YellowSub1962
07-06-2001, 07:53 AM
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/06/national/06KLAM.html?todaysheadlines
July 6, 2001
Farmers Force Open Canal in Fight With U.S.
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
Farmers who had been cut off from irrigation water used a chainsaw and a cutting torch to break into an Oregon canal on Wednesday.
<IMG width= height= SRC="http://www.pirate4x4.com/ubb/uploads/06klam.1.jpg">
Ronn Winn/The Herald and News via the Associated Press
KLAMATH FALLS, Ore., July 5 — With the sheriff's department here refusing to intervene, federal officials asked for help today from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and United States marshals after farmers, angry about being cut off from irrigation water, opened an irrigation canal's headgate three times in the past week.
"We now have people who have entered federal property and done damage to federal property," Jeff McCracken, a spokesman for the United States Bureau of Reclamation, said. "We have no choice but to involve law enforcement and are asking for their guidance."
Bureau workers have closed the gates after each instance because workers for the Klamath Irrigation District, which contracts with the bureau to operate the sites, have refused.
In April, the bureau ordered the gates closed to protect the endangered bottom-feeding suckerfish and the threatened coho salmon during a year of record drought. But the move cut off water to about 1,400 family farmers and ranchers in the Klamath Basin.
About 200,000 acres, kept green through damming and diversion since 1909, are parched.
The Klamath County sheriff, Tim Evinger, has refused to take action against the protesters, saying no state or local laws had been broken.
"It's desperate times for these desperate measures," Sheriff Evinger said today, explaining why he did not intervene while he watched protesters open the headgates on Wednesday. "We absolutely support it if it's peaceful."
On Wednesday, 100 to 150 people formed a human chain and shielded men who cut off the headgate's lock using a diamond-bladed chainsaw and a cutting torch, sending water from Upper Klamath Lake into the canal. The headgate had been opened two other times since Friday night in defiance of the bureau's order
The water flowed for more than four hours on Wednesday until a bureau official closed the gate, according to the newspaper here, The Herald and News.
"It just appears to me that they are trying to save their lives," Sheriff Evinger said of those who opened the gate. "There were women and children at the headgates. It was a nonviolent situation, other than some media got pushed around. I had no business stepping in."
The sheriff said he was concerned about the potential for violence and hoped that when federal officials stepped in "they use a very measured and well-thought-out process and not invoke a riot situation."
Mr. McCracken said the bureau had no enforcement ability, and because "the sheriff and the local police are describing this as a federal and not a local matter," the bureau had no choice but to look to the F.B.I. and the marshals.
Dave Solem, the manager of the irrigation district, which has challenged the cutoff in court, said the district refused to close the gates because the matter was "a contractual issue we didn't agree with."
"Our contract is to deliver water," Mr. Solem said. "We didn't turn it on, so it's not our responsibility to turn it off."
The order cutting off water "was a devastating blow," he said. "It's not about just not planting crops, but affects established crops. The alfalfa is just burning up to nothing. The bottom line is, people have to have water to grow those crops to make a living."
The F.B.I in Washington and the marshals' office in San Francisco said this afternoon that they were not yet aware of the matter.
Few protesters were at the canal today, but some took their plight before the county commission and to a local mall for a town meeting this afternoon.
Barbara Martin, a real estate agent who was among the demonstrators at the headgates on Wednesday, said today that residents went before the commission to seek support for a proposal that would "help us take more control over our county instead of having the federal government be in control."
"All of the sudden we were told by the federal government `we're shutting the water off,' " Ms. Martin said.
She said the commission did not seem receptive.
Wendell Wood, southern Oregon field representative for the Oregon Natural Resources Council, said the council saw the protesters' action "as a case of vandalism or sabotage, and we condemn it whenever we see it, on any side."
But, Mr. Wood said, "we see this as a case in which the wise use and property rights groups, along with agricultural interests, are using the Klamath Basin issue as a way to beat up on the Endangered Species Act."
"The E.S.A. should not be blamed," he said. "It is the messenger and not the cause."
Ms. Martin, the real estate broker, is unconvinced. "The suckerfish are not at all endangered," she said, "and the coho are running at a higher rate than they have been."
