November 6, 2009 Issue #1 Klamath Resource Users Reporter
What do the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement (KBRA) and Agreement in Principle (Dam Removal Agreement / AIP) actually say?
People living in various ends of the Klamath River Watershed,who have studied the KBRA and AIP, present facts about the
two ‘agreements’ and how the ‘agreements’ would affect them,
facts that your local newspapers won’t print.
Inside this Issue
Voices of the KRU/letters
The New Regional Governors
by Frank Tallerico…………………..…2
Rogue Valley water supply to be
harmed, by Dee Clary ……………....3
Karuk Tribal Member speaks out, by
James Waddell………………………. 4
Off-Project voices denied seat at table,
by Tom Mallams………………………5
10 Impacts of Klamath River dam removal, by Dr. and Cherie Gierak...6Dam removal agenda attacks people and environment, by Rex Cozzalio…7Uncle Sam wants your water, by Anthony Intiso…………...…….…..8
Klamath Basin Alliance Opinion onthe KBRA, by Steve Rapalyea…...…9
“We” have a plan for you, by Al King.10
Press Releases of 3 public hearings.11
Contact your representatives………..12 / Make a difference! If you don’t show up
and speak up, no one will hear you.
November 2009 Upcoming Events
See Page #11 for details!
Our elected officials are hosting the Nov. 10th and 12th meetings to hear YOU. Please come!
November 10th Klamath Falls: Public listening session on Klamath Dam removal and KBRA hosted by Senator Whitsett, and Reps Gilman and Garrard
November 12th Yreka: Klamath “Hydro Agreement”
dam removal public hearings
November 16-18 Public Scoping Meeting for input on possible changes to DFG's Suction Dredge Program
* Write your reps! 50 voices. 5000 voices.
* Copy and Share this newsletter!
You will find this newsletter at www.klamathbasincrisis.org/kru/voices to print and share
Matthew 7:15: "Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing,
but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.”
1
The New Regional Governors
By FRANK TALLERICO, Retired, Siskiyou County Superintendent of Schools
If the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement, which includes the removal of 4 hydro-electric generating dams on the Klamath River, does indeed come to pass, the entire region would come under the control of the Klamath Basin Coordinating Council and the Technical Advisory Team to coordinate implementation. The term of the agreement is for 50 years and can be extended by the parties to the agreement, and some water provisions would be permanent. This council is made up of representatives from the following: 3 federal agencies, 1 California agency, 3 Oregon agencies, 4 Tribes, 1 Oregon county, 2 California counties, On-project irrigators and at least 10 non-governmental-organizations.
This Governance Agreement will provide for NEW DECISION MAKING AUTHORITIES OR CHANGE EXISTING STATE AND FEDERAL LAWS.
The citizens of the region will not be able to vote for these council members, they will be appointed by the organization of which they represent. And upon the effective date of the Agreement the Parties will initiate the interim Governance Council for the purpose of making recommendations to the federal agencies. The appropriate federal agency will immediately undertake the formal steps to obtain CHARTERS for the Klamath Basin Coordinating Council and necessary subgroups.
These Charters will then govern the Klamath River Basin and local control will have been wrested from local government, the last voice of the people.
Is this the kind of government we want for the region?
1: No election provision of the governing bodies officers by the general population
2: Who, other than the signatories, will have oversight authority over these Councils that have given themselves a 50 year lifespan plus opportunity for more?
Appendix C-1 Dated January 28, 2008, of the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement
Part 1: Purpose and Scope of Governance of the Klamath River Basin Restoration Agreement
Part 2: Klamath Basin Coordinating Council (A.) Purpose and Function (B) Organization and Membership (C) Roles and Responsibility (D) Operations (E) Funding
2
Rogue Valley water supply to be harmed by KBRA
By DEE CLARY, irrigator in Talent, Oregon
My husband and I live in Talent, Oregon on ten “irrigated” acres. The Talent Irrigation District is our irrigation supplier. In the ten years we have lived here, we have never had a satisfactory irrigation season because our ditch always runs out of water by August. In spite of the fact that we have to do without irrigation during the driest months of the year, we, nonetheless, are able to graze cattle for a short time, and we now genuinely fear that if the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement is finally approved, our irrigation rights will become null and void due to a total lack of water. “…*the KBRA goes after 30,000 acre foot irrigation diversion to the Rogue Basin…”[1] Because our irrigation water originates in the Klamath runoff, there are many of us here in the Rogue Valley who ultimately will be affected greatly by removal of the Klamath dams. Our TID irrigation rights, our groundwater, and the value of our properties all will be in jeopardy.
