Judge finds feds violated law by favoring irrigators in the Klamath Basin
A magistrate judge in Oregon sided with the Klamath Tribes on Monday in finding that the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation violated the Endangered Species Act by misallocating limited water supplies from the Upper Klamath Lake, harming endangered sucker fish and other aquatic wildlife. In the 52-page findings and recommendation, U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark D. Clarke found the central question is whether the federal government broke the law by allocating water for irrigation when it knew it could not comply with its Endangered Species Act obligations to endangered sucker fish in the Upper Klamath Lake, a freshwater reservoir in the southern Oregon portion of the Klamath Basin.