Historical Context

Congress authorized construction and development of the Klamath Project (Project) in 1905. The Project was designed to convert a large proportion of the lakes and marshes of the Upper Klamath Basin to irrigated agricultural lands. To accomplish this, the BOR negotiated with California and Oregon to cede the land underlying Lower Klamath and Tule Lakes to the federal government and received approval from Congress to destroy the navigability of Lower Klamath and Tule Lakes by draining them. One hundred eighty five miles of main canals, 680 miles of lateral canals, and 728 miles of drain ditches with depths ranging from a few feet to 10 feet were subsequently constructed, effectively re-plumbing the Klamath Basin and by 1957, diverting 500,000 acre-feet of water to irrigated agriculture. Today the Project irrigates about 200,000 acres of land and provides water (when available) to about 86,000 acres of National Wildlife Refuge lands. 

Klamath Project. Bureau of Reclamation

"Resolving the Klamath," a history of the project, description of area, problems, etc.

Klamath Basin Timeline

• 1905 -- Approval of the Klamath Project requires Oregon and California, as well as private water rights holders, to relinquish those rights to the federal government, but not all are willing to sell. Owners of the Klamath Canal Company hold out for $200,000 for their rights. The dispute between the company and the Reclamation Service marks the first legal battle over who gets water and who doesn't in the Klamath Basin. Reclamation agrees to pay Hawkins, Brown and Gold $150,000 for their rights and interest in the Klamath Canal Company.
• March 4, 1905 -- The Klamath Water Users Association is organized.
• May 15, 1905 -- Project begins and ends in 1962 with completion of Iron Gate Dam.
• 1908 -- President Teddy Roosevelt establishes the Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge, the nation's first waterfowl refuge.
• 1911 -- Clear Lake National Wildlife Refuge established. Construction begins on the Lost River Diversion Dam and Lost River Diversion Channel.
• 1912 -- Reclamation begins experimental farms in drained Tule Lake marshes.
• 1917 -- 175 homesteaders file for 42 tracts of land. Reclamation signs an agreement with the California-Oregon Power Company (COPCO) to build and operate the Link River Dam.
• 1922 -- Homestead entries are opened to World War I veterans. 
• 1925 -- Potatoes and alfalfa become important Basin crops.
• 1926 -- Water is being delivered to about 21,000 acres.
• 1928 -- Tule Lake and Upper Klamath National Wildlife Refuges are established.
• 1940 -- Construction begins on the Tule Lake diversion including the Sheepy Ridge tunnel, a 6,600-foot east-west culvert that drains Tule Lake into Lower Klamath Lake.
  1941 -- Pumping plant D is built to lift water from Tule Lake into the tunnel.
• 1946 -- Lands for Japanese-American relocation and German prisoner-of-war camps are returned to the Project. A second wave of homestead entries attracts World War II veterans.
• 1954 -- Klamath Termination Act terminates federal recognition of and government services to the Klamath Tribes. The U.S. acquires 800,000 acres of Klamath tribal land.
• 1956 -- The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission licenses a series of dams on the Klamath River.
• 1957 -- The Klamath River Compact between Oregon, California, and the U.S. sets goals and objectives for water management on the Klamath.
• 1958 -- Klamath Forest National Wildlife Refuge is established.
• 1962 -- Iron Gate Dam is built on the Klamath River.  Dawning of a new environmental era.
• 1964 -- Passage of the Kuchel Act ends homesteading and dedicates the remaining Project acres to "the major purpose of waterfowl management, but with full consideration to optimum agricultural use that is consistent therewith." The law enrolls 17,000 acres on Tule Lake refuge and 5,000 acres on Lower Klamath refuge in a lease program for farming.
• 1970 -- The National Environmental Policy Act is passed, requiring federal agencies to analyze the impact of their actions on the land.
• 1973 -- The Endangered Species Act is passed.
• 1975 -- Oregon begins to adjudicate Klamath River water rights.
