Irrigators disappointed by Bureau of Reclamation’s 230,000 acre-feet allocation from Upper Klamath Lake
Water users in the Klamath Basin will not receive the full allocations they’d hoped for this year.
The Bureau of Reclamation announced the initial water allocations for 2024 on Monday afternoon, providing 230,000 acre-feet of water from Upper Klamath Lake — 30,0000 less than the 2023 allocation.
Members of the Klamath Water Users Association said they were “deeply disappointed.”
“Overall, water conditions in the Klamath Basin are favorable,” KWUA director of water policy Moss Driscoll said in the release. “It’s even better than last year, when the allocation was higher.”
Reclamation has not yet provided responses to inquiries from the Herald and News.
In 2023, a total of 260,000 acre-feet of water were allocated to irrigators in the Klamath Project.
“For … 200,000 acres (of farmlands), an allocation of 230,000 acre-feet equates to approximately two-thirds of historical irrigation demand,” Driscoll said.
Paul Simmons, executive director of the KWUA, said that because of how water is required to be distributed, some local family farms might remain dry for a fifth year running.
“Upper Klamath Lake will be completely full for the first time in seven years, and the snowpack is in good shape for this time of year,” Simmons said. “Yet we are looking at the fifth-worst allocation in the 120 years since the Klamath Project was authorized.”
According to the National Weather Service of Portland water supply outlook, snowpack relative to the Klamath Basin is slightly above the median at 110%.
The region, however, is still within the abnormally dry to moderate drought range as of April 4.
Driscoll said that the KWUA has asked Reclamation to refrain from making any formal allocations for the districts and individuals within the Klamath Project.
“No district water users have, at this time, received any notice that water is unavailable to them,” Driscoll said, noting that all districts are still taking and fulfilling all water orders received.
“Reclamation’s operations plan makes no firm commitment to update the Project allocation,” Driscoll said.
However, he said, Reclamation is following a “formulaic approach” which requires updates to the allocation based on the latest inflow forecasts issued by the National Resource Conservation Service.
We anticipate an updated, potentially increased, allocation based on the May 1 and June 1 inflow forecasts,” Driscoll said.
Though the forecast might call for larger allocations, those flows may come too late for some Project irrigators.
In the KWUA news release, board member and third-generation farmer Rob Unruh said, “I can’t plan or finance a crop based on water that I don’t know about today.”
“Water managers need to look out the window, not at old spreadsheets,” Simmons said in the release.
Reclamation also announced this year’s allotted relief funding, totaling $8.5 million for the Klamath Project Drought Response Agency no-irrigation program.
“That figure is lower than recent years,” Driscoll said. “We have asked for it to be increased to the extent feasible.”
Driscoll said the KPDRA is now accepting applications for the relief program.
“The goal is that with sufficient participation in this program, no involuntary curtailments will be necessary this year.”
