News Release: Bureau of Reclamation 2022 Operations Plan Hastens Extinction of Endangered C’waam and Koptu

Today’s announcement by the Bureau of Reclamation of its 2022 Operations Plan is perhaps the saddest chapter yet in a long history of treaty violations visited upon us by the United States. Under the Plan, Reclamation intends to usurp “up to 62,000 acre feet” of water from the nearly extinct and (Klamath Tribes) treaty protected C’waam (Lost River sucker) and Koptu (shortnose sucker) at the height of their spawning season. Instead, despite the clear mandate of the Endangered Species Act to prioritize the needs of endangered species, Reclamation intends to send that water to irrigators in violation of Reclamation’s own water allocation formula.