• 1978 -- The bald eagle is declared a threatened species on Feb. 14. Bear Valley National Wildlife Refuge established to protect bald eagle roost sites.
• 1983 -- U.S. v. Adair, 723 F.2d 1394, 1408-11, 1414-15 (9th Circuit 1983) held that implied water rights to support hunting and fishing rights were guaranteed by treaties between tribes in Oregon and California and the U.S., and that these water rights carried a priority date of "time immemorial."
• 1986 -- Federal legislation "restores" the Klamath Tribes. The Tribes file a petition to have two indigenous species of mullet, commonly referred to as "sucker" fish, listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
• 1988 -- The Lost River and shortnose suckers are listed as endangered species
  1990s -- From 1989 to 2001, a series of biological opinions repeatedly find the Project jeopardizes the suckers.
• 1992 -- A drought focuses attention on the role of lake levels in protecting sucker habitat. The FWS recommends Upper Klamath Lake be kept above a minimum elevation of 4,139.0 feet during summer months, although it allowed that the lake could drop to as low as 4,137.0 feet in four out of 10 years. Other steps are recommended, including fish ladders, screens and a sucker salvage program to remove suckers each fall when canals are drained and return them to the lake.
  For the first time in the Klamath Reclamation Project's history, irrigation deliveries are curtailed.
• April 1993 -- A final recovery plan for suckers is approved by the wildlife service.
• 1994 -- A second drought hits the Klamath Basin. The surface elevation of Upper Klamath Lake falls to 4,136.86 feet on Sept. 27, the lowest level since records began in 1905. With salmon stocks dwindling, commercial fishing for coho salmon is halted from Washington to California.
  Dec. 1, 1994 -- FWS proposes a rule defining critical sucker habitat in Clear Lake Reservoir.
• 1995 -- Reclamation begins operating according to an annual plan. Klamath Province steelhead trout are proposed for ESA protection.
• 1995 - 1997 -- Large numbers of suckers die in a series of fish kills.
  Scientists studying the lake begin to focus on the roles of algae, nutrients, temperature, ammonia and alkalinity in triggering periodic die-offs of suckers.
• 1995 - 2001 -- As scientists learn more about suckers and the lake, they begin to suspect that fish die-offs entail more factors than previously known and begin to call for higher lake levels.
• 1996 -- Reclamation agrees to meet minimum instream flows below Iron Gate Dam to protect habitat for anadromous fish.
• 1996 -- An Interior Department solicitor published a legal opinion that water for Native American tribal trust obligations and endangered species take precedence over deliveries of irrigation water to farmers and wildlife refuges.
• June 6, 1997 -- Coho salmon are listed as a threatened species.
• After 1997 -- Reclamation operates the project to maintain the level of Upper Klamath Lake above the required minimum.
• 1998-99 -- Winter storms bury Oregon with the heaviest snows since 1974. Record snowfall at Crater Lake.
• 1999 -- Critical habitat is defined for the coho. On July 12, a biological opinion from the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) concludes project operations would affect, but not likely jeopardize, coho.
  A study by Thomas Hardy, a Utah State University hydrologist, is published in the fall. It calls for instream flows to protect the fish far higher than those set by FERC, or those agreed to by Reclamation in 1996.
• 1999 Klamath Water Users v. Patterson.  Irrigators claimed PacifiCorp does not have a legal duty to operate the dam to meet its ESA obligation. The district court held that the Irrigators' rights to water are subservient to the ESA.
• 2000 -- At a conference of environmental groups and wildlife refuge officials, Klamath Project farmers announce they are willing to sell as much as 30,000 acres of farm land, following four years of profitless growing. Imperial Holly announces it will no longer contract to grow sugar beets in Oregon. Potato farmers, hit by another profitless season, seek to have the federal government buy a portion of their crop for dumping.

