Fight over Oregon’s Klamath water can stay in federal court, Ninth Circuit rules
A lawsuit seeking to stop the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation from releasing water from Oregon’s Lake Klamath for the benefit of Native American tribes in California and protected coho salmon can remain in federal court, a split Ninth Circuit panel said Monday. In a 2-1 opinion, the three-judge panel rejected the Klamath Irrigation District’s argument that an Oregon state court has the exclusive right to decide the issue as part of the Klamath Basin Adjudication that is pending before it. The two-judge said the Bureau of Reclamation’s obligations under the Endangered Species Act and the tribes’ senior rights had not been part of the state court’s adjudication of water rights.