Irrigation water supply for the Klamath Project (Project) this year will be woefully short of the needs of family farms and ranches, according to Klamath Water Users Association (KWUA).
Today, the Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) announced an initial supply figure of 221,000 acre-feet from Upper Klamath Lake. This is just over half of what is needed.
“It’s much less than what we want to hear, although realistically not less than what we expected at this time,” said KWUA Executive Director Elizabeth Nielsen. “The entire west is in a drought, with negligible snowpack remaining in the Klamath Basin. On top of that, we have an unworkable set of regulatory requirements that can’t be changed in time for this season.”
