Following the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s announcement of an agricultural water supply of 230,000 acre-feet this year, the Board of Klamath County Commissioners were crestfallen by the allocation.
“The (federal) agencies had an absolute miss. This allocation absolutely makes no sense — it defies all logic. How these decisions are continually being made to a community that is already reeling, is baffling,” Commissioner Derrick DeGroot said at Tuesday’s meeting.
Irrigators will receive 35% less than the estimated need and the allocation is the fifth-worst in the Klamath Project’s 120-year history. The allocation was determined based on management criteria outlined in the Bureau of Reclamation’s 2020 interim operations plan and on an analysis of existing hydrologic conditions and inflow forecasts conducted by the Natural Resource Conservation Service.
Detailed in the 2024 annual operations plan, the Klamath Project’s initial allocation is 230,000 acre-feet from Upper Klamath Lake, 35,000 acre-feet from Gerber Reservoir and 35,000 to 40,000 acre-feet from Clear Lake Reservoir for the irrigation season.
“It was a Herculean effort made by our local agriculture members to water up the refuge. They received no support from the federal government, who are responsible for them, which is also extraordinarily disappointing,” DeGroot said. “We had an opportunity to completely re-water up the refuges and they (federal government) called it quits; it’s completely disappointing.”
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s 2024 operational plan is in effect through September (with a limited number of diversions through November for some irrigators) and is enforceable by federal law.
KWUA In the News:
Herald and News, April 17, 2024
https://www.heraldandnews.com/news/klamath-county-commissioner-calls-water-allotment-absolute-miss/article_f07d486e-fc48-11ee-a3cd-ab090f399fe2.html