2001

• January -- Lack of snowfall presages another drought period.
• Feb. 22 -- Federal officials declare a drought.
• March 1 -- Project manager announces irrigating water may not be available.
• March 9 -- Project farmers stage a rally at the Bureau of Reclamation offices; more than 400 participate. Environmental groups file notice they will sue if water is diverted to farms.
• March 13 -- A new BiOp from FWS calls for a minimum elevation in Upper Klamath Lake of 4,140.0 feet above sea level to protect suckers.
• March 19 -- A new BiOp from NMFS calls for increased flows below Iron Gate Dam to protect coho salmon habitat.
• March 29 -- Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber declares a drought and asks Secretary of Agriculture to provide emergency aid.
• March 31 -- The Klamath Project's 2000 operating plan expires.
• April 1-2 -- Interior Department, Klamath Project officials and scientists from NMFS and FWS are called to Washington to review the biological opinions and proposed 2001 operating plan. Discussions continue through the weekend with Vice President Dick Cheney's staff.
• April 4 -- A district court judge rules the Klamath Project is in violation of the Endangered Species Act and cannot deliver irrigating water. The judge also declares the Hardy Phase I report the "best available science" for protecting coho.
• April 6 -- The Department of Interior announces that no irrigation water will be available from Upper Klamath Lake. A compromise lake elevation is arrived at to protect sucker habitat and provide sufficient water for salmon. Clear Lake and Gerber Reservoir are tapped for 70,000 acre-feet of water for farmers in Langell Valley and Horsefly irrigation districts. The Department of Agriculture approves emergency aid for the Project's 1,500 farmers.
• Nov.  -- The Secretary of the Interior requests the National Academy of Sciences convene a panel to assess the science used by NMFS and FWS in developing BOs for BuRec Operations Plans for Klamath Project.

Post-2001

• Spring 2002 -- NRC panel releases an interim report finding insufficient support for a causal relationship between higher lake levels and river levels and fish survival. Secretary of the Interior Norton declares that this comprises the "best available science" for protecting endangered fish.
  FWS under the Bush Administration reverses course and withdraws the 2001 Environmental Assessment and 1998 Compatibility Determination.  Agriculture provided with full water deliveries; flows in Klamath River reduced sharply.
• Fall 2002 -- Approximately 34,000 salmon die in the Klamath River in one of the largest adult fish die-off in western U.S. history.
• January 2003 -- California Department of Fish and Game (CDF&G) releases report finding that high densities of fish in the lower river (below Iron Gate Dam) resulting from low streamflows and restricted passage, 2) warm temperatures¨C stressful to salmonids, and 3) consequent favorable conditions for transmission and outbreak of salmonid diseases lead to fish mortality.
• April 2003 -- Independent Multidisciplinary Science Team Review of the USFWS and NMFS 2001 Biological Opinions on Management of the Klamath Reclamation Project and Related Reports.  Governor John Kitzhaber asked the IMST to "review the information and offer an independent assessment of the science used to establish lake levels and instream flow targets for suckers and coho" in Upper Klamath Lake and the Klamath River below Iron Gate Dam. The CDF&G report also concluded that the only environmental factor of the three that can be controlled effectively by human management is Klamath River streamflows below Iron Gate Dam. A report of the Independent Multidisciplinary Science Team, Oregon Plan for Salmon and Watersheds   Technical Report 2003-1, April 16, 2003.
• Fall 2003 -- FWS releases its findings on the fall 2002 fish die-off and arrives at substantially the same conclusion as CDF&G.  "Low river discharges apparently did not provide suitable attraction flows for migrating adult salmon, resulting in large numbers of fish congregating in the warm waters of the lower River. The high density of fish, low discharges, warm water temperatures, and possible extended residence time of salmon created optimal conditions for parasite proliferation and precipitated an epizootic of Ich and columnaris".
• February 2004 -- NRC releases its Final Report.
• February 2004 -- PacifiCorp notice of application for relicensing Iron Gate Dam on the Klamath River in the Klamath Project
• January 2005 -- PacifiCorp notifies Oregon officials that with the expiration of its 50 year contract to run the dams in the KB they will be raising electricity rates. This will affect farmers, as the cost to pump irrigation water will increase. Rates may increase by tenfold. The low rates were a condition when the government let PacifiCorp's predecessor build hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River in 1917. Farmers say the company remains obligated to continue the discount, but PacifiCorp says it is not.
• January 2005 -  Bureau of Reclamation announces implementation of the 2005 Water Bank for the Klamath Basin. The Water Bank consists of several programs, including on- and off-project storage, groundwater pumping, and dryland operation.