By Jeff Barnard
AP Environmental Writer

 
March 18, 2010
 
GRANTS PASS, Ore. -- Klamath Basin farmers will get some water for crops this year, but far less than they hoped for so protected fish get what they need to survive the drought.
 
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Mike Connor said Thursday the agency hopes to send at least 30 percent of normal irrigation to the 1,300 farms on the Klamath Reclamation Project starting in mid-May, six weeks later than usual.
 
He says a new plan for protecting threatened Coho salmon made a little more water available for farms, but even this depends on normal rainfall in coming weeks.
 
Connor adds that $5 million will be spent to idle some lands and open wells to boost irrigation, and farmers will get $2 million in federal aid.