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++++++++++++
NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, any copyrighted
material herein is distributed without profit or payment to those who have
expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit
research and educational purposes only. For more information go to:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
July 6, 2001
Farmers Force Open Canal in Fight With U.S.
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
Farmers who had been cut off from irrigation water used a chainsaw and a cutting torch to break into an Oregon canal on Wednesday.
<IMG width= height= SRC="http://www.pirate4x4.com/ubb/uploads/06klam.1.jpg">
Ronn Winn/The Herald and News via the Associated Press
KLAMATH FALLS, Ore., July 5 — With the sheriff's department here refusing to intervene, federal officials asked for help today from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and United States marshals after farmers, angry about being cut off from irrigation water, opened an irrigation canal's headgate three times in the past week.
"We now have people who have entered federal property and done damage to federal property," Jeff McCracken, a spokesman for the United States Bureau of Reclamation, said. "We have no choice but to involve law enforcement and are asking for their guidance."
Bureau workers have closed the gates after each instance because workers for the Klamath Irrigation District, which contracts with the bureau to operate the sites, have refused.
In April, the bureau ordered the gates closed to protect the endangered bottom-feeding suckerfish and the threatened coho salmon during a year of record drought. But the move cut off water to about 1,400 family farmers and ranchers in the Klamath Basin.
About 200,000 acres, kept green through damming and diversion since 1909, are parched.
The Klamath County sheriff, Tim Evinger, has refused to take action against the protesters, saying no state or local laws had been broken.
"It's desperate times for these desperate measures," Sheriff Evinger said today, explaining why he did not intervene while he watched protesters open the headgates on Wednesday. "We absolutely support it if it's peaceful."
On Wednesday, 100 to 150 people formed a human chain and shielded men who cut off the headgate's lock using a diamond-bladed chainsaw and a cutting torch, sending water from Upper Klamath Lake into the canal. The headgate had been opened two other times since Friday night in defiance of the bureau's order
The water flowed for more than four hours on Wednesday until a bureau official closed the gate, according to the newspaper here, The Herald and News.
"It just appears to me that they are trying to save their lives," Sheriff Evinger said of those who opened the gate. "There were women and children at the headgates. It was a nonviolent situation, other than some media got pushed around. I had no business stepping in."
The sheriff said he was concerned about the potential for violence and hoped that when federal officials stepped in "they use a very measured and well-thought-out process and not invoke a riot situation."
Mr. McCracken said the bureau had no enforcement ability, and because "the sheriff and the local police are describing this as a federal and not a local matter," the bureau had no choice but to look to the F.B.I. and the marshals.
Dave Solem, the manager of the irrigation district, which has challenged the cutoff in court, said the district refused to close the gates because the matter was "a contractual issue we didn't agree with."
"Our contract is to deliver water," Mr. Solem said. "We didn't turn it on, so it's not our responsibility to turn it off."
The order cutting off water "was a devastating blow," he said. "It's not about just not planting crops, but affects established crops. The alfalfa is just burning up to nothing. The bottom line is, people have to have water to grow those crops to make a living."
The F.B.I in Washington and the marshals' office in San Francisco said this afternoon that they were not yet aware of the matter.
Few protesters were at the canal today, but some took their plight before the county commission and to a local mall for a town meeting this afternoon.
Barbara Martin, a real estate agent who was among the demonstrators at the headgates on Wednesday, said today that residents went before the commission to seek support for a proposal that would "help us take more control over our county instead of having the federal government be in control."
"All of the sudden we were told by the federal government `we're shutting the water off,' " Ms. Martin said.
She said the commission did not seem receptive.
Wendell Wood, southern Oregon field representative for the Oregon Natural Resources Council, said the council saw the protesters' action "as a case of vandalism or sabotage, and we condemn it whenever we see it, on any side."
But, Mr. Wood said, "we see this as a case in which the wise use and property rights groups, along with agricultural interests, are using the Klamath Basin issue as a way to beat up on the Endangered Species Act."
"The E.S.A. should not be blamed," he said. "It is the messenger and not the cause."
Ms. Martin, the real estate broker, is unconvinced. "The suckerfish are not at all endangered," she said, "and the coho are running at a higher rate than they have been."
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++++++++++++
NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, any copyrighted
material herein is distributed without profit or payment to those who have
expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit
research and educational purposes only. For more information go to:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml