<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1400" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT size=3><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><STRONG>Water bank applications flood Bureau</STRONG>
</FONT></FONT>
<P>Published January 31, 2005
<P><A
href="http://www.heraldandnews.com/articles/2005/01/31/news/top_stories/atop2.txt">http://www.heraldandnews.com/articles/2005/01/31/news/top_stories/atop2.txt</A>
<P>By DYLAN DARLING <BR>Herald and News <BR>A late surge of applications from
irrigators who want to take part in the U.S. Bureau <BR>of Reclamation's water
bank has left the Bureau "cautiously optimistic" that it will <BR>meet its goal.
The Bureau wants to idle enough land in the Klamath Reclamation <BR>Project to
set aside 50,000 acre-feet to benefit coho salmon in the lower Klamath
<BR>River.
<P>After seeing a meager initial response to a request for applications, Bureau
officials <BR>became concerned they might not be able to set aside enough water.
But business <BR>picked up last week, officials said.
<P>In all, 234 applications were turned in to the Bureau's Klamath Falls office
by the <BR>deadline Thursday.
<P>In the program, irrigators submit bids on what they'd be willing to accept,
and the <BR>Bureau picks from among them.
<P>Last year, the Bureau received bids ranging up to $702 per acre-foot, and
accepted <BR>bids ranging from $63.75 to $200. The average bid accepted per
acre-foot was $146 <BR>for 75,000 acre-feet, and 4,364 acres in the Project were
idled. Most of the water for <BR>the water bank came from wells, rather than the
Project's irrigation system.
<P>The Bureau plans to get 50,000 acre-feet of its federally required 100,000
acre-foot <BR>water bank by paying to have about 25,000 acres lie fallow this
year.
<P>"I would say that we are cautiously optimistic that the response from the
irrigator <BR>community will help us make our 100,000 acre-foot requirement,"
Olsen said.
<P>In late December, Bureau officials announced the deadline for the land idling
<BR>applications was Jan. 27. Officials expected a response of 400 to 500
applications, but <BR>about a week before the deadline they'd gotten only 20.
<P>Bureau staffers went to the Tulelake and Klamath irrigation district offices
to help <BR>farmers and ranchers with their applications, which boosted numbers,
officials said. <BR>There also was a rush of applications in the days just
before the deadline.
<P>Now the Bureau will evaluate the applications, weighing crops, soil types and
costs to <BR>determine if it will make its goals for the land-idling program,
Olsen said.
<P>The water bank program is required by the National Marine Fisheries Service
to boost <BR>flows down the Klamath River for threatened coho salmon. The rest
of the water bank <BR>would come from 25,000 acre-feet of well water, 10,000
acre-feet from land idling <BR>above Upper Klamath Lake and 15,000 acre-feet
from storage on national wildlife <BR>refuges.
<P>Water set aside in the water bank needs to be available for use by April 1.
<P>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
</P></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>