Celebrate Moms!

The staff of Klamath Irrigation District wish all the the people we call Mom to have a Happy Mother's Day This Weekend

NOTICE: The Klamath Project Drought Response Agency is accepting Applications for the no-irrigation program through 5pm on 15 June 2022.

Read the KPDRA No-Irrigation Program Flyer.

Visit the KPDRA Web Page to find an application.

NOTICE: K.I.D. is observing significant losses in the D Canal. We will be conducting an audit of the system this weekend as we reduce flows into the D canal to find the source of the loss.

The A7 Lateral is currently under emergency repair.

Emergency repairs were required on portions of the A, B, C, F, F1, D, D19 canals, and numerous leaking turnouts. It appears we have initially addressed our primary concerns; additional work will be needed after the irrigation season is complete to validate the issues are fixed. We are currently in the process of securing a supply of bentonite clay to repair some of the damages we have identified.

We anticipate being able to return to our weed abatement maintenance activities in about 2 weeks. It takes approximately 8 weeks for the mower to cover the District area (assuming no mechanical failures or delays in receiving repair parts).

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Context for the Bureau of Reclamation’s 2022 Upper Klamath Lake Allocations

Here is what water year 2022 is shaping up to look like:

Text Link

Governor Brown's Letter to Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland

"Funds available through this Act should be used to implement actions to help permanently reduce the high demand, such as improving water delivery and user efficiency. Rather than idling acres for one year, funds could purchase marginal irrigated farmland with the intent to change from irrigation to dryland farming."

Read the entire letter

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Photo acquired from MyOregon.gov

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Klamath Water Users Association responds to Governor Brown's Letter.

"In this basin, federal water policy is stopping food production on some of the best farmland in the world and causing irreparable harm to rural communities and wildlife of the Pacific Flyway.

Since October 1, 2021, over one-half million acre-feet of water has flowed into Upper Klamath

Lake in Klamath County, Oregon. Virtually all of that water has been, or will be, released to provide flows in the Klamath River in California based on assumptions and hypotheses that have no support in real-world data."

Read the entire response

Klamath Irrigation District responds to Governor Brown's Letter.

"K.I.D. is concerned with [Governor Brown's] suggestion for long-term solutions without first engaging and discussing with local representatives and governments responsible for implementing such actions.

Where we specifically find issue is in the suggestion that permanently idling some of the world’s most productive farmland will be beneficial; we believe this approach is overly simplistic and short sighted as the world population continues to grow and the need for food security/stability is increasing."

Read the full response

Drought conditions correlate to strong 2022 coho numbers as seen in several other studies

Scott River Coho age class 1+ outperforming all age classes since 2001. Numerous studies indicate coho are resilient to drought, prefer low-flow conditions, and their preferred habitat is in the tributaries, not mainstem rivers.

2022 Salmon Outmigration Analysis

Moss Discoll with the Klamath Water Users Association analyzes the data from various sources monitoring salmonid health. Recently he summarized...

For fish sampled between 4/20 and 4/26, although roughly half of juvenile Chinook in the Scott-Shasta reach exhibited exposure to C. shasta, essentially none at measurable levels in terms of infection (i.e., qPCR C. shasta DNA “copy number over 3 logs”). The prior survey (4/12) found one in every six fish having been exposed, but again at negligible levels.

With respect to actual fish catch data, out of 364 juvenile Chinook salmon sampled at four sites between 4/26 and 4/29, nine (9) fish exhibited some sort of “distended belly” (i.e., 2%). That was eight (8) fish at the Bogus Creek frame net and one (1) fish at the I5 rotary screw traps and frame nets. Only two such fish had been found previously (one each at I5 and Kinsman between 4/12 to 4/15).

One fish at Bogus Creek out of 217 sampled at all four sites had “pale or worse” gill color. One such fish had been found previously (at I5 in the 4/12-4/15 sample)

Water temperatures have increased, most notably into the mid-50s (F) at the Kinsman site (just upstream Scott River), which would be expected to result in an increase in C. shasta infection rates. Again, spore content and temperature are correlated with disease rates, with 20 spores per liter and/or 20 degrees Celsius (68 degrees Fahrenheit) being the apparent inflection point.

