KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. The federal agency overseeing much of the irrigation in and around Klamath Lake will not release water from a canal this year.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is in charge of the Klamath Project, providing irrigation water to Klamath Counties in Oregon and Siskiyou and Modoc Counties in California.
On May 12, water users were notified there wasn’t enough water in Upper Klamath Lake to open the “A Canal” during the 2021 irrigation season. The Bureau of Reclamation said water levels were half of what is needed to charge the canal, even in the absence of any water deliveries.
Klamath water users decry federal decision; zero water for irrigation canal
The Klamath Water User Association said that the A Canal will receive no water for the first year since 1907.
Posted: May 12, 2021 4:16 PM
Updated: May 12, 2021 4:19 PM
Posted By: Jamie Parfitt
KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. Growers in the KLamath Basin on Wednesday lamented the worst day in the history of the Klamath Project, saying that federal officials have allocated zero water for the A Canal, which would normally deliver water for irrigation.
According to the Klamath Water Users Association, A Canal generally diverts water from Upper Klamath Lake to irrigate some 150,000 acres of farmland within Klamath, Modoc, and Siskiyou counties. With the Bureau of Reclamation s decision to leave A Canal dry, the KWUA says that most of the Project will be without a water supply.
The federal Bureau of Reclamation, which operates the Klamath Project, announced Wednesday that deteriorating water conditions in the Klamath Basin led to
click to enlarge Richard Heim, NOAA/NCEI
The federal government is strictly curtailing irrigation this year in an attempt to protect endangered fish important to Indigenous tribes. Farmers say this will make it all but impossible to farm, while tribal groups say the plan doesn t go far enough to save their fisheries.
In mid-April, a farming region in southern Oregon began to release water from the Klamath River into its irrigation canals. According to the local water authority, this was a standard move to jumpstart the farming season during one of the driest seasons in recent memory. But according to the federal government, it was an illegal maneuver that could further jeopardize the survival of multiple endangered species and food sources important to Indigenous tribes and fisheries in the region.