SAN FRANCISCO, July 23 (UPI) -- A federal appeals court in San Francisco has overturned a decision that had assured the Klamath Tribes top priority for water in the Klamath Basin.
The ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals leaves the Oregon Water Resources Department to determine how much water the tribes need to maintain the fish and game on which they depend.
Tribal claims are a critical point in the emotional water battles that have consumed the Klamath Basin, located on the border of California and Oregon, because the tribes consider lake fish called suckers a historic food source, the Portland Oregonian reported.
They want enough water to restore the fish, also protected by the Endangered Species Act.
But the needs of the fish left Klamath Project farmers without water for their crops and animals in the drought year of 2001.
Farmers who have fought tribal claims to Klamath water in court cases dating to 1979 called th ruling a victory.
