate Brown for Klamath County earlier this week.</div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243283">The Klamath River dam water releases were secured in early 2017 after the Hoopa Valley Tribe, Yurok Tribe and organizations filed a federal lawsuit claiming the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s past dam operations caused up to 90 percent of juvenile Coho salmon to be infected by a potentially deadly intestinal parasite in 2014 and 2015. Klamath River Coho salmon are listed as threatened in the federal Endangered Species Act.</div></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243284"><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243285">Tribal fisheries scientists attributed the disease outbreaks to the low return of Klamath River in the 2017 season, which resulted in the commercial fishery being closed for the region and local tribes. </div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243286">“It’s equally painful for tribal interests,” Hoopa Valley Tribe Fisheries director Mike Orcutt said Wednesday.</div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243287">Yurok Tribe counsel Amy Cordalis said Wednesday that “it is critically important to the survival of these runs of fish in the Klamath that this year’s run is protected.”</div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243288">Bureau of Reclamation public affairs officer Erin Curtis said the basin does not have enough water to provide for both irrigators and the dam releases without lowering water levels at Upper Klamath Lake. Water levels are required to be maintained at certain levels to protect endangered sucker fish populations. </div></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243289"><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243290">“We are working daily with our partners to respond to this late onset hydrology season and develop our water management scenario,” Curtis wrote. “We are keenly aware that allocation decisions for the project are needed as soon as possible so that project irrigators can make business decisions. The lateness of the precip this year has made that more difficult and pushed our decisions back.”</div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243291">According to the Herald and News, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is now considering <a href="https://www.heraldandnews.com/news/local_news/fish-wildlife-weighs-drawdown-of-k-acre-feet-from-lower/article_45f247f5-2f20-537e-aaef-c7bd9460bbaf.html" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243292">taking 10,000 acre-feet of water from a wildlife refuge</a> to provide to irrigators. Meanwhile, the Klamath Tribes of Oregon have filed a notice of intent to sue federal agencies for not maintaining water levels at Upper Klamath Lake, <a href="https://www.heraldandnews.com/news/local_news/tribes-seek-higher-water-levels-for-upper-klamath/article_26c6d515-ca76-55b4-a6b3-5905ac084588.html" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243293">according to the Herald and News</a>.</div></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243294"><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243295">The U.S. District Court in San Francisco is set to consider the irrigators’ arguments April 11.</div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243296"></div><h5 id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243297">Flows needed?</h5><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243298"></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243299">The crux of the basin irrigators’ challenge to the dam releases is whether the ramped up flows are necessary this year. </div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243300">The irrigators argue 2017 saw significant rainfall that resulted in a “changed river.” </div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243301">They argue last year’s favorable conditions makes the need for the flow releases this year “unnecessary.” </div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243302">U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service fisheries program leader Nicholas Hetrick in Arcata said they have yet to see any clinical signs of disease in young outmigrating salmon on the river this year.</div></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243303"><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243304">“But that is typical for this time of year and especially so given the relatively cool water temperatures experienced in the Klamath River over the past several weeks,” Hetrick wrote in an email to the Times-Standard.</div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243305">Cordalis said hydrological conditions on the river this year equate to those seen in 2015 when 91 percent of sampled juvenile salmon on the river were found to be infected by the intestinal parasite Ceratanova shasta.</div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243306">The federal court order requires the Bureau of Reclamation to store enough water to make flushing flows on the Klamath River and reserve an additional 50,000 acre-feet of water between April 1 and June 15 — or until 80 percent of the juvenile salmon migrate out of the river — in case the parasitic outbreak should resurface.</div></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243307"><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243308">The flushing flows are meant to literally flush out worms that host the intestinal parasite, which had infected juvenile salmon in 2014 and 2015. The dilution flows would be released if 30 percent of the sampled juvenile Coho salmon are found to be infected.</div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243309">Cordalis said the court order and the flow plan were based off the best available science from several entities including tribal and federal scientists.</div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243310">“There is nothing in those memos and there is nothing in the current available science that presents that after one good year you don’t need flushing flows or dilution flows the following year,” she said.</div></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243311"><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243312">The irrigators also argue in the court filing that making the dam releases are “counterproductive” and would likely increase the occurrence of infection by pushing the “infectious zone” downstream where adult spawners returning to the river will encounter it.</div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243313">Karuk Tribe natural resources policy advocate Craig Tucker said this argument is “really speculative.”