By Michael Milstein of The Oregonian staff    Thursday, April 5, 2001

    A federal judge ruled Wednesday that the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's dam operations in Southern Oregon's Klamath Basin 
violated the Endangered Species Act last year and ordered the agency not to deliver water to farmers this season without a "concrete plan" that better protects salmon. The decision by U.S. District Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong in San Francisco sets the bar high because the mountains 
above the basin hold only 29 percent of their normal snow and the runoff may prove too little for salmon as it is. 
    The Bureau of Reclamation is negotiating with federal biologists in Washington, D.C., and with White House officials to come up with a way to supply water for salmon in the Klamath River, endangered fish in Upper Klamath Lake and about 6,000 farmers who depend on water from the Klamath Project.
    Draft recommendations by federal biologists earlier this month called for water levels in the lake and the river that would protect fish but leave no water for farmers.
    Fisheries officials said the judge's decision Wednesday means dam operators cannot stray from those recommendations.
"It's unfortunate that we're in a drought disaster, but we can't allow the burden of this drought to be paid by important public 
resources such as salmon and the port communities that depend on them," said Glen Spain of the Pacific Coast Federation of 
Fishermen's Associations, the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit that led to Wednesday's decision.
    But Tessa Stuedli of the Klamath Water Users Association said a water plan that leaves farmers out "means devastation for the farmers." With water levels at a critical level, "it's even worse than how it sounds."
Spain's group, the Oregon Natural Resources Council and other conservation groups filed the lawsuit last year. They argued that the Bureau of Reclamation was operating its Klamath Project without consulting the National Marine Fisheries Service, which oversees protection of the threatened coho salmon.
    The judge agreed, delivering her ruling almost a year later, with water conditions far more dire than when the suit was filed.
"Because the bureau did not initiate consultation, it had no basis or authority to implement (its) 2000 operations plan, and it violated the (Endangered Species Act) when it did so," she wrote. "Because formal consultation never began, the bureau was not forced to confront a possible (finding) that its annual plan jeopardized the continued existence of the coho salmon or its critical habitat."
    Although the violations last year have little effect now, the judge also prohibited dam operators from delivering irrigation water 
from the Klamath Project to farmers this year if the Klamath River stays below certain levels. Her order will remain in effect until dam managers produce a "concrete plan to guide operations" this year and fully consult the National Marine Fisheries Service.
    The managers hope to have that done by the end of the week, said Jeff McCracken, a Bureau of Reclamation spokesman. If the agency strays from earlier recommendations by the national fisheries agency biologists that required all of this year's available water for fish, "we would be back in court instantly," Spain said. Fisheries and conservation groups also will fight as hard for drought relief for farmers as they have in court to protect salmon, he said.