Biological Opinions - Bureau of Reclamation

4 PROPOSED ACTION
Reclamation proposes to continue to operate the Project to store, divert, and convey water to
meet authorized Project purposes and contractual obligations in compliance with applicable State
and Federal law. Reclamation also proposes to carry out the activities necessary to maintain the
Project and ensure its proper long-term functions and operation. The period covered by this
proposed action is the signature date of this BiOp through March 31, 2023.
Reclamation’s proposed Project operations from 2013 to 2023 consist of three major elements:
1. Store waters of the Klamath and Lost Rivers.
2. Operate the Project, or direct the operation of the Project, for the delivery of water for
irrigation purposes, subject to water availability, while maintaining lake and river hydrologic
conditions that avoid jeopardizing the continued existence of listed species and adverse
modification of designated critical habitat.
3. Perform operation and maintenance (O&M) activities necessary to maintain Project facilities
to ensure proper long-term function and operation.
Each of the elements of the proposed action is described in greater detail in the following
sections. Elevations used in this section are referenced to Reclamation’s datum for the upper
Klamath Basin, which is 1.78 feet higher than the National Geodetic Vertical Datum of 1929.
4.1 Element One
Store waters of the Klamath and Lost Rivers.
4.1.1 Annual Storage of Water
Reclamation plans to store water annually in UKL, Clear Lake, and Gerber Reservoir. The
majority of inflow occurs from November through May. In some years of high net inflows or
atypical inflow patterns, contributions to the total volume stored can also be significant in
October and June. The majority of water delivery from storage occurs during April through
September, although limited delivery occurs in March, October, and November. Storing water
through the winter and spring results in peak lake and reservoir storage between March and May.
The Klamath Project’s primary storage reservoir, UKL, is shallow and averages only about 6 feet
(ft) (1.8 meters [m]) of usable storage when at full pool (approximately 515,000 acre-feet). Clear
Lake and Gerber Reservoir also have limited storage capability. Thus, UKL, Clear Lake, and
Gerber Reservoir do not have the capacity to carry over significant amounts of stored water from
one year to the next. UKL also has limited capacity to store higher than normal inflows during
spring and winter months, because the levees surrounding parts of UKL are not adequately
constructed or maintained for that purpose. Therefore, the amount of water stored in any given
year is highly dependent on net inflows in that year, and in preceding years. Inflow throughout
the irrigation season is predominantly dependent upon snowpack to sustain flows during the
summer and fall months. Ground water is an important component of inflow to UKL and also
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