Our Klamath Basin Water Crisis
Fighting for Our Right to Irrigate Our Farms and Caretake Our Natural Resources

        Sen. Gordon  Smith suggests a Klamath Czar

Senators Gordon Smith and Ron Wyden reach no immediate fix for basin farmers.

The Associated Press
September 7

WASHINGTON — Congress members and government officials decided Thursday to initiate a fast-moving
process to provide legislative solutions in the parched Klamath Basin.

“The timetable is really yesterday,” said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who sponsored the meeting that brought the
lawmakers together. “What we are going to have to do is move very quickly in terms of the short-term effort
because we are faced with foreclosures.”

Many options are on the table, according to those who attended the meeting, including projects to improve
water quality and quantity, reforms for the Endangered Species Act, buyouts of the farmers who want to sell
their land, and different forms of financial assistance.

Participants said no individual proposal emerged as a front-runner, but the trick will be building consensus
among all interested parties.

But both long- and short-term solutions must come quickly as Congress wraps up its legislative year and
farmers have to begin making plans for next year.

Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., and Wyden have asked the Bush administration to
establish a point of contact for the litany of federal agencies involved in the basin — a “Klamath czar,” Smith
suggested.

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