FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Elected officials should support KBRA federal legislation now to avoid similar problems next year

Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement improves conditions during dry years -- Relief measures are needed to ensure both fish and farms survive 2010 summer to benefit from restoration agreements

Statement on Klamath Basin Drought Situation From Sustainable Northwest

Many of the water allocation problems in the Klamath basin could have been avoided if the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement (KBRA) were law today, and this year’s drought declaration should be incentive for Oregon and California elected officials to move quickly to support the KBRA and help pass legislation in Congress.

Right now, as we bridge from today's broken system to the comprehensive plan laid out in KBRA, Sustainable Northwest believes that a temporary package of relief measures must be applied to ensure future viability of agricultural, fishing, and tribal communities – and the river and Upper Klamath Lake fishery resources.  Nothing can be done to make up for lost water – for fish or farms – but every effort must be made to help communities survive this summer.

As the drought situation this year unfolds, already it’s evident that the KBRA process is having positive effects during a very difficult time for water users in the basin.  Diverse parties are in constant communication trying to ensure that both communities and the fishery are protected during this time.  But more can – and should – be done to put in place legislation and allocate funds.

Below are a few examples of how the situation in the Basin improves with the KBRA in place under drought conditions:

• All water users are working together, in ways very different from the crisis in 2001, because they share an end goal of healthy communities and fishery recovery described in the KBRA and settlement agreements.
• In most dry years, the Klamath Irrigation Project would have a specific water allocation that is known and allows them to plan into the future.  They would not face the uncertainty they have faced for the past several weeks with little knowledge of when and how much water would be available.   And those who would not receive water in some years would have had funds available to modify their operations accordingly.
• This year, threatened suckers are also being impacted due to historically low lake levels, but under KBRA increased water flows in Upper Klamath Lake and tributaries would benefit the these species (increase would be up to 30,000 acre feet).
• Part of the problem under the current management structure is that water for salmon competes with water for suckers. The KBRA balances fishery flow needs to focus on recovery for all Klamath fish species, which avoids decisions that play off one species over another.
• The wildlife refuges would be better off with KBRA: during the time until dam removal they’ll be a “purpose” of the Project, which allows them better access to water than they have today. And then with dam removal and other measures, the refuges would actually get a guaranteed water allocation – for the first time ever.
  

Sustainable Northwest has worked in the Klamath Basin for eight years to support stakeholders in the effort to find and build common solutions to water allocation and ecosystem restoration that successfully melds environmental protection and sustainable economic development.

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