The complexity of the continuing struggle on the river for adequate water for people and salmon has called for confidential negotiations, which began sometime ago and are now being threatened by public revelations of specific aspects prior to closure.
Discord threatens Klamath River water talks
Klamath: Refuge farms 'a deal-killer'
By David Whitney - McClatchy Washington Bureau
Published 12:00 am PDT Sunday, August 12, 2007
WASHINGTON -- When the House Natural Resources Committee met in July to discuss whether Vice President Dick Cheney had improperly interfered in the battle over Klamath River water, Republicans complained that the hearing could derail negotiations to settle the heated farming vs. fish fight.
"Let's do what's best for the fish, farmers, the tribes and the fishermen," Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., pleaded, with fellow GOP Reps. John Doolittle of Roseville and Wally Herger of Marysville sitting in solidarity with him at the witness table. "Let's encourage them to find common ground, not rub salt in old wounds when they are so close to an historic agreement of enormous significance."
But as the projected November deadline for a deal moves steadily nearer, environmental and Indian tribal leaders are raising concerns that the pact that everyone so desperately wants is in danger of slipping away because of what they see as political manipulation.
"Whatever comes out of these negotiations has to have a scientific basis, rather than a political basis," said Clifford Lyle Marshall, Hoopa Valley Tribe chairman. "There were political strings being pulled before the negotiations started -- and they are still in play."
Critics warn that the evolving 60-year agreement is being shaped by Bush administration officials and is looking more and more like a $250 million-plus gift to irrigators, assuring them of ample water and subsidized power to pump it in exchange for a huge but possibly elusive environmental victory -- knocking down four dams on the river.
The hydroelectric dams are owned by Portland, Ore.-based PacifiCorp, which is no longer involved in the talks.
"PacifiCorp hasn't committed to anything," said Steve Pedery, spokesman and conservation director for Oregon Wild, an environmental group now excluded from the talks because it wouldn't sign on to a binding 23-page "settlement framework" in January.
"The framework is what we had to agree to in order to get a seat at the table with PacifiCorp," Pedery said.
Greg Addington, director of the Klamath Water Users Association and a strong advocate of a negotiated settlement, said he was disappointed that critics are beginning to go public before a deal is done. "I'd hope that we could work these things out amongst ourselves and not in the media," he said. But he added that even among irrigators there are "big concerns," despite assurances of water and subsidized power.
