Press - Page 21 - WaterWatch

Irrigation Empire: Water could someday be treated like a commodity

Irrigation Empire: Water could someday be treated like a commodity By David Hendee Omaha World-Herald July 22, 2007 Access to water is shrinking across Nebraska. As accessibility tightens, the growing value of the state’s greatest natural resource will trigger economic changes that stretch from Alliance to Omaha. Farmers pump more underground water for crops

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Tear it out?: Study will determine the future of Gold Ray Dam, which officials say is no longer practical

Tear it out?: Study will determine the future of Gold Ray Dam, which officials say is no longer practical By Mark Freeman Mail Tribune July 14, 2007 The 35-foot-tall concrete wall that spans the Rogue River makes Gold Ray Dam a large form with very little function. The turbines that first sent electricity to

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Savage Rapids Dam could be removed a year early

Savage Rapids Dam could be removed a year early AP article on the construction of a pumping station allowing for Savage Rapids Dam to be removed early. Associated Press July 09, 2007 ROGUE RIVER — If construction on a new pumping station goes smoothly this summer, the 86-year-old Savage Rapids Dam could be removed

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Drain the Klamath of its ugly politics

Drain the Klamath of its ugly politics Oregonian article by Steve Pedery, Conservation Director of Oregon Wild, on the politics behind the Klamath Basin. By Steve Pedery Oregonian July 06, 2007 Americans expect our government to make decisions about the survival of fish and wildlife based on science. But in the drought-plagued Klamath Basin,

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Dems: Investigate Cheney for role in salmon die-off

Dems: Investigate Cheney for role in salmon die-off By Mathew Daly, AP Seattle Times June 28, 2007 WASHINGTON — West Coast Democrats called for a hearing Wednesday into the role Vice President Dick Cheney may have played in the 2002 die-off of about 70,000 salmon near the California-Oregon border. An article in The Washington

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Clock ticks for Savage Rapids Dam

Clock ticks for Savage Rapids Dam By Mark Freeman Mail Tribune July 03, 2007 ROGUE RIVER — Construction crews have entered a key summer window of work that largely will determine whether Savage Rapids Dam gets removed from the Rogue River, and out of the way of migrating salmon, as early as next year.

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Since You Asked: The well ain’t dry, but source is all wet

Since You Asked: The well ain’t dry, but source is all wet Mail Tribune May 11, 2007 I just recently heard a snippet on the news regarding a bill which Oregon is trying to sneak through. Oregon legislators are saying the state is out of money and have come up with the idea to place

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Fields of conflict in the Klamath

Fields of conflict in the Klamath Activists say farmers are poised to solidify their presence in the basin’s federal wildlife refuges. By Eric Bailey Los Angeles Times May 07, 2007 TULE LAKE, CALIF. — Under the rolling cloud-scape of the Klamath Basin, a curious rite of spring is underway. Migratory birds are flocking to

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Dropping rural Oregon groundwater levels causing concerns

Dropping rural Oregon groundwater levels causing concerns Bend Bulletin (AP) March 14, 2007 SALEM, Ore. (AP) — A homebuilder in rural Oregon can still sink a well and usually pump up to 15,000 gallons of water a day. But well levels are dropping, and in Salem the situation is getting another look as agriculture, fishery

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A showdown looms on the Clackamas River over drinking water

A showdown looms on the Clackamas River over drinking water By Lee van der Voo Lake Oswego Review March 07, 2007 Limited river water may pit fish against utilities A state law prompting higher water levels in the Clackamas River may one day force water users to trade their green lawns for the survival of

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How much water flows? Who knows?

How much water flows? Who knows? By Karen McCowan Eugene Register-Guard March 01, 2007 The state is being urged to get a handle on how much of the precious natural resource is being used Who’s using how much of Oregon’s most essential natural resource? Nobody really knows. Of the thousands of individuals and groups

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Budget boosts Savage Rapids work

Budget boosts Savage Rapids work By Mark Freeman Mail Tribune February 07, 2007 President Bush’s proposed $2.9 trillion budget for next year includes $15 million toward completing a pumping plant that will lead to the removal of Savage Rapids Dam from the Rogue River by 2010. The money is proposed as part of the federal

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Bill would give away more Columbia River water

Bill would give away more Columbia River water By Janie Har Oregonian February 05, 2007 Senators introduced a bill on Monday that would allow the private sector to take 500,000 acre-feet of Columbia River water each year for irrigation and other purposes. Supporters say they need Senate Bill 483 — also called the Oregon Oasis

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Bipartisan Support for Renewing Irrigation Act

