Klamath Basin Adjudication

Alternative Dispute Resolution Meeting Summary

March 10, 1998

The meeting was to begin with caucus groups meeting to discuss the draft operating principles. However, the operating principals working group stated they needed more time to discuss and revise the operating principals. All the working groups met during the morning. In the afternoon, the working groups reported back to the full group and the caucus groups met briefly to review the operating principals.

Working Group Reports:

Concepts Working Group:

The concept group broke into three sub-groups: Low hanging fruit, Upper Klamath Basin Working Group (UKBWG) and Tribal claims.

Jim Carpenter spoke on behalf of the UKBWG. Appointed by Hatfield, the working group is charged with developing economic improvements and incentives, drought relief and ecosystem restoration. They recently had a day long meeting and discussed how to interact with the ADR process. The working group unanimously agreed to work with and interact with the ADR process. The UKBWG will serve as a sounding board for the ADR process on behalf of the community. They have representation from a broad range of interests, operate by consensus, and have diverse representation. A UKBWG sub-group will be maintained to work with the ADR work group.

Chuck Pettee reported back on the "low hanging fruit" sub-committee. He referred to the list of criteria and claims that was provided in the mailing. The group wanted to identify what constitutes low hanging fruit and identify examples. The list that was developed is not an exhaustive list and not all of the claims were looked at. They were initially chosen because they were the ones known by the group. The group realizes the claims are not without controversy, but thought they may be relatively easy to resolve.

Walter Echo-Hawk reported on a process for developing tribal settlement concepts. The process outlines a schedule over the next 25 months. The schedule and process may be refined as we go along, but the general process will be followed. Walter encouraged participants to call him with comments or questions. The process proposes settling tribal claims on a sub-basin level. Issues and groups preliminarily identified are: Klamath Lake; Klamath Marsh; seeps and springs; instream flows - Sprague River, Wood River, Williamson River, Klamath River; Klamath Allottees; Federal issues; State issues. A steering committee will be appointed from each sub-basin to ensure local input. The first draft of a settlement proposal will be ready in August. See handout for more detailed information.

Walter requested time on the next agenda to further discuss the tribal proposal.

Hydrology Working Group:

Steve Sweet reported back. The group has compiled a bibliography of publically available information, i.e from libraries, stream gage data, BOR (water use on project) water availability model and natural stream flow. They will try and get this information on the Web Page.

Next, they will look at existing information and characterize its value, identify areas of adequate and inadequate data. The hydrology group is soliciting questions and concepts from the ADR participants. Depending on the complexity of the basin or question, answers will be difficult to provide on a refined basis. Answers will also be conditioned since information is limited. No modeling will be done at this time until there is direction from the group.

Confidentiality and Admissibility:

Reed Marbut reported back to the group. The working group has agreed to move forward to adopt rules and will go to the Governor to request that he initiate rule making. WRD is confident that the Governor will approve the rulemaking. When this happens, WRD can adopt a temporary rule immediately and then permanent rule making will commence. Once adopted, the rule will be part of WRD's rules. (OAR 690) "Designation" of the rule is the most important process and must be carefully drafted to satisfy concerns of group. Reed reiterated that the rule can't protect information otherwise discoverable. Until rules are adopted, nothing is confidential. The rule can't be made retroactive. The goal is to have a temporary rule by the April meeting.

Operating Principles:

Martha Pagel reported back to the group. Draft operating principles have been prepared and sent to the group. The hope was to approve it today, but there are still gaps that need to be addressed and work to be done. A final draft will be mailed out before the next meeting so that the operating principles can be discussed by the caucuses and whole group. In today's workgroup, the focus was on the use of agreements and the relationship of the adjudication with the ADR process. Options for types of agreements were proposed and discussed. An important issue was how to build people into the process who are affected, but don't participate. Developing negotiating teams with proper representation was also discussed.

Presentation:

WRD Hydrographer, Rick Cooper spoke to the whole group about water availability in the Klamath Basin.

E-Board Request:

Martha Pagel discussed the E-Board request. A summary of the 1998 Adjudication Program E-Board Request was handed out. Martha will be asking for the balance of the original request.

Web-Page:

Rebecca Geisen noted that the KBADR web page was up and running. On it you will find meeting announcements, meeting summaries, working groups, file exchange area and goals and guidelines. The address is: http://www.wrd.state.or.us/programs/klamath_adr/index.html