The Klamath Diversion was a federal water project proposed by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in the 1950s. It would have diverted the Klamath River in Northern California to the more arid central and southern parts of that state. It would relieve irrigation water demand and groundwater overdraft in the Central Valley and boost the water supply for Southern California. Through the latter it would allow for other Southwestern states—Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah—as well as Mexico to receive an increased share of the waters of the Colorado River.
Although many different versions of the plan were put forth, all would have involved damming the Klamath River, as well as the Trinity River and several other tributaries. A tunnel would have carried much of the Klamath's water to the Sacramento River, whose flow would be routed around the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and travel under the Tehachapi Mountains to the Los Angeles Basin. However, the Klamath River has one of the western continental United States' most significant salmon runs, and building the diversion would have all but destroyed this productive fishery. Both commercial fishermen and Native Americans—namely the Yurok—opposed the plan, as did the city of Los Angeles. The city saw the Klamath Diversion as a "ploy to encourage it to relinquish its claim on the share of the river [the Colorado] it considered its own".[1]
- ^ Reisner, p. 270