The 2001 sucker recovery report provided timelines and budgets for dozens of projects that could provide real benefits. Regrettably, there has been failure to effectively implement most of the on-the-ground activities, although some of these proposals, including removal of barriers to fish passage at Chiloquin Dam, have gained traction in recent years.

Entrainment of endangered suckers and lack of connectivity between sucker populations have been identified as some of the major effects of Project operations. Project irrigators have played an active role in pushing for projects that improve passage for suckers:

• Screening the main diversion at the "A" Canal: approx. $15 million (funded by USBR)
• Chiloquin Dam Fish Passage Improvement: design and engineering underway, KWUA and other landowners participating in a collaborative study process.
• Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Fish Passage Improvements: 13 projects completed for $250,000; 40 more are planned at a cost of $1.3 million (as of January 2003).
• Other Project Entrainment Reduction Efforts: KWUA and local water districts participate in a technical committee to develop a multi-year implementation plan to screen important diversions throughout the Klamath Project.

In the summer of 2003, Reclamation will be letting a contract to construct a new fish ladder at Link River Dam, which will be completed by fall 2004.

The land within the Klamath Project supports over 400 species of vertebrates that depend upon the productive irrigated lands for food, nesting habitat and privacy. Collaborative efforts between irrigation districts, state wildlife agencies and the USFWS include riparian pasture management, waterfowl nesting sites, and the creation of private wildlife refuges. Key efforts include:

• Farmland to Wetland Conversions: Over 24,000 acres in the past 10 years.
• Klamath Basin Ecosystem Restoration Office Coordination with Landowners: 271 projects implemented by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at a cost of over $10.5 million between 1994-2001. Over 100 of these projects, costing over $5.2 million, included landowners as partners.
• Partnership-Driven Conservation Efforts Undertaken by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Local Conservation Districts (as of January 2003): 13,781 acres of Oregon farmland managed for wildlife habitat purposes since 1999. In California, 1,700 acres enrolled in Wetland Reserve Program near Tulelake and Butte Valley since 2000. Nearly 550 acres of farmland in this area have been enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program since 1985.

• Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Partnership Projects: Between 1995 and 2003, 40 projects have been completed at a cost of $346,000.
• Other watershed management efforts are underway through forums like the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board, the U.S. Forest Service, California Waterfowl Association, and other state, federal and private interests.
• Projects Completed by Voluntary Local Interests: Numerous conservation and restoration projects have been initiated by local landowners and funded at their own expense.

There are numerous other voluntary actions that have been undertaken throughout the Klamath Basin that agencies have no means of tracking.

In 1993, the Oregon Legislature adopted Senate Bill 1010, an agricultural water quality management program. This legislation gives the Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA) the authority to develop and implement water quality management plans for agricultural and rural lands where such plans are required by state or federal law. The program will apply to total maximum daily load (TMDL) basins, groundwater management areas and the coastal zone management area.

The goal of the agriculture water quality management plans is to prevent and control water pollution from agricultural activities and soil erosion. The plans may require landowners within the area subject to a plan to take certain actions to carry out the plan. Senate Bill 1010 gives to ODA the ability to enforce plan requirements when necessary. This should enable ODA to meet the requirement to provide "reasonable assurance'' that agricultural nonpoint pollution loads will be reduced and the agricultural load allocation under the TMDLs will be achieved.

Landowner advisory councils are working with the Oregon Department of Agriculture to address water quality management on the Lost and Klamath Rivers. The end result will be an ongoing process of evaluation of water quality and enhance management of resources for water quality improvement.

Other key water quality actions undertaken in recent years:

• Upper Klamath Lake Pilot Oxygenation Study: KWUA proposed this study as part of a comprehensive plan to preserve multiple beneficial uses of Upper Klamath Lake.

• Klamath Irrigation District (KID)– NPDES Permit: KID in July 2002 secured the first-of-its kind water quality permit from Oregon DEQ. The permit allows the district to apply aquatic herbicides to control weed growth under guidelines that protect the environment.

Other potential specific individual water quality projects may include strategic water treatment ponds located throughout the project that will be sited based on objectives, location and cost criteria.

Water users and the refuge managers have enjoyed recent successes associated with implementing an integrated program of wetlands and croplands to enhance wildlife values, with an emphasis on waterfowl. Because of cooperation between landowners and the refuge, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is now implementing successful wetland restoration and enhancement programs. According to refuge managers, waterfowl use of the Tule Lake refuge has increased to levels not seen in approximately 25 years.

Rotating agriculture and wetlands results in early successional wetlands, which are high desirable to shorebirds during spring and fall migration.

In the past six months, nationally recognized conservation representatives have met with Klamath Project water user representatives to focus on opportunities to improve relationships and work towards meaningful solutions in and near Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge. We are working to further assess and develop these important partnership opportunities.

Nearly all the "restoration" activities discussed above have been completed in recent years. But what are the benefits from these actions? Can the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service demonstrate improved water quality in Upper Klamath Lake? Have sucker populations increased? In 2001, the Bureau of Reclamation provided compensation to the owners of 16,000 acres of land to reduce irrigation. There were no benefits to other farmers and ranchers in the Project due to either the previous farmland conversions or to Reclamation's 2001 program. So if the benefits of these actual conversions can’t be identified, why would the U.S. support new conversions?

