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Water bank to offer some security
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| Dave Sabo, Klamath Project manager, speaks Monday to a crowd of more than 500 irrigators about the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's pilot water bank. (Published March 4, 2003) |
Published Tuesday-March 4, 2003
By DYLAN DARLING
Farmers in the Klamath Reclamation Project have until Friday to apply for some of the $4 million the government plans to distribute to landowners willing to forego use of water from the project's canals.
Landowners can either leave their fields idle this summer, or rely on wells instead of surface water for irrigation.
Both options are part of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's pilot water bank. The program is designed to keep water levels higher in Upper Klamath Lake and the Klamath River for the benefit of endangered suckers and threatened coho salmon.
However, the water bank won't offer any assurance that water stored up for irrigation will last throughout the summer.
"We want to help you every way we can - but by law we need to meet the ESA and tribal trust requirements," said Dave Sabo, manager of the Bureau's Klamath Basin office.
The Bureau needs 50,000 acre-feet of water in its bank, and has $4 million to get it.
Sabo led a Bureau meeting Monday at the Klamath County Fairgrounds, where he and other officials explained the water bank options and handed out application forms. More than 500 water users packed the exhibition hall.
Sabo said the water bank is not set up to deal with shortages, and - with low snow packs and forecasts for a dry summer - he couldn't predict whether the project will be able to supply water all summer.
"We have that uncertainty together," he said.
The water bank will give water users at least some certainty, because they will get paid for setting aside land or using well water.
This year the Bureau wants to find 12,000 acres of farm land to idle, which would translate into about 30,000 acre-feet of water, Sabo said. It also wants 25,000 acre-feet of project water to be replaced by groundwater. The Bureau will pay $187.50 per acre to users who idle land and $75 per acre-foot of water to those who switch to groundwater.
The compensation will be paid in a lump sum no later than Nov. 30.
The relative security of the water bank is still outweighed by the growing angst of whether water will flow through the project throughout the irrigation season.
Fred Fahner, owner of Fahner Farms, said with the way the water bank is structured there is no protection for row crops because water users have no idea if they will get water late in the growing season.
"My concern is that this program will help, but it will not resolve the problem," he said.
Fahner, who grows potatoes, grains and onions on about 1,000 acres near Tulelake, said even if they are part of the water bank, farmers will be putting their row crops in jeopardy.
Sabo said the Bureau is working on trying to get water users the certainty they need and wants NOAA Fisheries, formerly called the National Marine Fisheries Service, to reconsider its 2002 biological opinion for salmon, which set the water bank quantities.
The opinion calls for 50,000 acre-feet of water this year, 75,000 acre-feet next year and 100,000 acre-feet the year after that.
While the Klamath Water Users Association supports the Bureau and the water bank, the design of the bank didn't come out like the group wanted.
Dan Keppen, association executive director, said his group wanted a bank that would have been used only in dry years and, as a trade-off for deposits by water users to the bank, would have offered assurance of irrigation water all season long.
He said a water bank in any form is just an interim fix and that Basinwide solutions are needed to prevent another summer like 2001, when many water users had their supplies cut and lost their crops. Keppen said many water users are applying to the water bank program because they fear they could get hurt financially if they don't participate.
"They are signing up as an alternative for something worse later in the year," Keppen said.
He said he hopes a solution to the ongoing water problems in the Basin can be found in the next couple of years so people can get back to doing what they want to do.
"People are here to farm, not to get paid not to farm," he said.
To get an application call the Klamath area Bureau office at 883-6935, stop by the KWUA office at 2455 Patterson St., or log on to the Bureau's Web site at www.usbr.gov/kbao.
All applications must be submitted to the Bureau office at 6600 Washburn Way by 4 p.m. Friday. Applications can be faxed or emailed. For more information call Gary Baker at the Bureau area office at 883-6935.
Reporter Dylan Darling covers natural resources. He can be reached at 885-4471, (800) 275-0982, or by e-mail at ddarling@heraldandnews.com.
By DYLAN DARLING
Farmers in the Klamath Reclamation Project have until Friday to apply for some of the $4 million the government plans to distribute to landowners willing to forego use of water from the project's canals.
Landowners can either leave their fields idle this summer, or rely on wells instead of surface water for irrigation.
Both options are part of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's pilot water bank. The program is designed to keep water levels higher in Upper Klamath Lake and the Klamath River for the benefit of endangered suckers and threatened coho salmon.
However, the water bank won't offer any assurance that water stored up for irrigation will last throughout the summer.
"We want to help you every way we can - but by law we need to meet the ESA and tribal trust requirements," said Dave Sabo, manager of the Bureau's Klamath Basin office.
The Bureau needs 50,000 acre-feet of water in its bank, and has $4 million to get it.
Sabo led a Bureau meeting Monday at the Klamath County Fairgrounds, where he and other officials explained the water bank options and handed out application forms. More than 500 water users packed the exhibition hall.
Sabo said the water bank is not set up to deal with shortages, and - with low snow packs and forecasts for a dry summer - he couldn't predict whether the project will be able to supply water all summer.
"We have that uncertainty together," he said.
The water bank will give water users at least some certainty, because they will get paid for setting aside land or using well water.
This year the Bureau wants to find 12,000 acres of farm land to idle, which would translate into about 30,000 acre-feet of water, Sabo said. It also wants 25,000 acre-feet of project water to be replaced by groundwater. The Bureau will pay $187.50 per acre to users who idle land and $75 per acre-foot of water to those who switch to groundwater.
The compensation will be paid in a lump sum no later than Nov. 30.
The relative security of the water bank is still outweighed by the growing angst of whether water will flow through the project throughout the irrigation season.
Fred Fahner, owner of Fahner Farms, said with the way the water bank is structured there is no protection for row crops because water users have no idea if they will get water late in the growing season.
"My concern is that this program will help, but it will not resolve the problem," he said.
Fahner, who grows potatoes, grains and onions on about 1,000 acres near Tulelake, said even if they are part of the water bank, farmers will be putting their row crops in jeopardy.
Sabo said the Bureau is working on trying to get water users the certainty they need and wants NOAA Fisheries, formerly called the National Marine Fisheries Service, to reconsider its 2002 biological opinion for salmon, which set the water bank quantities.
The opinion calls for 50,000 acre-feet of water this year, 75,000 acre-feet next year and 100,000 acre-feet the year after that.
While the Klamath Water Users Association supports the Bureau and the water bank, the design of the bank didn't come out like the group wanted.
Dan Keppen, association executive director, said his group wanted a bank that would have been used only in dry years and, as a trade-off for deposits by water users to the bank, would have offered assurance of irrigation water all season long.
He said a water bank in any form is just an interim fix and that Basinwide solutions are needed to prevent another summer like 2001, when many water users had their supplies cut and lost their crops. Keppen said many water users are applying to the water bank program because they fear they could get hurt financially if they don't participate.
"They are signing up as an alternative for something worse later in the year," Keppen said.
He said he hopes a solution to the ongoing water problems in the Basin can be found in the next couple of years so people can get back to doing what they want to do.
"People are here to farm, not to get paid not to farm," he said.
To get an application call the Klamath area Bureau office at 883-6935, stop by the KWUA office at 2455 Patterson St., or log on to the Bureau's Web site at www.usbr.gov/kbao.
All applications must be submitted to the Bureau office at 6600 Washburn Way by 4 p.m. Friday. Applications can be faxed or emailed. For more information call Gary Baker at the Bureau area office at 883-6935.
Reporter Dylan Darling covers natural resources. He can be reached at 885-4471, (800) 275-0982, or by e-mail at ddarling@heraldandnews.com.
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