Flows to the Klamath River will be a relative trickle this summer during what appears certain to remain a drought year, with fish and farms likely to be strained under a U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Plan released this week.

The operations plan looks to increase bleak base flows from Iron Gate Dam with 100,000 acre feet of water purchased from irrigators. But even with that measure -- which cost some $7.5 million -- some worry that either young salmon or returning adults could be at risk of another fish kill in a hot, low river.

Flows from Iron Gate Dam will top out at only 1,500 cubic feet per second in mid-April and bottom out at 515 cfs in late July. They'll ramp up again to 925 cfs in late August and September, when salmon begin returning from the ocean.

While undoubtedly still tense, there appears to be an effort at curtailing finger-pointing, at least between some in the Yurok Tribe and reclamation irrigators. Some fishermen, however, saddled with an extremely restrictive salmon season this year -- which has origins in juvenile and adult fish kills in water-starved 2002 -- say farmers are getting too much water in a too-dry year.

Dave Sabo, area manager for the central California-Oregon border irrigation project, said reclamation has asked irrigators in the entire basin to crimp water use by 15 percent. Sabo said Upper Klamath Lake will be monitored closely to see if the voluntary measure pays off in additional water.

"If the lake starts to crash," he said, "I'll have to take more precipitous action."

Last year at this time, the inflow into Upper Klamath Lake was 106 percent of average. This year, it's 41 percent of average.

The plan developed to parcel out limited water shows the need for long-term cooperative solutions, said Dave Hillemeier, senior fisheries biologist for the Yurok Tribe.

"The plan definitely falls far short of meeting the needs of the tribe's fishery," Hillemeier said, "and we're concerned that we'll be facing juvenile and adult fish kills with these sorts of flows."

He said more than ever solutions need to be found that draw the basin away from year-to-year crisis management.

Farmers in most of the project are anticipated to receive 70 percent of deliveries for a dry year, though Sabo said that could be adjusted if conditions worsen or improve. That takes into account the 100,000 acre feet bought from them through the water bank. No deliveries will be made from Clear Lake, and limited deliveries will be make from Gerber Reservoir.

Greg Addington, new executive director for the Klamath Water Users Association, said he believes most farmers are willing to tighten the belt another notch if that's what it takes. But he, too, said long-term solutions are desperately needed.

"We can point fingers all day long," he said, "but the next year comes and we have the same problems."

Fishing groups expressed serious concern about another possible fish kill. The 2002 die-off and the closures now being put in place could cost the industry $100 million in lost income this year, said the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations.

"The West Coast fishing industry is already reeling from port closures caused by too little water in the river in past years," said federation regional director Glen Spain. "All the federal government is doing is setting the stage for more fisheries closures and more massive fish kills in the river in the future."

The operations plan can be viewed at www.usbr.gov/mp/kbao