The District · Our Mission
Our Mission
Move the water. Defend the water. Conserve the water.
The mission of Klamath Irrigation District
To acquire, maintain, assure, and deliver an adequate water supply for beneficial use on qualified land within the Klamath Project.
We represent our Patrons before government agencies, the legislature, Congress, and in such forums as appropriate for the perfection and protection of their water rights. We defend the District from actions which would diminish our effectiveness and function. We further promote the conservation of water, soil, and other natural resources.
What that means in practice
Behind that statement are three standing commitments. Delivering water is the heart of what we do — but standing behind that promise also means representing our patrons where their water rights are decided, defending the District against actions that would weaken it, and conserving the water, soil, and natural resources the basin depends on.
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Represent
We stand up for our patrons
We represent our patrons before government agencies, the legislature, Congress, and in such forums as appropriate — working for the perfection and protection of their water rights.
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Defend
We protect the District
We defend the District from actions that would diminish our effectiveness and function — keeping the system, and the deliveries it makes possible, intact for the families who rely on it.
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Conserve
We steward the basin
We further promote the conservation of water, soil, and other natural resources — so that working farms and a healthy basin can share the same landscape for generations to come.
How we carry it out, day to day
To deliver irrigation water to water users in a professional manner while maintaining control of our canals and laterals with minimal losses.
This is the mission as it’s lived in the field — by the ditch rider moving water to a patron’s headgate, the crew rebuilding a structure in the winter cold, and the staff who keep deliveries flowing across the basin every season.
The promise of title transfer
Our mission begins with two words that are easy to pass over: acquire and assure. The District already operates and maintains the canals, laterals, and structures of the Klamath Project — we have done that work for generations. But the federal government still holds title to those works. Title transfer would convey ownership of the Project’s facilities to the District and the patrons who built them, paid for them, and keep them running.
The deed to the farm
The Klamath Project was built on a bargain: the families it serves would repay the cost of construction, and in time the works would become theirs. The patrons held up their end. Securing title is the federal government keeping its word — a promise made, and a promise that is still owed.
This is not a side issue — it is mission accomplishment. You cannot fully assure a water supply you operate but do not own. So long as the works are federally owned and federally operated, Project water stays entangled in federal processes that, in dry years, have been used to reduce or redirect it. Bringing the Project home places ownership, control, and accountability here in the Basin — with an elected board answerable to its patrons, not a distant federal office. It is how we defend the District from actions which would diminish our effectiveness and function, and how we protect our patrons’ water rights for good.
Why this work matters
Food security is national security.
We’ve delivered water to this basin since 1905, moving it the way it was first engineered — by gravity, without pumps or power. The water we deliver each growing season grows the food on the nation’s tables and sustains the farming families who have worked this land for generations. That is the purpose behind every part of our mission.