Battered Communities: I have just finished writing
a white paper on the saga of the systematic war against agriculture in Siskiyou County. http://users.sisqtel.net/armstrng/IWRM%20siskiyou%20part1.htm After spending a month in research on water issues
in the Klamath, there is no doubt in my mind that this is exactly what it is. The paper
chronicles the relentless series of lawsuits by fishermen, environmentalists and tribes to
reduce water available for irrigation in the upper Klamath Basin. It shows the use of the
Clean Water Act Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) to render agriculture a “permitted”
activity controlled and curtailed by the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board.
It shows the CA Dept of Fish and Game’s efforts to take water
from pre-1914 water right holders through the 1602 streambed alteration agreement, coho
incidental take permit and flow studies. Then
there are the repeated attempts to create a “basinwide” governance structure,
such as the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement, where unelected bureaucrats, tribes and
environmentalists will write restoration plans, reallocating water from farmers to the
environment.
It is a lengthy chronicle. As one reader of the paper wrote me:
“The inflicted tragedy is almost beyond belief, except that I know it is all true.
“
The latest items in the lengthy saga are: (1) the lawsuit against the
State Water Resources Control Board and Siskiyou County demanding regulation of
groundwater use in Scott Valley; (2) the Riverkeeper’s lawsuit against the Montague
Water Conservation District regarding Dwinnell dam, and (3) the recent duplicative study
by the Karuk tribe regarding Scott Valley groundwater use and the announcement that they
plan to convene a technical working group to come up with a restoration plan to impose on
farmers there.
This is right on the heals of the announcement by the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service of a large expansion of critical habitat for the northern spotted owl in Siskiyou
County. This will only enlarge the field for endless timber litigation by
environmentalists. With the help of EAJA (the Equal Access to Justice Act,)
environmentalists will get paid for suing on technicalities and tying projects up in
court. If the past is a teacher, it is a certainty that this will further reduce the
paltry levels of timber harvest we have been allowed to cut
Also, we just learned of a ninth circuit court decision in and appeal
on Karuk Tribe v. Klamath National Forest that states that, even though mining under the
1872 Mining Act is not a "discretionary grant system" and requires only a
Notice, the Forest Service must treat it as if it were a “permitted” activity,
requiring an Endangered Species Consultation with NOAA Fisheries.
This is the culmination of a series of attacks on suction dredge
mining, which have included repeated lawsuits by the Karuk Tribe, ratcheting down of
regulatory restrictions by the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board and Dept.
of Fish and Game and aggressive partisan legislation to place a moratorium on and even
prohibit the industry all together in California.
In the dissenting opinion in the Karuk v. KNF decision, Circuit Judge
M. Smith began his opinion with an illustration of Gulliver tied with ropes to a trolley
by the Lilliputians. The caption read: "I
attempted to rise, but was not able to stir: for, as I happened to lie on my back, I found
my arms and legs were strongly fastened on each side to the ground; and my hair, which was
long and thick, tied down in the same manner. I likewise felt several
slender ligatures across my body, from my arm-pits to my thighs. I could only look
upwards; the sun began to grow hot, and the light offended my eyes." - Jonathan
Swift, GULLIVER’S TRAVELS, Chapter 1.
(Illustration shown on my homepage here: http://users.sisqtel.net/armstrng/ )
Smith states: “In my view, decisions such as this one, and some
other environmental cases recently handed down by our court (see Part VII, infra),
undermine the rule of law, and make poor Gulliver’s situation seem fortunate when
compared to the plight of those entangled in the ligatures of new rules created out of
thin air by such decisions.”
Siskiyou County is a land of abundant resources. We have forests,
fertile lands, water and minerals. Yet, like Gulliver, we are being immobilized by the
endless chords of lawsuits, oppressive agency regulations, and partisan legislation that
takes our wealth from us and sets it aside, preserved from human use. Like Gulliver, these
many chords have robbed us of our freedom.
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