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Hello Friends,
Water is a
commodity just like gold, silver, oil and gas. Historically, water has allowed
our farmers, ranchers and fisherman to literally feed the world. I know how
valuable water is to the health of any community. Control
the life-giving water and you have complete control over any community’s future.
Therefore, I was
frustrated and disappointed when I received notice from the Oregon Water
Resources Department (OWRD) of the Klamath Tribe’s priority call on water.
Our water, the
gift which allows our hard-working farmers and ranchers to create jobs, feed the world and carry on legacies of family-run agriculture, has become an
invaluable tool in an ideological war. This war pits the Tribes, environmental
groups and government agencies against small farms and ranching families, and
is, in my view, an attempt to acquire complete control of water and land usage.
On April 13, the
Klamath Tribes, who have senior instream rights, notified OWRD of a call on the
Wood, Sprague, and Williamson Rivers and tributaries, including Upper Klamath
Marsh. According to the Amended Order of 2007, the Tribes are within their
rights to call for water for hunting, fishing, trapping and gathering on the former
reservation land to the Klamath Tribes. However, this is, both, a legal and good-faith agreement regarding water as a shared resource. While the Tribes have
an adjudicated right to it, Klamath Basin landowners also have rights and
vested interests in the water, and its ecological impacts.
Riparian areas
are thriving and current flows are off the charts, making any talk of drought
or shortage simply ridiculous. There is more than enough water to go around
this year and accomplish the important goals of each stake-holder.
One of the
causes of this “water argument” is that the language used for describing water
purposes is vague and subjective.
Recall that on
February 12, 2007, an Administrative Law Judge, issued an Amended Order on Motions for Rulings on Legal Issues and confirmed,
that the Tribes possessed treaty rights to hunt, fish, trap and gather on
former reservation lands. Accordingly, as
a matter of law, the Tribes possessed federally reserved water rights to,
“whatever water is necessary to fulfill the purpose of the reservation.”
This “whatever” phrase allows for a constant rejigging and
continual re-engineering for control over water resources, which is dangerous
territory for the future of agriculture in
the Klamath Basin. If the tribes call water during one of the highest water
years on record, one can safely wonder if their goal is fishing, hunting or
other heritage practices?
The local paper
carried this report concerning the water call:
“There are two types of base flows, geologic and biologic,”
said Diana Enright, an OWRD spokesperson. “In this case, these are biologic base flows, which
are estimated as a lower protective threshold that provide biologically
necessary habitat for fish and other aquatic organisms.”
Feel free to re-read those sentences, again. The phrases like, "biological base flows," "estimated as a lower protective threshold," and "biologically necessary" ought to illustrate the scientific hocus-pocus of it all. This is nothing-less than a fallacious appeal to a false authority. It is an attempt to justify a worldview by decree. These claims are not objectively true, and are appeals to the authority of data which has been interpreted.
The government, the press, the grant-funded researchers and their bureaucracies have a monopoly on the data, information, money and most of all, the organizational bandwidth to propagate their perspective. However, what is not obvious is
this data has been organized in a specific way, with a specific ideology in
mind.
Science is the work of questioning, not forgone conclusions. We must ask
good questions when it comes to water priorities, flow, quality, needs and
conditions.
The information
being disseminated to the public regarding the water flows in the Klamath Basin
has been influenced by the prevailing environmental/political world-views of the data
collectors and presenters.
Interest groups
realize that government authority can be used to cajole the public into believing the
“experts know best.” Look at how the war
against CO2 is progressing, complete with threats of legislation for
dairy cow flatulence. These semi-scientific springboards are the perfect means
for capturing adherents through fear-mongering. Corralling the experts, funding
their efforts, organizing their evidence and setting the agenda is the easiest
pathway to monopolistic control.
These “calls” on
water, in such an abundant water-year, appear to be a concerted effort to force an artificial
political/administrative constraint on the Klamath Basin.
These rules can be
mitigated, changed or modified by parties who sincerely desire to live and work
together, in community with each other.
It’s time to get
back to the table and really talk to one another. I think that most of us
sincerely want to see human flourishing with a healthy environment for our
children and grandchildren. We want to know where our food comes from, share
our water and celebrate our heritage, together, as a complete community.
If we don't stand for rural Oregon values and common-sense – No one will.
Best Regards,
 Dennis Linthicum
Oregon State Senate 28
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1728
Capitol Address: 900 Court St. NE, S-305, Salem, Oregon 97301
Email: sen.DennisLinthicum@oregonlegislature.gov
Website: http://www.oregonlegislature.gov/linthicum
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