U.S. Water News Online
KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. -- A new security fence, video cameras, and motion detectors are taking the place of federal police guarding the headgates of the Klamath Reclamation Project irrigation system.
The $90,000 security system has been completed around the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation structure that became the center of protests last summer over restricting irrigation water to farms to conserve water for threatened and endangered fish, spokesman Dave Jones said.
Contract security guards will remain through mid-January, when a final decision will be made on relying solely on the fence, cameras, and motion detectors to protect the headgates, Jones said.
The security system went up after protesters met with authorities the day after the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and said they would pull out to allow the federal government to concentrate on fighting terrorism.
The bureau spent about $750,000 guarding the headgates from July 14 through Sept. 26, when federal police left the site.
Bureau spokesman Dave Jones said he was not aware of any breaches of the security system.
``We are hoping for a very peaceful new year,'' said Jones. ``The snowpack building up in the Siskiyous and the area there gives us every hope this will not be another contentious year, that we have enough water to meet both the environmental obligations we have as well as our longstanding relations with the farmers who depend on that water.''
Due to last winter's drought, there was not enough water to supply farmers after meeting Endangered Species Act requirements for endangered suckers in Upper Klamath Lake, the project's primary reservoir, and threatened coho salmon in Klamath River, which drains the region.
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