Farmers, water managers, and environmentalists in the Walla Walla basin say they are determined not to let the challenge of allocating a limited amount of water for farmers and fish explode into the kind of political inferno that rocked the Klamath basin, and before it, the lesser-known but considerably contentious Methow river basin in central Washington. But even with a unanimous resolve to reach a solution, the Walla Walla community has found the path to agreement a daunting one.

Last spring and summer, growers in the drought-stricken Klamath river basin, which straddles southern Oregon and northern California, set up camp at the headgates to the main irrigation canal of the Klamath irrigation project to protest the Department of Interior's decision to shut off irrigation diversions to protect Lost River and shortnose suckers as well as coho salmon, all protected under the Endangered Species Act. Some farmers have taken the federal government to court over what they see as an infringement on property rights, and upon reconvening, Congress plans to consider legislation to compensate Klamath growers for future losses due to regulatory action.

"We want to set an example for ways that both [fish and farms] can exist," said Brent Stevenson, manager of the Walla Walla River Irrigation District, one of three such districts covering 18,000 acres in the basin. "Obviously, we don't want to become a Klamath Falls. That was just devastating."

When federal wildlife officials told Walla Walla irrigators they were headed for an ESA train wreck after the bull trout was listed as threatened in 1999, Walla Walla basin irrigators decided to "take a different path and try and sit down with everyone and see how we could resolve the issue," Stevenson says.

After meeting with environmental groups, local tribes and federal wildlife officials, irrigators agreed to find ways to keep more water in the river, increasing flows first to 13 cubic feet per second (cfs) the first year of the agreement to 18 cfs last year -- "enough to create a fully flowing river for first time in over a century," said Brian Wolcott, executive director of the Walla Walla Basin Watershed Council, one of several state-funded organizations created to address water resource issues in Oregon. Next summer, the river will rise to a 25 cfs flow under the agreement, he added.

But despite the community's herculean efforts to balance the needs of fish, tribes and farmers, major challenges still lie ahead, as scientists continue to assess the needs of fish and water users hash out a habitat conservation plan that will likely involve some sacrifice of both irrigation water and fish.

Steve Pedery of Waterwatch, based in Portland, Ore., called the current, short-term agreement "positive" and commended irrigators in the basin for embracing a cooperative approach, but says the accord is "really a stop-gap" measure that must be followed by a stronger, long-term commitment to keeping water in the river.

"Twenty-five cfs worked in that it kept the river wet all year," says Waterwatch Executive Director Reed Benson. "But no one thinks it's enough." The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has estimated that fish need 50 cfs -- double the minimum flow required under the Walla Walla agreement.

Wolcott says competing directives already put irrigators in a difficult position. "When an irrigation manager turns the headgates, he might get sued for impacting fish, but he could also get sued by patrons in the district for not serving state water rights to them," Wolcott explains.

The region gets an average of just 15 inches of rainfall a year, and orchards and farms in the basin -- some of which have been around since water rights were first divvied up in the 1860s -- are almost wholly dependent upon irrigation. "If you don't have water around here, you pretty much have a weedy desert for a farm," says Wolcott.

Walla Walla water users are hoping the basin-wide habitat conservation plan (HCP), which will allow irrigators to incidentally "take" some bull trout and steelhead as long as they reduce overall impacts to fish populations in the river, will provide the long-term solution to the basin's water woes that almost everyone in the basin appears to be hoping for.

"The HCP would allow the basin to continue some actions that may result in a take where we protected the long-term viability of the species," Stevenson said.

The Walla Walla HCP -- expected to be completed over the next four years -- is unusual in that covers the entire basin, encompassing several counties and two states, said Wolcott.

HCPs have drawn fire from some environmentalists, who say they involve too much compromise and not enough protection. But this one may be the best solution for the Walla Walla, said Reed Benson, executive director of Waterwatch. "[The HCP] would be the first to do flow restoration of a river that's been dried up by private irrigation," he said. "No one I've talked to has heard of an HCP like this one."

The progress made by negotiators over the past few years suggests to many in the basin that the challenges that lie ahead during the HCP process, which is just beginning to get underway, will eventually be overcome.

