Reader offers alternative to Klamath pact

Being critical of the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement is easy. Pointing out an alternative is a good idea. For the past five years there has been an advocacy for the Klamath River Adjudication, making it the foundation of a true settlement instead of the dam removal foundation found in the KBRA agreement.

The adjudication is the legal foundation for a settlement as well as the only legal mechanism to allocate the waters of the state of Oregon. Two Supreme Court rulings uphold its implementation by the state of Oregon.

In 1997 when the adjudication claim period was closed, the director of the Water Resource Department initiated a well-intended alternative dispute resolution process. This was to allow for a negotiated settlement and it was responsibly designed with firewalls between the claimants in the adjudication, the Oregon Water Resource Department and the Oregon Department of Justice. This resolution was derailed and abandoned. Instead we have been manipulated into a poorly designed but craftily implemented direction by parties outside the adjudication process.

So here is a thumbnail sketch of a settlement to replace the KBRA agreement. Adjudicate the allocation of water by the Oregon adjudication process. Downsize the federal presence in the Klamath Basin. Transfer ownership of the Klamath Project to the irrigation community. Transfer ownership of the refuge system and other federal lands to the respective states, counties and tribes. Let the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission process deal with power generation on the Klamath River. Offer alternatives for those who want out of the irrigated agricultural business and transfer water rights under current law to establish some instream rights that are based on historically natural, sustainable flows.

This is not an easy direction. It involves risks in the adjudication. It changes the way we deal with the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act. It is forthright in that it relies on a valid legal process; it involves all true stakeholders. The advocacy from outside political directives interested in dismantling our local economies and communities do not have a place at this table. Like I said, it is forthright.

Is this the only alternative to be ignored? I do not think so. Right now, in the interest of the country we love and the government we fear, is the time for an alternative to the KBRA. It is time for a true settlement based on the legally adjudicated water rights of the Klamath River.

William D. Kennedy

Klamath Falls, Ore.