</div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243314">“You don’t need a PhD to know that fish do need water and the more the better,” Tucker said. “Our fisheries are in a tailspin. The idea that we’re going to shortcome on what the courts have agreed the best available science demonstrates, it’s like they are out to get the fish. It’s irresponsible.”</div></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243315"><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243316">Orcutt said these flow releases are only a short-term solutions, and that issues such as dam removal, water supply management, water quality issues in the basin still must be addressed.</div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243317">“It’s the hope someday we try to get to a discussion about resolving some of those longstanding issues,” he said.</div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243318"></div><h5 id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243319">‘Our way of life will be lost’</h5><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243320"></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243321">The court-ordered dam release plan is ordered to remain in effect until the Bureau of Reclamation and National Marine Fisheries Service finish their formal discussions on whether or not to alter its Klamath River flow plans. That consultation is not expected to be completed until 2019.</div></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243322"><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243323">But given the conditions of this water year, the Klamath Water Users Association, Sunnyside Irrigation District, Pine Grove Irrigation District Klamath Irrigation District, Klamath Drainage District and a Tulelake farmer Ben DuVall argued in their court filing that waiting until June for water to be made available would be “too late.” </div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243324">These same entities have also filed an appeal of the court-mandated flow plans in the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, with the case currently in the mediation process.</div></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243325"><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243326">The basin parties claim dam releases would bankrupt family farms, wipe out real estate values, uproot children from their schools, and “send economic and psychological shockwaves throughout every sector that has been dependent on agriculture in the Klamath Project for over a century.”</div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243327">Basin farmer Jason Flowers, 35, wrote in a statement to the court that water uncertainty and delays on receiving summer water have an immediate economic impact to his farm.</div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243328">“If this uncertainty continues, or even increases, I question how long our family farm can continue to operate,” he wrote.</div></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243329"><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243330">U.S. District Judge William Orrick wrote in his initial February 2017 ruling regarding the dam releases that the irrigators “undeniably have genuine and important interests” and that the flow releases “might cause hardship” for them.</div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243331">“However,” the ruling continues, “as plaintiffs point out, courts are not permitted to favor economic interests over potential harm to endangered species.”</div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243332">The irrigators responded to this in its filing this month, stating that the dam releases would affect the culture of Klamath Basin family farms and ranches.</div></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243333"><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243334">“The future of this country depends upon younger farmers being able to step in and become successful in the face of many difficult challenges,” Flowers wrote. “Without water certainty, the risks of farming are simply too great for the younger generations to be successful. Stability, succession, and our way of life will be lost.”</div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243335"><em id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243336">Will Houston can be reached at 707-441-0504.</em></div></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243337"></div></div><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard; border-top-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(191, 191, 191); clear: both;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243338"><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243339"><form id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243340"> </form></div><div style="font-size: 10px;" dir="ltr" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243341"><b id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243342">URL: <a href="http://www.times-standard.com/general-news/20180314/klamath-river-fish-kill-preventive-dam-releases-challenged-by-farmers-water-districts" class="enhancr2_a770085c-e523-e15b-fb16-d3c501d1752d" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243345">Klamath River fish-kill preventive dam releases challenged by farmers, water districts</a></b></div><div><br></div><div id="enhancr2_a770085c-e523-e15b-fb16-d3c501d1752d" class="yahoo-link-enhancr-card ymail-preserve-class ymail-preserve-style" style="max-width:400px;font-family:'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;" contenteditable="false" data-url="http://www.times-standard.com/general-news/20180314/klamath-river-fish-kill-preventive-dam-releases-challenged-by-farmers-water-districts" data-type="yenhancr" data-category="article" data-embed-url="" data-size="medium" dir="ltr"> <a href="http://www.times-standard.com/general-news/20180314/klamath-river-fish-kill-preventive-dam-releases-challenged-by-farmers-water-districts" style="text-decoration:none !important; 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line-height:19px; margin:0 0 4px 0;font-family:'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;word-break:break-word;">Klamath River fish-kill preventive dam releases challenged by farmers, wate...</h2> <div class="card-description" style="font-size:11px;line-height:15px;color:#999;word-break:break-word;">Local tribes’ say critically important dam water releases meant to protect threatened salmon on the Klamath Rive...</div> </td> <td style="text-align:right;padding:16px 12px 16px 0;"> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </a></div><div><br></div></div><div class="signature" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1520987575483_243097"><div><br></div></div></div></body></html>