A top Interior Department official has promised an independent review of a scientist's recommendations that led to the diversion of irrigation water from a California and Oregon lake to protect endangered fish.
"We feel we were able to thoroughly expose the bad science that brought about this crisis," said Jim Russell, president of the Klamath Water Users Association.
"It gave the congressmen a good sense of just how wrong it was to rely solely on [one scientist's "Biological Opinions"]. It became very clear that the Endangered Species Act must be changed, so what has happened to us doesn't happen elsewhere," Russell said.
Interior Department Deputy Chief of Staff Sue Ellen Wooldridge promised the congressmen that the science upon which the Biological Opinions are based will be subjected to independent scientific peer review, as the Klamath Basin farmers have long requested.
Such peer review is not mandated by the ESA, which has been one of the major criticisms of the act in the Klamath Basin and elsewhere.
The Interior Department houses both the Bureau of Reclamation and the Fish and Wildlife Service, which declared the sucker fish to be endangered and designated critical habitat for it based on the "Biological Opinions" to which Russell referred.
That, in turn, led to a series of "citizen" lawsuits, filed by environmental activists and paid for by American taxpayers, that forced the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to divert virtually all of the irrigation water from the Upper Klamath Lake to protect critical or protected habitat for the fish.
As a result, the once-fertile croplands are turning to dust, and the area's once-thriving rural communities are dying.
Wooldridge did not say what would result if the peer reviews determine that the bureau's action in withholding irrigation water was based on faulty science, as the agriculture community contends.
But she did promise that when plans are developed for future years, "the FWS will fully review the existing scientific data and seek appropriate public comment and peer review."
The six-hour hearing drew a crowd officially estimated at more than 3,000 people.
Although that number was about half of what was expected, it was still by far the largest crowd in recent memory to attend a House Resources Committee hearing and possibly the largest ever, according to Jeff Eager, spokesman for Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore.
Like a crowd of between 15,000 and 20,000 that gathered early last month for a "bucket brigade" protest rally, Saturday's crowd was orderly and totally nonviolent.
Russell said the most disturbing testimony at the hearing came from spokesmen for the area's Indian tribes, the Klamath Tribes and the Yurok Tribe, who claimed that all the water and land belongs to them.
In other testimony, Andy Kerr of Oregon Natural Resources Council proposed that American taxpayers fork over untold billions of dollars as "the first step" to eliminate commercial farming not only from the area affected by the current crisis, but also from surrounding areas.
The ONRC plan calls for paying $4,000 an acre to "willing sellers" of farmland in the Klamath Irrigation Project area.
In addition, a federal fund of $100 billion would be established to buy land and water rights in the Upper Klamath River Watershed in Oregon and the Scott and Shasta Valleys of California.
Additional federal tax funds would reimburse local governments for lost tax revenues and provide grants to assist communities.
ONRC's plan was endorsed by 28 environmental activist organizations, including nine Audubon Society chapters, the radical Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity, and Endangered Species Coalition, which is headed by Earthjustice (formerly the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund) and Defenders of Wildlife.
These are the same organizations that brought the lawsuits that forced the Bureau of Reclamation to withhold irrigation water from the farmers.
The plan was not well received by the crowd or the congressmen.
"If the federal government is going to spend billions of dollars, it should be spent keeping the government's promise to the farmers [for irrigation water] rather than buying out land from 'willing sellers' with a noose around their neck," said Walden.
In addition to Walden, three members of the House Resources Committee, all Republicans, attended the hearing: Richard Pombo of California, Mike Simpson of Idaho and Jim Gibbons of Nevada.
Two additional Republican congressmen, Wally Herger of California and Doc Hastings of Washington, were in attendance. No Democrats showed up.
Walden will be going to the House floor this week to share the hearing's findings with other House members.
Eager said that in addition to the 14 witnesses who spoke during the hearing, two huge boxes of written comments were brought back to Washington for inclusion in the Congressional Record.
According to Eager, the next order of business is to ensure the $20 million in financial aid that President Bush requested for the Klamath Basin is approved this week.
After that, the focus will turn to long-term solutions. That includes determining how the Klamath Basin disaster can contribute to reform of the Endangered Species Act.
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