http://www.newportnewstimes.com/articles/2006/04/21/news/news12.txt

By Joel Gallob Of the News-Times

Lincoln County Commissioner and former commercial fisherman Terry Thompson said at the April 10 "call to action" meeting called by Oregon Democratic Representatives Darlene Hooley and Peter DeFazio that he sees two issues in the current salmon season crisis. The first one was - "fix the Klamath."

Onno Husing, executive director of the Oregon Coastal Zone Management Association, agreed. He came to the meeting armed with bumper stickers that read "Fix the Klamath River Bring Back the Salmon."

Thompson decried what he called a double standard by which federal natural resource managers regularly say fisheries "should be managed according to the best science, and yet the best science said to leave the water in the Klamath River for the fish." The federal government ignored that advice in 2002, helping lead to the present situation.

Husing said, "What makes this so difficult and frustrating is that we feel we had turned a corner on sustainability. We have decreased our numbers of fisherman, but we are fishing more sustainably now. Then, to be hit with something like this, it's hard to deal with."

A week earlier, Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, wrote to the governors of Oregon and California, "We believe the time is now for the two states to jointly develop a plan aimed at addressing the environmental and economic needs of the basin's fish and the fisheries and the wide swath of West Coast affected by actions in the Klamath."

The Klamath River begins in southern Oregon east of the Cascades and flows south and west into California, entering the Pacific Ocean north of Eureka. It was once the third largest salmon producing river in the United States, contributing to ocean fisheries and supporting the fisheries of three tribes - the Yurok, Hupa and Karuk - for more than 14,000 years. But, said Grader, hydroelectric dams built in the early 20th century blocked salmon access to the upper Klamath River, and all of the basin's salmon production now occurs in California - even though actions in the upper basin in Oregon can still affect the health and abundance of the fish.

In 2002, at the reported direction of White House advisor Karl Rove, the Interior Department overruled its fishery scientists and diverted river flows its scientists had said were needed for fish survival. That action provided water for Klamath farmers but, most reviewers say, led to a series of fish die-offs, including the loss of what was first estimated as 35,000 returning Chinook salmon in 2002. (A later California state study concluded the number was twice that amount.) Low flows and high temperatures created conditions for the spread of a deadly parasite in the basin, and it was the parasite that killed those fish.

But there is hope this winter's heavy rains and large mountain snow pack will provide high water levels and low river temperatures and flush the parasite - for this year at least - out to sea.

Klamath River farmers

Husing said he has spoken with Klamath farmers, "and they're not our enemy. We're both rural people who want to make a living, and work hard at it. But the days of postponing the tough decisions on the Klamath are over. Our industry had to make tough decisions, we came out the other end, more economically and ecologically sustainable. Klamath farmers are willing to make changes, but the changes have to be meaningful, not just feel-good changes."

Congressman DeFazio agreed, saying he had talked to two Klamath farmers during the 2002 Klamath water battle. One Klamath farmer, DeFazio recalled, had said he was willing to sell his water rights and quit farming; the other said he would sell those rights "and go to dry land farming."

"But," said DeFazio, "we could not spark anything then, because there was a huge pressure to say no. Can we get a plan through now? We'll see how many people are willing sellers, and we'll look at it."

If the website for the Klamath River Water Users Association is any guide, it will be difficult to reach agreements for change. That website provides articles and arguments supporting the claim that Klamath farmers' use of Klamath water was not the cause of the 2002 fish kills, nor of the broader problems of Klamath fish. It disputes basic numbers regarding water flow volumes, as well as downstream effects and possible upstream causes. But both the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the California Fish and Game Department have linked the 2002 fish die-off to that drought year's struggle over Klamath water.

Klamath River water plan

The Klamath Reclamation Project provides water for some 1,000 farms with 180,000 acres on both sides of the Oregon-California border on the eastern side of the Cascade Range. The main reservoir in a complex group of lakes, canals and rivers is Upper Klamath Lake, which flows into the Klamath River.

A court ruling on March 27 regarding that river is "at least a ray of light" for Oregon trollers, said Jim McCarthy, a spokesman for the environmental law firm Earthjustice. But, said Kristen Boyles, one of the Earthjustice attorneys who argued the case in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, the decision - while it will help salmon fishers in future years - won't help now.

The federal court ruled the Bureau of Reclamation and National Marine Fisheries Service can not continue to reduce water flows in the Klamath River in the face of that river's declining coho runs. The court ordered the Bureau to provide river flows for threatened coho salmon now, not five years from now.

