Goals of Klamath task force proving unrealistic

In the photos, taken yesterday: The Klamath Basin Task Force gathers in a meeting room at the Oregon Institute of Technology in Klamath Falls; Oregon natural resources advisor Richard Whitman (left) talks with Klamath County Commissioner Dennis Linthicum before the meeting; and Tom Paul of the Oregon Department of Water Resources gives an update on drought conditions in the Upper Klamath Basin. Note the irony in that last photo, with Paul talking about drought as any of about five pitchers of water are within his reach.

The task force is already well past its deadline for coming up with recommendations for improving water supplies and access to affordable power in the Upper Basin, and from what I saw yesterday, its members seem to be far from reaching a consensus on some pretty key issues. Facilitator Whitman has set a date of Oct. 10 for the group's next meeting, and it'll be interesting to see if they can come up with recommendations by then.

It seems to me that this committee is trying to do in three months what it took the parties to the original Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement five years to accomplish, which was to get folks who are diametrically opposed to one another to forge working relationships and come up with compromises that suit everyone's needs. As the immediate crisis has to do with water shutoffs in the Upper Basin, perhaps the committee's charge should have been simply to address that in the short-term first, then proceed with resolving electricity issues in time for the February deadline.

I don't know what this new committee is doing discussing the KBRA's budget when there's already a Klamath Basin Coordinating Council that's supposed to be dealing with that sort of thing.

Another seat-of-the-pants observation: The layout of the room yesterday was a perfect illustration of how government relates to the people in today's America. Panel members appointed by Oregon's Sen. Ron Wyden and Gov. John Kitzhaber sat facing each other at tables arranged as an enclosed square as the public sat in the back of the room, outside of the loop and struggling to hear and understand what was going on. Self-government, indeed.