GRANTS PASS, Ore. — The process of shutting off one user’s water to satisfy the senior water rights of another has begun in drought-stricken Klamath County.
The Oregon Water Resources Department said Thursday that a federal irrigation project and the Klamath Tribes have called for enforcement of their senior water rights.
Spokeswoman Racquel Rancier says the City of Klamath Falls has to shut down some municipal drinking water wells to satisfy the call from the Klamath Reclamation Project.
She adds watermasters are evaluating the situation on rivers flowing through the Klamath Tribes’ former reservation, where last year the call by the tribes exercising their newly awarded water rights forced ranchers to stop irrigating pastures.
This is the second straight year of drought in Klamath County.
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