U.S. Interior Secretary Gale Norton could be asked to convene the Endangered Species Act "God Squad" to decide whether to risk the extinction of two endangered fish species so the Klamath Basin's farmers can irrigate their fields this drought year.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said the Bureau of Reclamation's Klamath Irrigation Project violates the federal Endangered Species Act by jeopardizing the continued existence of Lost River and shortnose suckers in Upper Klamath Lake, both added to the endangered species list in 1988. To protect the endangered fish, Fish and Wildlife wants the water level raised by one foot in Upper Klamath Lake, irrigation canals screened, and fish ladders built at some project dams.

Higher lake levels and greater river flows after one of the driest winters in decades might leave no water for the region's farmers or the Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuges, an outcome that officials could choose to fight by asking Norton for an exemption from the Endangered Species Act.

U.S. Interior Secretary Gale Norton could be asked to convene the Endangered Species Act "God Squad" to decide whether to risk the extinction of two endangered fish species so the Klamath Basin's farmers can irrigate their fields this drought year.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said the Bureau of Reclamation's Klamath Irrigation Project violates the federal Endangered Species Act by jeopardizing the continued existence of Lost River and shortnose suckers in Upper Klamath Lake, both added to the endangered species list in 1988. To protect the endangered fish, Fish and Wildlife wants the water level raised by one foot in Upper Klamath Lake, irrigation canals screened, and fish ladders built at some project dams.

Meanwhile the National Marine Fisheries Service is drafting its own opinion on the project's effects on coho salmon, first listed as threatened in 1997. That opinion may say that project operations are jeopardizing salmon and is almost certain to call for increased flows in the Klamath River.

But higher lake levels and greater river flows after one of the driest winters in decades might leave no water for the region's farmers or the Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuges, an outcome that officials could choose to fight by asking Norton for an exemption from the Endangered Species Act.

"We have been reviewing that process," said Bob Davis, chief of the resource management division for the Bureau of Reclamation's Klamath Area office. "Whether we get to that point or not, I don't know."

Under the Endangered Species Act, the Cabinet-level God Squad, known formally as the Endangered Species Committee, can agree to allow a species to go extinct, but in meeting twice previously to consider the fate of three species, the committee has never done so.

Wildlife officials worry that Upper Klamath Lake's suckers may already be doomed, following fish kills in 1995, 1996 and 1997 that wiped out up to 90 percent of the adult fish.

The extinction threat poses a difficult dilemma for the Klamath Tribes, which voluntarily ended their treaty fishery in 1986 in hopes of preserving a species central to their culture and have taken the lead in trying to resolve water issues in the Klamath Basin.

"There's a significant danger of losing the species," says Bud Ullman, the Klamath Tribes' water rights attorney. "The tribes are real concerned about it, but we're also aware that with an outcome where the fish's water needs trump everything else, then we do run the risk of the God Squad and amending the Endangered Species Act and all the things you have to fear with a new administration."

Conservationists also are sounding the alarm over Fish and Wildlife's finding that bald eagles could be harmed by the Klamath Project as degraded wildlife refuges reduce winter food supplies, threatening some birds with starvation and others with inability to reproduce.

"What's at stake here is the decline of waterfowl and the whole fish and wildlife abundance of the Klamath Basin," said Wendell Wood, Southern Oregon field representative for the Oregon Natural Resources Council. "What do we do -- convene the God Squad as all these other species become endangered so we can still grow subsidized potatoes for which there are no markets?"

Klamath Basin potato farmers suffered their sixth season of below- production-cost prices last year and continued uncertainty about water and markets has taken a toll on the region's agricultural sector. Up to 33,000 acres of agricultural land in the basin is for sale, and 550 farmers submitted bids to leave fields unplanted this year in return for payments from the Bureau of Reclamation.

But farmers staged a rally last week that included a parade of tractors and the unveiling of their own scientific study that questions the conclusions of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

"This entire process is an outrage," said Don Russell, president of the Klamath Water Users Association. "The agencies involved in this process have no intent on producing a credible scientific report. Their intent is simply to force the Klamath Irrigation Project to mitigate for all of the other problems affecting the Klamath River fishery." You can reach Beth Quinn at 541-474-5926 or by e-mail at bquinn@terragon.com.