Cases

In the spring of 2002 the federal Bureau of Reclamation diverted vast quantities of the Klamath River to farmers in the upper Klamath Basin. The low flows shrunk the river to levels fatal to young salmon. The Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations and conservation groups saw the problem as it was occurring and, working with Earthjustice, filed an emergency motion in federal court seeking to force the government to leave more water in the river. On May 3, 2002 the court denied this request, a move that would set the stage for disastrous environmental and economic consequences in 2005 when these same fish couldn't be found in the ocean.

By late September 2002 an estimated 60 to 70 thousand salmon and other fish died in the river, because of the continuing federal water diversions to upstream agriculture intersts. Earthjustice attorney Kristen Boyles filed a new lawsuit in late September 2002 as pictures of the dead fish made national news. An embarrassed Bush administration attempted to dodge blame by insisting the fish kill was a mystery, a myth laid to rest by a subsequent report from the California Department of Fish and Game which laid the blame squarely on low river flows.

The federal government has admitted there usually isn't enough water to satisfy what they've promised to farmers and what federally protected salmon and lake fish require. The lawsuit filed by Earthjustice seeks to compel the government to balance the needs of fish, and communities that depend on them, in its long-term plan for water use.

In late October 2002 Mike Kelly, a scientist from the National Marine Fisheries Service stepped forward to say his work in the spring of 2002 to assure adequate water levels for the health of the Klamath River had been over ridden for political purposes. Kelly said his team twice developed guidelines for how much water would be needed to assure compliance with Endangered Species Act protections for coho salmon in the Klamath and twice were rejected by higher ups. He said the guidelines approved by the federal government were forced on fisheries scientists by the Bureau of Reclamation, the government branch charged with giving water to farmers. In 2003 the Wall St. Journal reported that Bush presidential advisor Karl Rove pressed the issue of Klamath water diversions with political appointees and others from the Bureau of Reclamation, US Fish and Wildlife Service and other federal agencies at a 2002 meeting.

In July of 2003, a federal district court ruled that federal approval of Klamath Irrigation Project operations violated the Endangered Species Act. But the court turned aside arguments from commercial fishermen and conservationists asking that more water be made available for coho salmon in the Klamath River. Earthjustice and its clients appealed the part of the suit denying more water for salmon and in February of 2005 a federal court of appeals heard Earthjustice attorney Kristen Boyles ask the court to order higher flows in the Klamath River to protect wildlife.

In October 2005, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the Bush administration’s water diversion plan for the Klamath River, finding the government’s plan illegal because it failed to provide adequate water flows for coho salmon until eight years into the ten-year plan.