I think they wronged up klamath basin donnie boyd 110710

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‘... I think they wronged us ...’

DONNIE BOYD, owner, Floyd A. Boyd Co., Merrill

Herald and News 11/7//11

MERRILL — Donnie Boyd says this irrigation season was defined for him in early July.

That was when officials with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced that another 35,000 acre-feet of water could be released to irrigators on the Klamath Reclamation Project. Until then, irrigators were to receive only about 150,000 acre-feet.

“That’s when I realized that this wasn’t about the lake level,” Boyd said, “this was about the government controlling the Basin.”

Business has remained slow at the Merrill store for the third-generation owner of farm implement dealer Floyd A. Boyd Co. Sale volumes are down compared with past years, and Boyd said he hasn’t hired anyone back after laying them off earlier in the season.

“We’re in the black, but that’s because we’ve cut overhead significantly,” he said.

Boyd said what he took away from the season was that all the issues surrounding water supplies weren’t about what is best for the environment or for fish. Rather, it was about using the fact that the Basin was below average in water early in the season to push a political agenda.

“I think they wronged us,” he said.