TULELAKE — For the first time in four years, water is being pumped from Tulelake to the Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge.
The historic Pumping Plant D in Tulelake Irrigation District (TID) was constructed at the base of Sheepy Ridge in 1942.
TID Manager Brad Kirby said the five massive pumps ran year-round for nearly 70 years.
The D-Plant moves water flows through the mountain ridge along a 6,000-foot tunnel to the Lower Klamath refuge.
At the entrance to the tunnel, Kirby said a pinpoint of light can be seen at the other end.
But in 2020, drought conditions and federal regulations rendered the plant inoperative.
As of Monday morning, the D-Plant is up and running again, pumping water from the Tulelake National Wildlife Refuge through Sheepy Ridge to the Lower Klamath refuge thanks to the efforts of TID, Ducks Unlimited and U.S. Fish and Wildlife.
“This winter, I didn’t know if we’d ever have enough water in sump pump 1A again to turn the D-Plant on,” TID Manager Brad Kirby said.
Klamath Water Users Association and TID boards member Scott Seus said restarting the pumps means “big things” for the Klamath Basin.
“After three years of the refuges being absolutely dry and not having life out here on the landscape, we have the opportunity to bring that life back,” Seus said.
The two wildlife refuges are within the Klamath Project — the local water-management project developed by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
Established as sanctuaries for migrating birds, the Lower Klamath and Tulelake refuges historically supported hundreds of thousands of waterfowl during nesting seasons.
The refuges also served as habitat for sacred Tribal fish species which are now critically endangered.
“If you’re a resident of the Klamath Basin, you know what this means,” Seus said. “It’s a big thing to have waterfowl on the landscape. It’s a big thing to have fish on the landscape with us.”
Seus also emphasized the valuable role local agriculture can and intends to play in restoring local ecosystems.
“The wetlands and farming, this idea that they’re adversarial — they’re not,” Seus said. “They work together.”
“The entire watershed and the ecosystem of the Klamath basin needs water flowing, through this facility in particular, [to keep] water flowing through the Project, through the refuges,” Kirby said.
In previous years, Kirby said the goal had been to minimize drainage on behalf of conservation efforts.
“Everybody’s big on … making sure that all these conservation efforts are in place to save water, but the problem [in] Klamath, [and] the way … the system worked, that [water conservation] was actually a detriment to the ecosystem and wildlife … within the Project.”
‘Flow-through’ system
Earlier this year, KWUA entered into a collaborative agreement with the Klamath Tribes, Yurok Tribe and Karuk Tribe to join efforts to restore the natural ecosystems and input effective water management for irrigators.
A Motion of Understanding was developed as part of the federal Klamath Basin Drought Resilience Keystone Initiative.
According to the MOU, the goal of this collaboration is to bring all invested parties to the table to formulate and undertake restoration projects on behalf of endangered and impacted species and natural habitats, and to improve drought resilience.
Conversations have begun between the parties, with project ideas from the KWUA focusing on their “flow-through” concept.
“[The Klamath Project] moves [water] through to the lower Klamath site and eventually back to the Klamath river, which was the way historically that this project ran,” Seus said.
One project already in place on some farms diverts water flows through manmade wetlands on local farms to filter the water before returning it to the Klamath River.
The wetlands also provide habitat for migrating waterfowl as well as for raising endangered fish.
When the refuges ran dry in 2020, ducklings born to nesting waterfowl died in the tens of thousands from botulism.
Gary Wright, third generation farmer and a member of the Tulelake Irrigation District board, said the die-off of ducklings wasn’t the first, referring to botulism kills during the 1930s.
Wright said the Lower Klamath Basin wetlands were shrinking as flood control efforts were put in place.
“They were having a heck of a problem, but once we fired [the D-Plant] up, all of the sudden, the botulism decreased,” Wright said.
“That is why the flow-through is so important,” he continued. “If we don’t have enough flow-through, we have lots of diseases that get transferred. We have got to make sure that once we fire this baby up that we keep it running.”
With flows returning to both refuges, KWUA Director of Water Policy Moss Driscoll said that the refuges are expecting an estimated 100,000 ducklings this season.
High water
A fortuitous year of precipitation in the Basin made it possible for water diversions throughout the Project.
As Klamath River Renewal Corporation undertakes the removal of four hydroelectric dams along the Klamath River, excess waters could have spelled trouble for the ongoing deconstruction project.
“On Thursday, March 21, TID agreed to [Reclamation’s] request to divert water from the Klamath River, helping manage the risk of potential flooding,” a news release from KWUA said.
According to the release, Reclamation and TID are mitigating the overflows by diverting waters from the Lost and Klamath Rivers.
Lost River diversions are pumped into the Tulelake refuge.
A statement from Reclamation’s Klamath Basin Area Office said upcoming diversions from the Klamath River planned to go to the Klamath Drainage District through Station 48.
KWUA In the News:
Herald and News, March 26, 2024
Original: https://www.heraldandnews.com/news/d-plant/article_f8f29a5e-eb8a-11ee-854c-f7187caff23a.html
Cover Image: Dress in a suit designed to protect the skin in case of an electrical arc mishap, professionals flipped the power switch on at Pumping Plant D in Tulelake, Calif., Monday morning. (Molly O’Brien)
