KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. (AP) — Federal water managers say they hope to be able to give most Klamath Reclamation Project farmers their full ration of water this year.

But conditions are looking a lot like the drought of 2001, when they had to cut off most farms to provide for threatened and endangered fish.

The mountain snowpack that provides much of the region's water is 43 percent of normal, and streamflows from April through September are forecast to be 52 percent of normal into Upper Klamath Lake, the project's primary reservoir.

"We are facing some tough times ahead, I'm afraid," said Dave Sabo, manager of the Klamath Reclamation Project, which serves more than 1,000 farms in an area straddling the Oregon-California border on the east side of the Cascade Range. "It's dry out there. It's a real dry year."

A drought forced the bureau to shut off water to most of the project at the start of the 2001 irrigation season, though water was restored later in the year.

Under the Endangered Species Act, the bureau had to meet minimum water levels for endangered suckers in Upper Klamath Lake and threatened coho salmon in the Klamath River, and did not have enough water for all farms on the project.

Protesters tried to open the headgates letting water into the A Canal in Klamath Falls, and federal marshals were called in to guard them.

Farmers have filed a lawsuit seeking $100 million in damages for the water shutoff from the bureau.

The bureau has much more flexibility now under the latest biological opinion setting water requirements for the fish, Sabo said. It includes a water bank, which pays farmers to let their land go dry or divert water from wells to provide 100,000 acre feet of water for fish. It was not designed to make up for dry years.

The Natural Resources Conservation Service forecast calls for 265,000 acre-feet of water, or 52 percent of average, to flow into Upper Klamath Lake from April to September. The lake is the project's main reservoir.

"The numbers are kind of paralleling 2001," said Jolyne Lea, a streamflow forecaster with the Natural Resources Conservation Service.

Things look even worse for irrigators on the east side of the Klamath Project. Low water levels in Clear Lake and Gerber Reservoir could cut irrigation season in half, even with reduced deliveries, officials said.

The latest inflow forecast numbers have Gerber getting 5,000 acre-feet, or 28 percent of normal, and Clear Lake getting 19,000 acre-feet, or 40 percent of normal, from April through September.

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