Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, Members may remember the huge controversy from last year when the Bureau of Reclamation shut off irrigation water to farmers in order to provide enough water for endangered suckerfish and threatened coho salmon. It was back in the news again recently, where the Bureau of Reclamation announced last week that this will be another dry year in the Klamath Basin. Mr. Chairman, this issue is always going to be a story, or on the verge of being one, for two reasons: number one, land management on our refuges in the Klamath Basin, and part of what I want to talk about here today deals with this remarkable wildlife refuge, it is guided by incompatible priorities: the reclamation of wetlands for agriculture and the preservation of wetlands for wildlife. The water in this basin is overallocated by some 100,000 acre feet a year. Visualize 100,000 football fields covered by a foot of water. The water will be available for competing uses in the Klamath Basin only for perhaps 6 out of every 10 years; 2, 3, 4, 5 of those 10 years, we are going to be in deficit. Now, the Federal Government created this mess at the beginning of the century by draining regions where there was too much water and creating an artificial hydrological system in the basin. The basin was a 3,500-acre wetland. Now, over 75 percent of this 350,000 acres has been drained for agriculture and other developments.”