Bipartisan Support for Renewing Irrigation Act By Terry Gildea Oregon Public Broadcasting November 11, 2006 Northwest farmers and conservationists are asking Congress to reauthorize a program that irrigates crops while protecting fish. Oregon Senators Democrat Ron Wyden and Republican Gordon Smith are leading a bipartisan effort to pass a bill that sustains the program

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States join forces for Klamath solutions

States join forces for Klamath solutions Eureka Reporter October 14, 2006 California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski announced Thursday that they are directing their respective state agencies to organize a Klamath River Summit to be held before the year ends. The summit is aimed to resolve a multitude of complex issues

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CAMPAIGN 2006: Proposition 84: Bond would preserve, restore state’s waterways

CAMPAIGN 2006: Proposition 84: Bond would preserve, restore state’s waterways By Greg Lucas San Francisco Chronicle October 10, 2006 (10-10) 04:00 PDT Sacramento — Proposition 84 would split $5.4 billion in bond money between a laundry list of water-related projects and spending on natural resources preservation and restoration, including $400 million for state parks. Among the

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Wineries go dry, but not how you think

Wineries go dry, but not how you think By Stiv J. Wilson, LocalNewsDaily.com Portland Tribune October 07, 2006 For thousands of years, vintners have sought out the perfect region, the perfect soil and the perfect climate for growing grapes. Quantity rarely trumped quality, and a given vintage’s worth and character was directly related to

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The beginning of the end

The beginning of the end By Mark Freeman Mail Tribune October 07, 2006 The days are numbered for Savage Rapids Dam: the structure will likely be a footnote by Dec. 19, 2009 Construction crews are scheduled next week to begin the precursor work that eventually will lead to Savage Rapids Dam’s removal from the Rogue

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A river runs through them

A river runs through them By Winston Ross Eugene Register-Guard October 02, 2006 Everyone agrees: Fix the Klamath; no one agrees on how to do it The story of the Klamath River takes place in two very different settings. One is at the base of Sheepy Ridge in the Oregon-California border town of Tule Lake,

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Judge gives Klamath fish ladders a boost

Judge gives Klamath fish ladders a boost By John Driscoll Times-Standard September 29, 2006 A federal judge has laid the framework for federal agencies to demand that Klamath River dam owner PacifiCorp install fish ladders through its hydroelectric project. U.S. Coast Guard Administrative Law Judge Parlen McKenna decided Wednesday that salmon could spawn in

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Dam ruling supports fish on Klamath

Dam ruling supports fish on Klamath By Matt Weiser Sacramento Bee September 29, 2006 A federal judge ruled Wednesday there is ample evidence that salmon will benefit from improved access to the Klamath River, a decision that some believe may ultimately lead to removal of dams on the river. The ruling came in an administrative

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Studies: Dam Removal From River Doable

Studies: Dam Removal From River Doable By Jeff Barnard Associated Press September 28, 2006 GRANTS PASS, Ore. – Removing four hydroelectric dams from the Klamath River to help struggling salmon runs there would not be as expensive as feared, studies for a state agency show. Indian tribes, salmon fishermen and conservation groups have been

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Timidity will ruin Klamath moment

Timidity will ruin Klamath moment Daily Astorian September 28, 2006 “Take the easy way out” ought to be adopted as the official motto for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and other federal agencies that operate at the political intersection between dams and salmon. Dealing earlier this week with dams on the Klamath River, federal

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Utility will keep fighting against fish ladders over Klamath dams

Utility will keep fighting against fish ladders over Klamath dams By Jeff Barnard Associated Press September 28, 2006 GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — PacifiCorp said Thursday it will continue to seek approval for its proposal to truck salmon around four dams on the Klamath River as part of a new operating license after losing

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Hydro Hogs

Hydro Hogs By Ian Demsky Willamette Week September 27, 2006 Sci-fi author Arthur C. Clarke famously remarked that it’s silly to call our planet Earth when, in truth, it’s mostly water. Nobody knows that better than Portlanders, who pay for their pristine summers with cold, wet winters. Some gray January mornings, it seems like there

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Now save the Klamath

Now save the Klamath Eugene Register-Guard August 11, 2006 U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez finally did what he should have done months ago – declare an economic disaster for the West Coast salmon fishing industry that has been dead in the water since the federal government imposed sharp fishing restrictions earlier this year. Now, Congress

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Savage Rapids Dam’s Days Are Numbered

By Mark Freeman | Aug. 10, 2006 | Medford Mail Tribune A Salem-based construction firm with Rogue Valley crews received the first part of its $28 million federal contract Wednesday to remove Savage Rapids Dam. The Bureau of Reclamation awarded the contract to Slayden Construction Group Inc. of Stayton to remove the dam by late