In September of this year, there were two fires of note in our area, and both would have burned many more acres if water which originated in the Klamath runoff had not been utilized to put them out. In Medford’s Deer Ridge fire, helicopters retrieved irrigation water from a nearby pond which is supplied by water stored in 4 Mile, Fish Lake and the Butte Creeks, all of which get their inflow from the Klamath watershed.[2]
In Ashland, the Siskiyou fire was likewise fought with choppers pulling water from Emigrant Lake, which is directly supplied by Howard Prairie Lake and Hyatt Reservoir. Intercepted flows also run from Soda Creek, Little Beaver Creek and Keene Creek in the Klamath River Basin to Emigrant Lake and Bear Creek, and eventually, into the Rogue Basin.[3]
At a time, nationally, when large and small businesses are closing down weekly due to a failing economy, the attempt to ruin the rural economies of Southeastern Oregon and Northern California by demolishing dams that provide clean, inexpensive hydroelectric power and irrigation to farmers and ranchers seems ill-conceived at best. The KBRA will have long-lasting, and possibly dangerous, repercussions for the residents of both States. It must be stopped!
Karuk Tribal Member speaks out
BY JAMES WADDELL
I am a landowner of Siskiyou County and lived there for over half a century. I live here at this time because of medical conditions. I have fellow family members that are landowners in the Klamath River lands. I am a descendant of gold mining settlers and of the Karuk People of the Klamath River. I do not wish for my friends and relatives to be flooded out, mudded out, or devalued out of their homes for reasons of greed and political power.
Federal criminal law is explicit regarding a violation of oath of office by federal officials…: 18 U.S.C. 1918.
According to the Constitutions of the United States of America, of California and of Oregon, members of the legislature and all public officers and employees shall take an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States and these subsequent Constitutions.
These Agreements regarding the Klamath River, which are called the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement, the Agreement in Principle and the Klamath Hydroelectric Settlement Agreement, are proposals. These proposals are being written by people who do not have legal authority under these Constitutions to write new laws nor to control the lives of citizens.
Therefore, the subject officers and employees of the Federal government, the California government and the Oregon Government, who participate in these proposals that will harm the citizens, are in violation of their oaths of office.
These proposals only become perceived as binding agreements when signed by one or more persons who agree to the specific terms of those proposals. If a person, or representatives of citizens, signs an Agreement, that person is agreeing to abide by all of the terms of that particular Agreement.
These proposals are not about helping salmon or about guaranteeing water to resource users anywhere. These political actions that sue people or threaten to sue people are really about the use and control of water, and the usurpation of water rights from rain run-off to surface water to underground water. These proposals seek to get rid of country folks by harming them beyond recovery.
I do not agree with any proposal to remove the Klamath River dams. I do not wish to have Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors sign any of these proposals described above.
4
Off-Project voices denied seat at table
BY TOM MALLAMS, President, Klamath Off-Project Water Users. KOPWU has been at the KBRA negotiation table but is not allowed at the dam removal negotiation. Their group formed to deal only with power rate issues and FERC Klamath dam relicensing process, and not land, water or tribal land issues.
We are all in perilous times. Our voices are being ignored on a regular basis.
In the Off-Project area, 100,000 acres of irrigated ag land has already been idled and that is still not enough. Big government, Tribes and environmental groups want an additional 30,000 acre feet of water idled in the upper basin. I don’t know of any land being idled in the Klamath Reclamation Project. We do not think any ag land should be idled.
Water is the life blood of our agricultural land and agriculture is the life blood of all our communities. The timber industry was decimated.
