KWAPA Board Member Bill Heiney declined to comment on whether he thinks the agency could have a purpose for the Klamath Project next year or beyond.

Adjudication cleanup

“The No. 1 thing that needs to be done is what I’m calling an ‘adjudication cleanup’ within the Klamath Project,” Cannon said.

He explained that properties within the Klamath Project are assessed in four ways: the acreage that’s actually irrigated; irrigation district assessments for annual fees; adjudicated acreage, and acres the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) has a contract to deliver water to.

“There are a few places where the mapping isn’t exactly how things are on the ground,” said Klamath Irrigation District Manager Mark Stuntebeck.

The cleanup will involve mapping the land actually irrigated on each Project property and comparing that to a district’s assessment map and the BOR’s contract map.

“There are people paying assessment on land they are not irrigating,” Cannon said. “They need to be given the opportunity to true up what they are paying for and what they are actually irrigating.”

Cannon also pointed out that there are also instances of irrigators putting water on land without a water right. Some are irrigating more than land than they are assessed for, he said.

“The outshoot of this is those who are irrigating land without a water right (could have) a water right transferred to make irrigating that land legal. That’s something that has to be done,” Cannon said.

Cannon could not estimate how long matching up property maps could take. He said it depends how many people are dedicated a project. He suggested four employees — two GIS (Geographic Information Systems) mapping specialists and two contact people — would be required.

Water transfers

Cannon said another task the agency could undertake is creating a marketplace for water transfers.

“My definition of water exchange is a farmer being able to take all or a portion of his allocation from one acre and use it on another,” Cannon said. “There’s a lot more involved in that than people realize.”

As of now, irrigators rely on their districts to facilitate water transfers.

Cannon said if KWAPA were take on some of that workload, irrigators who wanted to buy or sell water could contact the agency, and KWAPA would facilitate the exchange.

Cannon said he doesn’t believe KWAPA’s role in water transfers would stop irrigator-to-irrigator exchanges from happening. Rather, he believes putting a streamlined protocol in place for those who want to use it will make the process much easier, more reliable and more verifiable.

Stuntebeck said although districts, such as KID, are doing their best to help irrigators get water where they want it to go, districts’ ability to facilitate transfers will eventually cap out. He said if water shortages continue, or worse, increase, he foresees transfer requests becoming too much for districts to handle.

“It’s been crisis management from year to year,” Stuntebeck said. “We’ve scrambled to take care of transfers that have happened in past years.”

Mapping resource

According to Cannon, the final task the agency could absorb is tied to the first two ideas. He said KWAPA could be the regional GIS mapping resource for Project irrigation districts.

Cannon said the agency has the technology and capability to maintain property maps and maps for permanent or temporary water right transfers.

“There’s a lot of flexibility in moving water rights around, but you have to have the capability of keeping track of where the water right is and go through the paperwork so the state knows and understands what’s going on,” Cannon said.

Pay to play

Cannon said if KWAPA continues on as a private resource for Project irrigators, he believes individuals or districts should pay based on the services KWAPA provides. He does not believe it would be fair to assess all members equally if the most of the agency’s time is spent working on one district’s adjudication cleanup.

For services such as adjudication cleanup, a bill rate will be established and the agency will be run much like any other business. Cannon said districts could also opt out.

If an assessment were agreed upon, Cannon said it would be minimal: just enough to cover the agency’s overhead, requiring about $3,000 per month keep the office open.

Cannon said if the agency board or the irrigation community set short-term, medium-term and long-term goals for services they would like the agency to provide, he believes grant funds are available to help support KWAPA.