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At last, an opening for Klamath salmon

At last, an opening for Klamath salmon Oregonian August 06, 2006 PacifiCorp says it may be willing to remove its dams, but the states must help the utility and its ratepayers Everyone who depends on the Klamath River, from farmers to fishermen, is parsing PacifiCorp’s recent statement that it’s open to removal of its Klamath

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Tribes Call for Removal of Dams That Block Journey of Salmon

Tribes Call for Removal of Dams That Block Journey of Salmon By William Yardley New York Times August 02, 2006 SEATTLE, Aug. 2 — Indian tribes along the Klamath River rallied in Portland on Wednesday for the removal of four hydroelectric dams that block salmon from spawning in their historic habitat upriver, and they said

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Money to remove Oregon dam headed for Senate floor

Money to remove Oregon dam headed for Senate floor Associated Press July 05, 2006 ROGUE RIVER, Ore. (AP) — Plans to remove Savage Rapids Dam from the Rogue River for the benefit of the river’s salmon and steelhead runs are moving forward. The Senate Appropriations Committee approved a bill Friday containing $13 million for removal

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California regulators vote to raise electric rates for Klamath farms

California regulators vote to raise electric rates for Klamath farms By Terrence Chea Associated Press April 14, 2006 SAN FRANCISCO – State utility regulators voted to phase out electricity subsidies for California farmers along the Klamath River, a move fishermen and environmentalists hope will help save struggling salmon. The five-member Public Utility Commission voted

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Decisions give hope for river’s fish, future

Decisions give hope for river’s fish, future By Blaine Harden Seattle Times April 02, 2006 Big rivers in the West are reliable sources of bad news. Dammed for electricity and drained for irrigation, they have pushed salmon into extinction, fishermen into bankruptcy and Indians into despair.This dismal pattern, though, may be ending on the Klamath,

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Quiet Waters

Quiet Waters By Mark Freeman Mail Tribune December 11, 2005 State fish biologist Chuck Fustish dips his net into a special fish trap to discover two of the Rogue River basin’s most storied critters are inside. The two tiny fish are juvenile summer steelhead-to-be, infant varieties of the fish hallowed by Zane Grey and

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PGE nears deal on dams

PGE nears deal on dams By Jim Kadera Oregonian November 28, 2005 ESTACADA –Under an agreement nearing completion after years of study and negotiation, Oregon’s largest utility would spend an estimated $200 million on environmental improvements in exchange for a 45-year relicensing of four dams on the Clackamas River. The spending would rival amounts

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Court Says River Plan Cheats Salmon

Court Says River Plan Cheats Salmon By Dean E. Murphy New York Times November 19, 2005 In a setback for the Bush administration, a federal appeals court in San Francisco rejected a federal plan to distribute water to farmers from the troubled Klamath River region in Oregon and California, ruling that more water must

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Water board gets earful on pumping

Water board gets earful on pumping By Dylan Darling Capital Press November 04, 2005 KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. – Farmers and federal officials can’t expect pumping well water to be a long-term solution for the surface water crunch in the Klamath Basin, Oregon water officials said at a workshop here last week. But state permits

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Editorial: Final court for fish

Editorial: Final court for fish Sacramento Bee October 27, 2005 There is a worrisome trend about water and the West that may soon hit close to home: Judges are throwing out Bush administration plans to “restore” endangered fish populations because the plans flunk the test of sound, defensible science. One case involves the Columbia

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Salmon, ranchers win in deal

Salmon, ranchers win in deal By Joe Rojas-Burke Oregonian October 23, 2005 LOSTINE — Zigzagging between jagged Wallowa Mountain peaks, the Lostine River beckons salmon with some of the finest habitat in Oregon. But in dry summers, ranch irrigators reduce miles of the river to a trickle. Threatened chinook that fight 600 miles from

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Power, water inextricably linked in Klamath

Power, water inextricably linked in Klamath By Tam Moore Capital Press October 21, 2005 KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. – From a system built on gravity flow of water starting in 1905, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s Klamath Project emerged a century later so tied to electricity that farmers predict if a discount electrical power deal

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Court tosses Bush plan for Klamath water

Court tosses Bush plan for Klamath water By Michael Milstein Oregonian October 19, 2005 A federal appeals court on Tuesday threw out the Bush administration plan to deliver irrigation water to Klamath Basin farmers, saying it does not do enough for threatened coho salmon in the Klamath River. The ruling probably will mean more

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