Transcript

Norm Semanko/John Keys: We went back to basic science

Semanko: We have had some discussion here about reallocation of water, and my question deals with the Klamath Basin and what happened there during 2001. Wasn't that a very poor example of forestry allocation and aren't there better ways to accomplish the needs of that Basin?

Keys: The Klamath situation last year was certainly a tragedy for those folks on the ground because, yes, there was a reallocation of water from the irrigators in the government project to the endangered species, a sucker in the lake and salmon in the river below. What we found in going into it this year is that there are ways to work with the system and make water available. What we are doing is trying to go in and create a water bank so that water will be left in the system to benefit the endangered species and at the same time make our deliveries of water. The biological assessments that we put together did that. One of the other keys to the thing is that we went back to basic science. We had the National Academy of Science come in and review the science behind both of the species, and then we designed our operation around that National Academy of Science report so that we are delivering the water necessary for the fish. We have this water bank where we are actually keeping acres from being irrigated and taking that water and making it available to the two species involved.

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