Comment period has passed- Do not comment

ACTION ALERT!
Please take a few minutes to help stop Oregon from handing out new water use permits in the Klamath Basin.

What is happening
Even though water in the Klamath Basin is already severely overallocated - to the detriment of communities, water quality, fish, wildlife, tribes and commercial and sport fishermen - the Oregon Water Resources Department continues to hand out new, permanent water use permits.

WaterWatch and others recently filed a petition with the Oregon Water Resources Commission asking it to withdraw Klamath Basin waters from further appropriation, with some exceptions, until certain steps taken.  The petition will be considered by the Water Resources Commission on July 29, 2005.  Attached to this email is the petition without all of its attachments.  If you want to read all the petition attachments, check the WaterWatch website (www.waterwatch.org) tomorrow.

What is needed
Written testimony (or letters) to the Commission in support of the petition (see attached sample written testimony).

Deadline: testimony should be received by around 12 noon on Wednesday, July 27, 2005.
Testimony can be faxed to: Water Res. Dept., Attn: Cindy Smith, fax # 503.986.0903.
Testimony can be mailed to:

Oregon Water Resources Commission
c/o Oregon Water Resources Department
725 Summer Street NE, STE A
Salem, OR  97301-1271

·If you miss the deadline, call Lisa Brown at WaterWatch of Oregon (503.295.4039 x26) to arrange for WaterWatch to bring your testimony to the meeting.
·See Some Points You Might Want to Make in Your Testimony below, and feel free to copy from the attached Sample Testimony to Commission.doc.

Background
The simple reality in the Klamath Basin is that too much water has been promised to too many interests.  This has the effect of reducing the river flow to the point where fish die off, and those who benefit from the natural river flows - such as commercial and sport fishermen, recreational users, Native American tribes, and others are harmed.  There is today not enough water, even in normal water years, to satisfy all the legitimate water uses, yet the State of Oregon continues to issue new water appropriation permits in the Klamath Basin.  Since June 2002, the Oregon Water Resources Department has issued approximately 300 cfs in new, permanent ground water permits in the Klamath Basin that threaten to further diminish river flows.

Evidence of overallocation of Klamath River Basin waters includes severely declining fish and wildlife populations; listing of several aquatic species under the federal Endangered Species Act (“ESA”); failure to meet Tribal treaty and trust responsibilities and to provide for subsistence fisheries in the basin; economic harm to upper basin agricultural communities, communities that depend upon commercial salmon fishing, and Klamath River-related tourism and recreation industries; adverse impacts on domestic ground water supplies; and failure to meet the water needs of the basin’s National Wildlife Refuges.  Each year, one or more of these legitimate interests suffer because of the overallocation of this limited and valuable resource.

Severe biological and economic problems already resulting from water overallocation were highlighted in 2002 by the tragic fish-kill on the Klamath River.  Though fish kills in the Klamath River have become all too common, this event was unprecedented in its magnitude, killing up to an estimated 80,000 adult chinook salmon and steelhead spawners, in addition to hundreds of ESA-listed coho.  Additionally, a spring 2002 juvenile fish kill of at least 200,000 has now resulted in very poor adult returns in 2005, triggering widespread ocean troll fishery closures in California and Oregon that may ultimately cost coastal fishing-dependent communities as much as $100 million in lost fishing income and lost markets.

Overallocation of Klamath Basin surface waters has created significant pressure to develop ground water.  The current mining of the basin’s ground water threatens to further diminish flows in the Klamath River.  Concerns over the impacts of increased ground water development on already overallocated streamflows in the basin, prompted the Oregon Water Resources Department and the U.S. Geological Survey (“USGS”) to begin development of a regional scale ground water model for the Klamath Basin.  A recent USGS assessment of the Klamath Pilot Water Bank confirms the important role that the joint study will play in management of the basin and cautions that "until [the Oregon Water Resources Department/USGS ground-water model] is available, water managers must rely on inferences that can be made from the data collected..."

Yet despite undisputed and increasing evidence of hydrological linkage between Klamath ground water and surface water, coupled with the existing overallocation of the river system, Oregon has continued to approve ground and surface water permits in the basin.

Some Points You Might Want to Make in Your Testimony

(also feel free to copy from the attached Sample Testimony to Commission.doc)

·In the Klamath Basin, too much water has been promised to too many interests.  Oregon should stop issuing new water permits in the Klamath Basin so it does not continue to make promises it cannot keep.  Oregon should be working to protect and restore the Klamath Basin, not degrading it further by handing out more water permits.  Overallocation of water in the Klamath Basin threatens economic and social interests of fishermen, tribes, hikers and rafters.

·Low flows in the Klamath River have been implicated in lower river fish-kills that are becoming all too common.  In 2002, low river flows contributed to a spring fish-kill of at least 200,000 out-migrating juvenile salmon and then to a massive adult salmon fish-kill in the fall, with estimates ranging up to 80,000 dead adults.  The juvenile fish-kill has now resulted in very poor adult returns in 2005, triggering widespread ocean troll fishery closures in California and Oregon that may ultimately cost coastal fishing-dependent communities as much as $100 million in lost fishing income and lost markets.

·It is irresponsible for Oregon to hand out more new water use permits before the Klamath Basin adjudication is complete and to hand out new ground water permits before it has completed the joint ground water modeling study with U.S. Geological Survey.

·It is irresponsible for Oregon to hand out new water rights when Tribal fishing and water rights continue to go unmet.

·Personalize your testimony by telling the Commission about any connection you have to the Klamath Basin (for example, fishing, bird watching, canoeing, irrigating, living there) and explaining your concern for the resources at stake.

Thank you very much for your responses to WaterWatch's RiverAction alerts.  Your letters really do help protect Oregon’s rivers.  If you have any questions about the Klamath Basin closure petition or about submitting testimony to the Oregon Water Resources Commission, please give me a call at 503.295.4039 x26, or send me an email at lisa@waterwatch.org.