One apparent observation is the lack of any discernable effect of the “surface flushing flow”, although to be fair, annelid and polychaete data should be where the effect is most apparent. KWUA is working on obtaining that data.

This year – from the initial justification for the flush to its subsequent results – would seem to reinforce the conclusion that under the current conditions (i.e., Hardy flows out of the four hydroelectric reservoirs) salmonid disease is essentially unavoidable but for: 1) favorable water temperatures, and/or 2) manipulated (“surface flushing”) flow events. This year would further seem to add weight to the fact that water temperatures are the real key to keeping disease in check – fish have been and continue to exposed notwithstanding the partial flush, yet have a low to negligible level of infection.

Read the Arcata Fish and Wildlife Office 25 April 2022 Update.

Klamath Irrigation District Water Management and Conservation Plan

Several recent inquires to Klamath Irrigation District focus on what is the District doing to promote greater efficiencies. Our Water Manager and Conservation Plan describes our history, our current situation, and is our fist step in answering this question.

Read about the District and our plan.

To support the District's SCADA project, Sam Swanson, FCA Engineer, coordinated with FCA staff and Gene Souza, District Manager, to develop an Oregon Water Resources Department Water Project Grant application. This application will support the installation of monitoring sensors at approximately 20 sites and automation controls at 3 sites and will be matched with the Reclamation WaterSMART grant already secured by the District. We appreciate the cooperation and direction from Gene and District staff as we developed the application.

Additionally, Julie O’Shea, FCA Executive Director, and Amanda Schroeder, FCA Program Specialist, continue to work with KID and other irrigation districts in the Klamath Basin to develop a project list for projects with costs of less than $10M that could be implemented over the next two years. On April 13, Amanda met with Gene to confirm the projects for which we will develop a strategy for funding and implementation.

Upcoming Events

Klamath Water Users Association

Directors Meeting

11 May 2022 at 2pm in Klamath Water Users Association Conference Room

Read KWUA's April Newsletter.

Read KWUA's 2022 Annual Report

Klamath Irrigation District Directors Meeting

12 May 2022 at 1pm in the K.I.D. Conference Room

Read K.I.D.'s 2022 Operations Policy

News Stories Recently Shared with us

Nitrogen prices hit ceiling, drop on wholesale market

The unprecedented spike in nitrogen fertilizer prices that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine appears to have hit its limit, but costs are expected to remain elevated, experts say.

Oregon weighs direct on-farm food safety inspections

CORVALLIS, Ore. — Oregon farm regulators may decide to take over fresh produce safety inspections from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration next year. The FDA began performing inspections in Oregon in 2019 to implement the Food Safety Modernization Act. Read more

Central Oregon hemp farmers pivot to other crops as market prices tank

May 1, 2022

By Suzanne Roig

For the second year in a row, Ekena Farms on Bear Creek Road in Bend won’t be planting hemp. At $1 a pound, the farm can’t grow enough to cover expenses. In its heyday, hemp sold for $40 a pound.

“It’s sad because hemp is an incredible plant,” said Jonathan Tebault, owner of Ekena Farms LLC in Bend. “It just didn’t pencil out. I tried it for two years.”

Oregon Water Conditions Report

May 2, 2022

Thus far in 2022, 11 counties have received Executive Orders issuing state drought declarations, while four additional counties have requested drought declarations.

According to the US Drought Monitor, over 86% of Oregon is classified as experiencing moderate (D1) to exceptional (D4) drought conditions. There have been a number of changes in drought coverage and severity to varying degrees between western and eastern Oregon over recent weeks.

5-2-22 Water Conditions Report

Irrigators Face Cuts as Food Supply Concerns Mount

Western producers continue strong push to protect irrigated agriculture

Farmers and ranchers across the Western United States continue their struggles for water, at a time when war in Ukraine, sanctions and destroyed ports could take a significant portion of the world’s grain supply out of production or off the market this year.

“Drought persists across Western and central North America, the heart of our wheat, barley, corn and soybean supply,” said Ty Kliewer, who farms in Klamath County, Oregon. “In the meantime, irrigated agriculture that was built to provide security at precisely this moment, is being dried up by our government.”

CLICK HERE to download the PDF of the May 2022 “Monthly Briefing” to read more about this issue, and other matters of importance to Western producers and water managers: