U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has determined that returning water to the Klamath River for fishing and recreation could provide far greater economic benefits than agriculture purposes ever could.

The draft report prepared by USGS officials out of Fort Collins, CO, indicated that buying out Klamath Basin farmers and using the irrigation water for swimming, wading, canoeing, whitewater rafting, angling, or shoreline activities would generate about $36 billion in economic benefits.

The cost of buying out the producers, removing the farms, and developing restoration actions along the Klamath River and its tributaries would amount to about $5 billion according to the USGS draft report.

Comparing the cost for these actions against the estimated economic gains, a USGS scientist and a statistical analyst came to the conclusion the Klamath Basin would see 30 times the amount of kickbacks from a recreational investment.

The USGS draft report has not undergone a formal review and was not yet intended to reach the public but was leaked to the media and several environmental organizations.

Klamath Water Users Association president Dan Keppen stated, "I can see why USGS did not publicly release this draft report. It provides no explanation whatsoever for how the radical restoration measures it proposes will improve the fishing and habitat conditions in the river." Keppen said the entire report’s speculative nature renders it useless in spite of when it was released to the public.

The draft report outlined several restoration measures:

• the purchase of all Klamath Irrigation Project farmland,

• acquiring sensitive forestland along the Klamath River and tributaries,

• removing dams along the Klamath River, and

• increasing Trinity River flows by 500,000 acre-feet annually by taking irrigation supplies from California’s Central Valley.

In the mean time, environmentalists and fishermen are still fighting the Bureau of Reclamation’s plan to give full water deliveries to Klamath Basin farmers through 2012.

Klamath Basin water users are on increased alert. The Klamath Water Users Association is assessing the increasing list of issues and is working with elected officials and allies of agriculture to prevent detrimental decisions before all of the facts are gathered.