A House Natural Resources subcommittee this week will wade into a fight over how to share water between farmers and tribal fisherman in the Klamath Basin.
The Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries is set to take up Oregon Republican Rep. Cliff Bentz’s H.R. 8259, the “Reclamation Project Consultation Improvement Act.”
Bentz introduced the bill earlier this month in a bid to give irrigation districts and farmers more sway in how flows are managed in areas where the Bureau of Reclamation operates. That includes the Klamath Basin, where Reclamation is rewriting the endangered species rules that govern its dams and pumps.
“Water is the lifeblood of the West, and the people who rely on it deserve a voice in decisions that affect it,” Bentz said in a statement, arguing that the Endangered Species Act does not give those users sufficient input.
