Klamath Basin Water Crisis: 2022 Edition

So, another year, another underwhelming water allocation for the Klamath Irrigation Project.

This is the second worst allocation for the Klamath Project since . . . last year. And as you recall, in 2021, Klamath Project family farmers and ranchers received a zero, as nothing, nada, “No water for you! Back of the line!”.

And in 2020? That’s when we had our tractor rally to protest that incredibly small allocation from Upper Klamath Lake.

Last year, Klamath Basin residents bore the brunt of these water allocations. Winds carried dust in the air for the spring and a large part of early summer, creating hazardous condition for the elderly, the young, and those who have compromised breathing issues.

Last year, without water flowing through the Project, domestic wells in the region went dry without an opportunity to recharge.

Last year, after years of the Basin’s wildlife refuges getting denied water, Tule Lake’s Sump 1A was pumped dry by area farmers and the Tulelake Irrigation District in a desperate attempt to avoid another heart-breaking avian botulism outbreak in the Pacific Flyway. Water was pumped into Sump 1B and C’waam and Koptu were rescued and put into the sump in an attempt to preserve their population.

Last year, only those lucky enough to have access to well water were able to farm. Thousands of acres of Klamath Project farmland was fallowed. We’re still waiting to see the economic fallout from the historic zero allocation, but the human fallout is palpable. Divorces have gone up, as have increased alcohol and other drug consumption. Everyone in the Klamath Project thought 2020 was bad until 2021 rolled around.

And now we’re in 2022. With, as mentioned, the second lowest allocation in the Klamath Project’s history.

On April 11, 2022, the Klamath Falls office of the Bureau of Reclamation announced its allocation from Upper Klamath Lake for the Klamath Project. Despite the lack of moisture following the December 2021 snowfall, many were optimistic that maybe this year wouldn’t be so bad. The Klamath River had been running all fall and winter above natural flows, and to many, Upper Klamath Lake was fuller than many had remembered in recent history.

50,000 acre feet.

15% of what the Klamath Irrigation Project needs to operate.

5% of the overall allocation of water from Upper Klamath Lake.

Disappointment doesn’t even begin to describe what the men and women who farm, ranch, produce food for the nation in the Klamath Project felt.

However, to appease the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), over 400,000 acre feet will bypass the Klamath Project and head down the Klamath River via the Keno dam for threatened salmon species. Nearly 288,000 acre feet will be kept in Upper Klamath Lake for the suckers to ensure it doesn’t fall below the magical elevation of 4138 feet. Another 290,000 acre feet is expected to evaporate from the lake due to the elevated levels.

More maddening is the fact as pulse flows for salmon started last weekend (despite the fact there wasn’t enough water to do it correctly according to biologists), the Biden administration was sued by the Klamath Tribes for the meager 5% of the allocation that was permitted for Basin food producers.

If the Klamath Basin was ever in crisis before, this year is making those other allocations look like a cake walk. Only 210,000 acre feet are expected to flow into Upper Klamath Lake this year. NMFS has an incredibly unreasonable expectation of the water that should flow down the Klamath River for salmon recovery. The US Fish & Wildlife Service is demanding elevations on Upper Klamath Lake that are going to be damn near impossible to maintain with NMFS’s rigid demands for salmon.

And the 50,000 acre feet for Klamath Project ag? Apparently it’s worse than the wasteful pulse flows sent down the Klamath River last weekend. Though it’s not near enough for Project farmers to rise to Biden’s challenge to increase production in the midst of Russia’s attack on Ukraine, according to the Klamath Tribes its incredibly dangerous to the suckers who haven’t recovered under the last 25 years of this misguided Endangered Species Act policy. Meanwhile, the national refuges continue to dry out, affecting many, many species of birds, animals, and reptiles that call Project fields and irrigation districts home.

Klamath Basin agriculture, families, communities, and wildlife are in crisis. We are caught between a power stuggle between NMFS and USFWS who apparently don’t care about the people who live here. Lawsuits driven by a 5% allocation seem to be the force behind another power grab by other groups. And the people who depend on a successful ag community? They choose the politics over “potato chips” because they don’t – or aren’t willing – to understand the crisis facing the Klamath Project.

While drought and climate change are real, this is a government-made crisis.

Shut Down & Fed Up hopes that if you read this, you decide to take the time to learn more about how single-species management, the NMFS office in Arcata, California, looking to gain more power, and USFWS looking to remain relevant have caused this crisis.

There are solutions out there that would benefit the Klamath Tribes, Upper Klamath Lake, Klamath Basin wildlife, the Klamath River, downriver tribes, and family farmers. We need to focus on those, instead of allowing the politicians, bureaucrats, and compromised scientists to push the same methodology that for the last 25 years have not helped suckers or salmon.

It’s been 25 years. We need a fucking change.