In a stunning decision that will likely send shock waves through the farming communities out west, a federal judge ruled this week that The Klamath Drainage District may not divert water from its own canal, using water rights that are in KDD’s name, unless the U.S. Buruea Bureau of Reclamation authorizes it to do so as long as they have a relationship with the BOR. Magistrate Judge Mark Clarke issued a final ruling in a lawsuit brought by the federal government against the Klamath Drainage District as part of a series of court cases that came down this week affecting water rights here in the Basin. The short of it is, if you have an agreement with the BOR, you are now precluded from obtaining water from any other sources without the BOR saying so. KDD’s board of supervisors will decide whether to appeal the ruling to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
