This is Floyd Wynne with THE VIEW FROM HERE (5-8-04)

There’s an old saying that goes like this: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

That would seem to apply to the water situation here in the Klamath Basin.

For over ninety years the system worked well. The waters of Upper Klamath Lake provided sufficient for the needs of the Basin irrigators, as well as downstream power needs.

Yes, there were always ideas about show we could keep more water in Upper Klamath Lake so that in drought years we would still have ample supply.

But...during those ninety years.....the system seemed to work well in most years.

Then along came the environmental craze and everything got out of kilter. It all seemed to begin when the Feds began to fence off Lost River to keep the cattle out of the streams. Now that seemed to be a natural thing to do, but it was only the beginning.

Where are we today?

We have four entities claiming the same waters of Upper Klamath Lake.

The Indians....maintaining that the sucker fish are an endangered species....even though there is no scientific data to back that claim..nor is there a satisfactory count of how many sucker fish there are ..and do they survive in low water years.

Downstream the fishermen claim they should have more of our water so that more salmon can be produced. And we have the environmentalists who worry about the birds in the refuges.

The recent efforts of the Feds in financing new wells to offset the use of those waters appears to have run afoul of common sense. Now the water levels in the aquifer have dropped dramatically. What did they expect?

Millions have been spent to put in new irrigation controls that were designed to keep the sucker fish out of the canal system. Many other ideas have been bandied about....store more water here or there...pump extra water into Long Lake...and more.

We also have a number of groups attempting to work out solutions to the problems.

There is a need in our opinion to clean up some of the inflow into Upper Klamath Lake.

The problems can be traced back to one source....the sucker fish in that lake....or the lack of them. Of what use are they....and if they are of some use....how many of them are there....and how come they have survived over these many years despite high or low water years.

That is the main problem....and that’s where the emphasis should be.

As I said before.....other than that the system has worked very well for over ninety years.....it wasn’t broke....but they tried to fix it...and sure enough...it now seems to be broke.

This is Floyd Wynne and that’s THE VIEW FROM HERE