Our existing irrigator groups have been denied a seat at the KBRA and dam removal meetings.
Resource Conservancy and Sprague River Water Resource Foundation have been serving and advocating for our irrigators for decades, settling hundreds of water rights claims in the Oregon State Adjudication process. We represent over 100,000 acres of irrigated, productive ag land.
A new small group, Upper Klamath Water Users, was formed to claim Off-Project irrigators are in favor of dam removal and the KBRA. They were granted a seat at both KBRA and dam removal meetings to attempt painting a picture of upper basin support. That upper basin support does not exist.
One of their board members is Becky Hyde, who now finally openly admits to being a paid consultant to Sustainable Northwest, an environmental group based in Portland, who is a consultant for the Klamath Tribes. Sustainable Northwest has spent over $447,000 in the Klamath Basin in one 12 month period that we know of. Becky Hyde's paycheck for that same period was just short of $64,000. Another $112,487 was paid to Natural Heritage Institute which is a non-profit law office that is one of the main authors of the actual KBRA. The Upper Klamath Basin Water Users attorney Greg Corbin is paid by Sustainable Northwest, and he is also on Sustainable Northwest's Board of Directors. It sure seems like there is a huge conflict of interest in this tangled web of conspiracy.
Everyone needs to spread the word about the Public Comment Meeting on Tuesday the 10th of November at the Klamath County fairgrounds and in Yreka on the12th of November. Every person is going to be affected by these two "agreements", and *NOW* is the time to stand up and voice your opinion whether you are for or against this.
5
10 Impacts of Klamath River dam removal
By DR RICHARD AND CHERIE GIERAK, Yreka, Calif.
I hold degrees in Biology, Chemistry and a Doctorate in the Healing Arts and have been a resident on the Klamath River for 24 years. During those years I have been a member of the FERC Hatchery evaluation and the Fish Passage advisory teams in 2000 through 2002. My wife Cherie is a published author and we are Moral Conservationists.
We are on Social Security and own 20 acres on the river.
Removal of these dams will result in the following impacts upon our lives:
1. To remove three hydroelectric dams will result in higher electricity charges and place a burden upon our resources.
2. Any replacement for power production cannot be as environmentally friendly as hydroelectric dams
3. Historically in a dry summer there will be only swamps and marshes without the dams
4. Historically in a wet winter there will be inundating floods without the dams
5. Property values will plummet and destroy all we have worked for these 24 years and destroy the legacy we have built for our children and grandchildren.
6. Salmon populations will decline even further without reservoir flow control during spawning
7. Present ecological system above Iron Gate will be decimated with bacteria, fungi and parasites which will be allowed to enter their environment without the dams
8. The beauty of living on this historic river will vanish and become a threatening disaster both in a dry summer and a wet winter.
9. I have dredged on the river for over 20 years and scientifically it has proven to be a positive effect on same and have now been denied access on my own patented mining claim property.
10. Without the ability to pump water from the river we can expect a stand of over 500 Pines to revert to the bark beetle infested property which we encountered in 1987 and were informed by a local Forester that all the trees would perish in the coming years.
These ten items represent our most immediate concerns and fears over the removal of these environmentally friendly dams and to remove them is lunacy.
6
Dam removal agenda attacks people and environment
BY REX COZZALIO, 4TH generation rancher on the Klamath River
We are 4 generations at the same location living intertwined with the Klamath River just downriver from where Iron Gate dam now sits. Living immediately below the dams and above any significant confluence, our specific area is cited as experiencing the greatest isolated direct evidence of dams’ effects. We are located over 50 to 180 miles and many tributaries in either direction from the nearest groups seeking benefits for claimed impacts. I am in the river well over 50 times a year for over 50 years, before and after Iron Gate, as my grandfather before me. The primary reason we have all remained at this location for generations in an increasingly economically depressed area is the love of the river and the communities we cherish. Between us, our family has earned over 11 degrees through doctorate, have been intimately involved with the ‘process’ described below, and have traveled to D.C., Oregon, and CA meeting with agencies and legislators.