[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 99 (Wednesday, May 27, 2020)]
[House]
[Pages H2288-H2289]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               PROTECT FARMERS' WATER AND PROPERTY RIGHTS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
California (Mr. LaMalfa) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, in that we do have other things going on in 
this country besides the virus, we do have a crisis up in the Klamath 
Basin on the border of California and Oregon right now.
  The Klamath farmers up there are the owners of the Klamath Project 
water. It was created approximately 100 years ago to allow the ability 
to farm crops to returning World War I and World War II veterans at 
that point. Those growers owned the right to approximately 350,000 
acre-feet from the Upper Klamath Lake, water created by the project 
which would not exist without the creation of the project.
  This year, after many years of having their water pirated away from 
them, their allocation during a lesser water rainfall and snowfall 
season was 140,000 acre-feet, they were told on April 1, the second-
worst allocation they have ever had, rivaled only by 2001 when they got 
zero acre-feet allocated to them. 140,000 acre-feet, they were told.

[[Page H2289]]

  So as farmers do--I am a farmer; I get it--we go out and start the 
process of planting; tilling the ground; ordering up your fertilizer 
and your seed; applying the fertilizer; and then, finally, seeding the 
ground.
  Well, lo and behold, a few weeks later, it was decided to release 
50,000 acre-feet from that lake in order to help suppress a virus 
farther down the Klamath River called the C. shasta, which is supposed 
to be harmful to the coho salmon, a fish that is deemed endangered on 
the Klamath, yet not endangered in other areas of the country.
  Right on the heels of the end of that 50,000 acre-foot release for C. 
shasta virus for coho salmon, it was decided that there is now not 
enough water in the lake. The incoming water supply was misestimated.
  They were told they were going to have to cut back from the original 
140,000 acre-feet. They were going to cut back approximately 60,000 
acre-feet of that, leaving them with about 80,000 acre-feet for the 
entire season. This is crops already spent, the cost already incurred 
to be put in the ground.
  The water supply is estimated to last until approximately June 15. 
From June 16 to September, they are going to be in a very dire way. 
They are going to be out of water, with the investment in the ground.
  As devastating as 2001 was, this will break many farms up in the 
Klamath Basin. Unique crops they grow up there--mint, radishes, 
potatoes, many others--as well as the refuge that sits at the far end 
of that system that needs the water to flow through those irrigation 
districts so we will have a duck population, so we will have other 
wildlife that is extremely important not only for the area but for the 
entire State of California and the West Coast.
  This duck population is going to be devastated. Just recently, when 
they had good water, they had a huge number of ducks hatch, and we had 
a good population. That is going to be devastated.
  Farming is the only major economic industry, really, in the region, 
other than some tourism. There are about 12,000 farms in that Klamath 
Basin. Approximately $75 million has been spent putting those crops in. 
It is thought, as it is being estimated right now, the total effect on 
the region, if this water is taken away and not restored by somewhere 
around June 15, $200 to $300 million more is coming out of that area. 
We have created a crisis up there.
  This water, by law, belongs to the irrigators, not to the Endangered 
Species Act, not to a Federal agency. The irrigators themselves spend 
$30 million a year to maintain and operate, if it is actually 
operating, the project. They still have to pay that bill.

  But the Endangered Species Act is being interpreted to require water 
that doesn't belong to the government to be taken and given either to 
keep the lake fuller for the sucker fish or run downstream in order to 
allegedly help the coho salmon. There are science and arguments out 
there that this doesn't help those two species, yet we continue down 
this blind path, doing it year after year after year, for least 20 
years.
  At this point, with the uncertainty of our Nation's food supply, from 
the farm gate to the markets, this is what we have going on with 
farmers up there, having their property rights taken. We must do 
better. We must take immediate action.

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