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Science 25 July 2003:
Vol. 301. no. 5632, p. 449
DOI: 10.1126/science.301.5632.449c
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ScienceScope

A federal judge in Oakland, California, last week threw out key provisions of the Bush Administration's water plan for the Klamath River Basin. The basin, which straddles the Oregon-California border and is home to several endangered fish, is the site of chronic water disputes between farmers, environmentalists, and Indian tribes (Science, 4 April, p. 36).

Last year, the federal Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) released a controversial 10-year plan to divvy up Klamath Basin water. It called on users to devise ways of bolstering stream flows, such as using a "water bank" to pay farmers not to irrigate. But the judge ruled that such measures were "not reasonably certain to occur" and ordered the government to rewrite the plan.

Fish advocates praised the decision. The plan met "the requirements of neither the law nor sound science," says Kristen Boyles, an attorney at Earthjustice, a plaintiff. Still, farmers were relieved that the court didn't cancel this year's irrigation deliveries. A due date for the revised plan hasn't been set.




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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)