California water districts sue U.S. over releases to help Klamath River salmon

Two agricultural water providers in the Central Valley of California are asking a federal judge to stop releases of extra water intended to help salmon in the Klamath Basin survive the drought.

LINK (via:Oregon Live)

This is what happened in 2002 when Klamath water was diverted to agricultural interests for political gain.

The Klamath Basin was once the third most productive river system for salmon on the west coast. It supported combined run sizes estimated between 660,000 to 1.1 million adult fish per year. These included spring-run chinook, fall-run chinook, coho, pink, and chum salmon, and winter and summer steelhead. Only the Columbia and the California Central Valley river systems produced more salmon.