It did this by issuing an injunction preventing the Bureau and the National Marine Fisheries Service (also known as NOAA - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - Fisheries) from acting on the basis of a Klamath Irrigation Project and Biological Opinion the agencies developed. The agencies said the study provided basis for withholding water from the fish until the eighth year of that 10-year project - and that doing so was lawful. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed and sent the case to the district court for further review. When the two agencies argued there that they did not need to write a new Biological Opinion and sought to go forward with plans based on the Biological Opinion found invalid, Earthjustice sought, and won, an injunction.

The agencies cannot "provide only partial protection for a species for several generations without any analysis of how doing so will affect the species," the District Court wrote, especially when doing so contradicted the agencies' own "quantitative analysis" of flows the fish need.

The Klamath salmon issues that have shriveled the commercial 2006 Oregon Coast salmon season below the Columbia are about Klamath Chinook. This case addressed water flows for Klamath coho salmon, listed under the Endangered Species Act. "On the Klamath, it's the coho that set the flow regime for the entire river for all the fish. We hope this would, and it should, benefit the Chinook, as well," said attorney Boyles.

This winter's heavy rains should reduce the coming summer's conflict over Klamath water. But, Boyles said, the decision is not moot, as it "prevents us from another lurch from crisis to crisis and gives us a floor of scientifically determined needed flows."

But, according to Congressman DeFazio, the day after the PFMC decided upon a truncated commercial salmon season, the Bush administration appealed that court decision, "opposing the very remedy that could improve fish survival - increased water flows in the Klamath. It seems the administration is not interested in addressing the factors that are ultimately responsible for this salmon disaster."

Other members of Congress agreed. One was Sam Farr (D-CA) "This appeal by the Administration is a ridiculous attempt to avoid admitting that they've failed at managing the Klamath River. Our salmon fishermen are being treated as scapegoats and enduring cuts to their season when the real problem lies with imbalanced Klamath water policies - and now the Administration is continuing to delay progress toward improvement," he said.

Dams and electricity

The federal monies that created the Klamath irrigation system are not the only federal subsidy helping Klamath farmers work in the fairly dry region in the rain shadow of the Cascades; inexpensive electricity has helped, too. But last week, the Oregon Public Utility Commission put Klamath farmers on a seven-year road to paying full market rates for electricity to pump irrigation water, ending below-market rates that began in 1917. Under an agreement with PacifiCorp, the power providing utility, Klamath farmers pay 0.6 cents per kilowatt hour; the rate generally in California is 8 cents per kilowatt hour.

This Monday, a 50-year low-cost power contract expired, and the PUC has scheduled increases of 50 percent a year for seven years.

The commission left open the possibility that farmers in the Klamath Reclamation District could get some credit on rates if they can prove they benefit PacifiCorp by sending more water down the Klamath River through hydroelectric turbines, but stated it would be difficult to prove this.

Glen Spain of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, which represents California commercial salmon fishermen, said the farmers deserve time to make the transition to higher rates, but the PUC made it clear they have no justification for below market rates that force other PacifiCorp customers to pay more.

Grader's association and other fishing and tribal groups have called for more than just fair market electric rates for the Klamath Basin. They urge Klamath water policy changes including removal of four old hydropower dams that block fish migration and degrade water quality below Iron Gate dam.

The Pacific Fishery Management Council agrees. At its meeting last week, it urged removal of the Iron Gate, Copco 1, Copco 2, and J.C. Boyle dams. Although there are other dams on the Klamath River, Dr. Donald McIsaac, the council's executive director noted in a press release, they are not now being relicensed and the council did not call for their immediate removal.

"We have to look into the dam relicensing in the Klamath," DeFazio urged in Newport this Monday. "This is our one chance in 50 years, with FERC (the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) reviewing licenses on Klamath basin dams. Later, to buy out those licenses will cost tens of millions of dollars. If we don't do it now, it will never happen. This is a unique time to make some changes. We need to get the farming industry, not just in Oregon, but also in California, the hydroelectric people, all to the table. It will take some leadership - and were not getting it from this administration."

Whatever form that takes, urged State Rep. Alan Brown (R-Newport), "there should be no winners and losers; we need something where both sides benefit. We need a permanent solution."

Joel Gallob is a reporter for the News-Times. He can be reached at 265-8571, ext. 223 or joel.gallob@lee.net