Contacts
Patricia Foulk, Sacramento, California - (916) 414-6566
02-052
Completion of biological opinion was"highest priority"
SACRAMENTO--The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has completed the final 2002 biological opinion on the Bureau of Reclamation’s Klamath Project. The biological opinion, delivered to Reclamation today, provides sound guidance for 10 years of operating the Klamath Project. The biological opinion is consistent with the National Academy of Science (NAS) interim report and allows Reclamation to deliver irrigation water with flexibility by year type.
As in the draft biological opinion provided to Reclamation earlier this month, the Service has concluded the project jeopardizes the two Federally listed fish, the Lost River and shortnose suckers, a finding based on the anticipated effects of project operations on these fishes’ reproduction and numbers. However, the Service has developed a "reasonable and prudent alternative" (RPA) that will enable the water management agency to avoid jeopardizing the endangered fish, according to Steve Thompson, Manager of the Service’s California-Nevada Operations Office.
This RPA requires a reduction in effects of adverse water quality and habitat loss in Upper Klamath Lake resulting from project operations; a reduction in sucker entrainment at Link River Dam; completion of studies to better understand the factors affecting water quality, fish die-offs, and sucker access to refuge habitat in Upper Klamath Lake; and implementation of actions to reduce the frequency and magnitude of sucker die-offs and increase sucker access to refuge habitat in Upper Klamath Lake.
"There is flexibility built in throughout this opinion as well as provisions for adaptive management," Thompson said. "We have concurred with Reclamation’s strategy for 10 years of project operations and we have thoroughly analyzed and considered the findings of the National Academy of Sciences in their 2002 interim report on last year’s biological opinion."
"Most importantly for the irrigators in the Upper Klamath Basin, the Service hasn’t included any requirements in this biological opinion that would dictate that Upper Klamath Lake be operated at levels higher than those during the 1990s," he said.
Instead, the Service has concurred with the operating regime proposed by Reclamation, which will likely result in maintenance of a mean lake level similar to that during the 1990s. Reclamation has proposed to operate the project in a way that will result in varying lake levels in four different water-year types. Consequently, in dry or critically dry years, the lake will be allowed to drop to levels below those of average water year types, and should provide water for irrigators or downstream flows during dry year types.
The primary differences between the 2001 consultation and this 10-year consultation are: 1) the 2001 opinion addressed a one-year operation plan for a critically dry year while the 10-year plan considers a 10-year operation plan covering all water year types; 2) The 2002 opinion considers additional information from the NAS interim report and comments from other peer reviewers; 3) The 2002 opinion considers new information on the factors contributing to catastrophic fish die-offs; and 4) the 2002 opinion is based on Reclamation’s proposed action that provides for fish screening and fish passage structures, and involves water management at Upper Klamath Lake based on the hydrograph for the 10-year period from 1990 to 1999, which is consistent with recommendations in the NAS interim report.
The Service received a draft 2002 biological assessment from Reclamation in late February. On March 28, the Service issued a non-jeopardy biological opinion as a interim measure to cover Klamath project operations while the Interior agencies completed the consultation on the 10-year operations plan. The Service provided Reclamation with its draft 10-year opinion on April 25, 2002. This opinion covers operations from June 1, 2002 through May 31, 2012, but will be reinitiated if significant new information is developed, either through the final NAS report or other sources.
This biological opinion will be posted on the Service’s Klamath Falls office website after May 31. The address for that website is
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