Local water users have taken a leadership role in addressing water management actions to improve water supply reliability for Klamath Project irrigators, and to free up new supplies for imperiled fish species and nearby national wildlife refuges. KWUA has worked since 1999 to develop temporary demand reduction programs for the Klamath Project. The intent of these programs is to provide incentives to landowners to either idle cropland or use groundwater in place of Klamath Project water to meet newly created environmental water objectives proposed by federal fishery agencies. Meanwhile, local water users have taken voluntary actions to provide the nearby refuges with supplemental water supplies in recent years.

In late 1999, Reclamation requested KWUA to conduct a water marketing study and plan a program tailored to meet the needs of the Klamath Project. KWUA established a dry year reserve subcommittee in early 2000 to develop this plan, and later that year, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation ("Reclamation") provided a grant to KWUA to administer this effort. KWUA developed a pilot dry year reserve program and bid proposals for consideration by Reclamation. The basic thrust of the proposal was to provide compensation to growers for either idling cropland or to withdraw irrigation water to certain acreage at selected times.

After considerable discussion and time spent by KWUA representatives, Reclamation rejected this proposal and produced its own draft program – a different approach from the plan developed by KWUA - and collected bid proposals on February 15, 2001. A number of proposals were submitted, at a time when water supply for 2001 was uncertain. About a third of the proposals were accepted.

USBR’s program essentially compensated a group of irrigators for not farming. Unfortunately, on April 6, 2001, months after the demand reduction program was implemented - Reclamation announced that no water would be made available for Klamath Project irrigators out of Upper Klamath Lake.

2002 Pilot Water Bank and Voluntary Conservation Efforts

Despite the dry conditions, water users in the last six weeks of the season reduced irrigation to ensure sufficient water to meet irrigation requirements and generate additional water for the national wildlife refuges. Also in September, additional water appeared in local streams and canals that derived from subsurface recharge originating from irrigation water applied earlier in the season. It is largely for these reasons that Reclamation was able to release an additional 12,000 acre-feet of water in early October 2002 to provide a "pulse flow" out of Iron Gate Dam intended to trigger overcrowded fish to move out of the diseased lower Klamath River that fall. That pulse flow – strongly pushed for by downstream advocates – "lacked any specific justification", according to a 2003 report released by the National Academy of Sciences.

Development of KWUA Pilot Water Bank for the Klamath Project

KWUA in early 2003 announced it would support, and assist the Department of Interior and Reclamation in the implementation of, a Klamath Project Pilot Environmental Water Bank in 2003 to provide over 50,000 acre-feet of additional water for environmental purposes. While noting that Reclamation’s pilot program does not closely resemble KWUA’s vision for a long-term bank, water users will continue to work with Reclamation and Interior to complete a long-term water bank proposal.

Reclamation’s 10-year Biological Assessment (BA) developed in February 2002 proposed an environmental water bank through which willing buyers and sellers will provide additional water supplies for fish and wildlife purposes and to enhance tribal trust resources. Reclamation’s BA estimated the size of the water bank to be up to 100,000 acre feet – depending on water year type - with "deposits" coming from a variety of sources, including off-stream storage, temporary crop idling, and groundwater substitution.

Water users committed to pursue developing a bank with Reclamation in January 2002. At that time, KWUA was asked by Reclamation to develop a Project-wide water bank to assist with meeting environmental water demands in drier years.

KWUA’s Water Bank and Supply Enhancement Committee (Committee) held over 30 meetings in 2002-03 to develop the 65-page report/proposal for a long-term water bank, which differs substantially from the pilot water bank proposed by Reclamation.

Certainty of water supplies is a key principle imbedded in KWUA’s draft long-term water bank proposal. Local water users insist that, in exchange for voluntary participation in a Project water bank – which would be used to "fund" environmental water needs - 100% of the irrigation demand for remaining Project acreage will be satisfied, season-long. Water users further believe that the water bank cannot be viewed as a stand-alone element. Water users also believe that the water bank concept proposed in the NOAA Fisheries biological opinion must be modified before a long-term water bank can be finalized.

Reclamation’s 2003 water bank ultimately generated 59,651 AF of water for environmental purposes. This figure does not include another approx. 30,000 AF generated through voluntary groundwater pumping and conservation efforts undertaken by local water users, with no federal compensation. Project irrigators reduced their diversions voluntarily late in June 2003 in anticipation of dropping lake levels. Klamath Project irrigators took action – including curtailment of supplies, conservation measures, and in-lieu groundwater pumping - intended to reduce diversions by an average of 20 percent during the remainder of July. The intent was to reduce diversions, which were running at 1,600 cfs or higher earlier in the month, to an average of 1,350 cfs for the remainder of those months. In early July, net Project diversions dropped as low as 1,150 cfs.

The 2004 bank is expected to provide over 75,000 AF to meet biological opinion conditions. This figure does not include 15,000 AF of stored refuge water that was originally intended to meet water bank needs, but was instead redirected by USBR to meet unspecified downstream "tribal trust" needs last spring. The 2004 figure also does not reflect the additional water that is currently being sent downstream by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to meet another tribal trust call.

Proposed 2005 Klamath Project Pilot Water Bank

Next year, the NOAA Fisheries biological opinion calls for a massive 100,000 AF water bank, regardless of actual hydrological conditions. This amount of water represents 20-33% of the average water use that typically occurs in the Klamath Project on an annual basis.