The battle between the farmers of Klamath Falls, Ore. and the endangered suckerfish of the same region, over who has the first rights to the water in this drought year, is coming to a head this week.
On Thursday, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is scheduled to spin the valve and slam shut the temporary supply of water to the farmers. If it does, it may be an end to the farms, the stock and ultimately to the farmers’ way of life. No one is sure just what’s going to happen because sympathizers are flooding into Klamath Falls from all over the west, and it’s dry and hot and people are angry. Some are armed.
Part of that procession of sympathizers began here in Malibu on Aug. 15 when a group of farmers and ranchers, hunters and fishermen, with their picket signs, pickups and flatbed trucks, began the long trek up the coast to Oregon.
It was a classic confrontation. The pickup and Budweiser crowd come to the land of chardonnay, SUVs and TV cameras to look for help and support. They succeeded, at least in the latter. The television and newspaper coverage has followed them up the coast.
Up to now in the battle for water, the fish have been ahead. In April, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a “biological opinion” to the Bureau of Reclamation stating that it is required under the Endangered Species Act to maintain specific water levels to protect the endangered fish. The Bureau of Reclamation then ordered the local irrigation districts to withhold water from approximately 1,400 farms in the Klamath basin to protect the fish.
There is an Endangered Species Act that protects the fish, but apparently there is not an Endangered Farmers Act, so the water was shut off. The resulting explosion led to the taps being reopened for a short period of time. They are due to be closed on Thursday, but something may be changing.
The farmers have challenged the science put forth by the environmentalists. They charge that it’s not peer reviewed. They say it’s not an open process. They say only government agencies are involved in the review process and that the farmers and their allies are all but excluded from the process. They charge the environmental community’s assumptions are questionable or at least arguable and, in some cases, simply wrong. And surprise of surprises, the Bureau of Reclamation is beginning to agree.
The bureau just issued a letter calling for major changes in the guidelines for protecting the endangered fish. It has told the agencies involved they have to be more flexible and open to peer review by independent scientists. To sum it up, the reclamation bureau has told the other federal agencies, “You can’t just be arbitrary about this. You’ve got to be fair.”
I bring this all up because we have similar situations locally.
The alphabet soup of federal, state, county, regional and city agencies that impact our little town is staggering. The Regional Water Quality Control Board, the California State Parks, California Fish & Game, the Army Corp of Engineers, the National Marine Fisheries, the California Coastal Commission, the Coastal Conservancy, the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and a legion of politicians, private and public trusts, all making policy, and many feeding at the same trough that Malibu periodically replenishes with bond money.
As in Oregon, these agencies and commissions are sometimes right and probably just as often wrong. They trip over each other. They all compete and grab for the dollars for their agency or cause. They crank out reports by the pound. They support an entire industry of consultants and impact every aspect of our lives.
Anyone who has ever tried to add a toilet, build a tool shed, ford a creek, ride a horse in the hills or keep governmental commercial development out of their neighborhood knows the frustration those farmers must feel when you get trapped in the labyrinth designed by Kafka.
You can’t help but wish them luck and be thankful it’s not you.