By JEFF BARNARD

Associated Press

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) -- Klamath Basin farmers who lost their crops when irrigation water was shut off to save protected fish during a 2001 drought are getting a second chance to prove the government owes them $100 million.

The lawsuit filed by farmers on a federal irrigation project straddling the Oregon-California border had been dismissed by a lower court, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit last week sent it back for another trial.

This time, it will be up to the federal government to prove that it was impossible to provide water for the farmers.

A lawyer for the farmers, Bill Ganong, says this ruling keeps alive their hopes of proving they have a property right in the water that must be paid for when it is shut off.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.