Stevenson, Wolcott, Shepherd and others involved in the Walla Walla negotiations said several factors coalesced to allow participants to reach agreement. Seeing the river run dry and fish rescued from stagnant pools when irrigation headgates were opened each summer made clear to the public the challenges of keeping farms watered while maintaining natural flows and the fish that depend on them, helping to galvanize public support. The formal structure of water management in the Walla Walla basin, overseen by the Watershed Council, made it easier to plan conservation projects, and the threat of federal penalties or court action helps keep stakeholders talking, they say. But most importantly, all involved agree, the community will was there to reach a solution.

"There's a lot of interest and enthusiasm" among water users in the basin, Martin said. "It's just people deciding that they want to work together and find solutions that makes the difference here."

The threat of court action also provided an incentive to come to the negotiating table, Stevenson notes. "We wanted to resolve the issue and stay out of court," he said. "We didn't feel that was productive for the basin."

Although bringing all interests together to work out a solution everyone could live with was "difficult," Stevenson said, the agreement is working. "It was hard ... educating our district patrons and local irrigators on the ESA issues, and it's a learning process for everybody, but I think overall we've been very successful," he said.

Susan Martin, supervisor of FWS' Upper Columbia office in Spokane, Wash., agrees. "As long as we're seeing progress in addressing the needs of the drainage, we probably won't issue any penalty," she said.

Stevenson said water users have been able to meet flow targets by converting from old irrigation systems to new ones, replacing inefficient canals with pipes to capture more diverted water, switching from river water to well water earlier in the growing season, and by taking water from the river in several small increments instead of a few large diversions. The state has helped pay for some of those initiatives, although additional funding is needed, he said.

Water managers and federal regulators hope the Walla Walla's spirit of cooperation will spill over into other basins in the Northwest, perhaps even the infamously beleaguered Klamath. Although the Klamath basin consists of a federally constructed irrigation system with federally allotted water rights, while the Walla Walla's water is allocated according to state-determined rights, the two basins share enough similarities in circumstance to prompt some to compare and contrast how the two communities have responded to water resource challenges.

"It's like night and day," says Terry Shepherd of the Umatilla tribe's environmental planning office. "The difference is that we talk here. ... I think there's a real strong desire by everyone in the Walla Walla basin to avoid a Klamath situation and keep everybody talking," she says. "We don't want to turn into Klamath Falls."

Pedery sees it this way: "Irrigators In Walla Walla saw the train coming and decided to get out of way. Irrigators in the Klamath saw the train coming and denied there was a problem."

Asked if the conciliatory approach that allowed the various interests in the Walla Walla basin to balance competing demands on water resources could be cultivated in Klamath Falls, most involved in the Walla Walla negotiations said they have their doubts.

There are more "complicating factors" in the Klamath basin, notes Pedery of Waterwatch, including more listed species inhabiting a larger geographic area and a more explosive political climate. "That's been a real ugly water fight for years," Wolcott added.

Water users there had begun negotiations under a court settlement, but after filing a property rights claim in federal court, several irrigators decided not to participate and the talks collapsed.

"Right now, there's not a lot of trust with the federal agencies," said Dan Keppen, executive director of the Klamath Water Users Association. "Guys have been living off their credit cards all year, worrying about how they're going to pay their taxes."

"If we can get back to the situation where we had recourse in the process like we did ten years ago you might have a situation like you did in Walla Walla," he said.

During a dry spell from 1992 to 1994, water users in the Klamath Basin agreed to cut back on their take to protect fish and other wildlife, said Klamath Irrigation District Manager David Solem. "Not only did we talk about it, we did it for two years," Solem said.

But that level of cooperation between farmers and the federal government is not likely to happen again, he said. "I think [the agencies] made their decision, and they're willing to stand by and watch it happen again. I don't see them approaching us with any kind of alternatives."

Waterwatch's Pedery speculates that resolution in the Klamath is a long way off, but possible. "I think the elements of a similar solution [in the Klamath basin] is there. The difference is getting people to negotiate like they did on the Walla Walla."

Stevenson is hopeful that the HCP will keep Walla Walla free of Klamath-like acrimony. But even with a strong community commitment, it will not be easy, he says, in Walla Walla or anywhere else in the Northwest. "It's a problem that started 100 years ago," he said. "It was the conquering of the West. It's hard to fix that. It takes a lot of time and effort."

-- April Reese

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