As Oregon Hearing Begins, Pacific Legal Foundation Calls on Feds to Provide Immediate Relief to Klamath Farmers; Reform ESA.Business Editors/Legal & Environmental Writers KLAMATH FALLS Klamath Falls, city (1990 pop. 17,737), seat of Klamath co., SW Oreg., at the southern tip of Upper Klamath Lake; inc. 1905. It is the processing and distribution center of a lumber, livestock, and farm area. , Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 15, 2001 In testimony to be submitted to a House Resources Committee special field hearing on Saturday, the Pacific Legal Foundation - a nationally-recognized expert in Endangered Species Act The federal Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA) (16 U.S.C.A. §§ 1531 et seq.) was enacted to protect animal and plant species from extinction by preserving the ecosystems in which they survive and by providing programs for their conservation. litigation An action brought in court to enforce a particular right. The act or process of bringing a lawsuit in and of itself; a judicial contest; any dispute. When a person begins a civil lawsuit, the person enters into a process called litigation. - will demand that federal officials reverse the course of destruction in the Klamath Basin The Klamath Basin is the region in the U.S. states of Oregon and California drained by the Klamath River. It contains most of Klamath County and parts of Lake and Jackson Counties in Oregon, and parts of Del Norte, Humboldt, Modoc, Siskiyou, and Trinity Counties in California. and commit to a course of action that serves to forever change the way the Endangered Species Act is administered. "The federal government should start putting people first and immediately supply Klamath basin farmers with the water they need to survive," said Bob Vice, a Pacific Legal Foundation senior advisor In some countries, a Senior Advisor is an appointed position by the Head of State to advise on the highest levels of national and government policy. Sometimes a junior position to this is called a National Policy Advisor. and former president of the California Farm Bureau Federation. "The federal government has a contractual obligation to provide water to the farmers of the Klamath region and government's excuses for reneging on that commitment don't wash," he said. During tomorrow's hearing, the panel is expected to examine the crisis created by the federal government's cutoff of irrigation irrigation, in agriculture, artificial watering of the land. Although used chiefly in regions with annual rainfall of less than 20 in. (51 cm), it is also used in wetter areas to grow certain crops, e.g., rice. water to the Klamath Basin during the region's second-worst drought on record. According to PLF's Bob Vice, "There are credible studies that suggest sucker fish don't need more water, but the bureaucrats haven't taken these studies seriously. The problem has been made worse by other federal agencies robbing both farmers and fish of water by diverting upstream supplies." "Government must respond to the needs of the people. We believe the Bureau of Reclamation hasn't adequately explored alternatives to turning off the spigot," said Vice. "The law allows a second look at these issues by a 'God Squad' of top federal officials - but so far, they haven't acted, " he said. Pacific Legal Foundation's testimony will call on the federal government to exercise the flexibility that the Endangered Species Act allows and get desperately needed water to Klamath's farmers. Vice made his comments on the eve On the Eve (Накануне in Russian) is the third novel by famous Russian writer Ivan Turgenev, best known for his short stories and the novel Fathers and Sons. of the Resources Committee hearing and the same day that comments by an Interior official scheduled to testify at the hearing were published. In a Sacramento Bee article, the Interior Department official is quoted as being skeptical of the studies used in actions leading up to the decision to cut water off to the Klamath basin in favor of endangered fish. "We are heartened that a key staff member for Interior Secretary Gale Norton has acknowledged that there are reasons to question federal studies of endangered salmon and sucker fish in the basin," said Vice. "A responsible, conscientious review of the situation should open the floodgates for relief for the people in Klamath and encourage closer review of much of the flimsy basis for so much ESA 1. (architecture) ESA - Enterprise Systems Architecture. 2. (body) ESA - European Space Agency. regulation. It is time for movement toward balanced environmentalism environmentalism, movement to protect the quality and continuity of life through conservation of natural resources, prevention of pollution, and control of land use. ," Vice said. A copy of the testimony can be found at PLF's web site www.pacificlegal.org. Founded in 1973, Pacific Legal Foundation is the oldest, largest, and in the words of the Washington Post, "perhaps most influential" public interest law firm dedicated to limited government and property rights. |
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