Yesterday, Judge William H. Orrick ruled on Klamath Tribes v United States Bureau of Reclamation, et al. In a nutshell, he agreed that his San Francisco courtroom was the wrong venue for the case and that it should be tried in Oregon. He also denied the preliminary injunction the Klamath Tribes were requesting.
What does that mean for our communities?
For now, the Project is still irrigating and family farms and ranches will be able to harvest their crops. While that’s good news for our local economy, there’s still a lot of work to be done.
Look at Bly and Chiloquin. These two communities have wells within one mile of rivers that feed Upper Klamath Lake . With the Tribe’s call to protect the c’waam and Koptu in June, water use for these towns has been restricted to human consumption only. This week Bly sent out a press release advising tourists passing through to carry water with them. The Klamath Tribe also announced the closing of the community garden due to water restrictions. Furthermore, in a Facebook post, the mayor Chiloquin shared that a new well won’t be available until the spring of 2019 along with the financial challenges of securing the funds just to get the well in the first place.
This is why we all need to come together and find a solution.
For too long, we’ve been looking at solving the sucker fish problem like it’s a one-way street when it’s an intersection. There are lots of options we need to look at in order help these population recover, but we keep coming back to lake levels only.
As long as the Klamath Project (which is only 2% of the entire Klamath River watershed) is the only focus on the outcome of salmon and suckers, our Basin communities are going to continue to bear the brunt of the lawsuits while our interests are pitted against each other. For that reason alone, if you read Judge Orrick’s decision, this quote from the first page stands out:
“There is reason for all parties to give urgent focus to the health of the sucker fish. The federal defendants represent that this is already happening, and I encourage the engaged scientists for all parties to work collaboratively and expeditiously to protect the sucker fish.”
The c’waam and the Koptu are protected under the ESA, and we are going to keep having calls on the water to protect them. This case will eventually get tried again in Oregon, and who knows what that outcome will be. But that doesn’t mean we should watch and wait.
The best thing we can do – for all of us – is to help these fish recover. By helping them, we’re helping all of our Basin communities thrive.
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