About KWAPA

The Klamath Water and Power Agency (KWAPA) is a Joint Powers/Inter-governmental Agency whose members are water agencies within the Klamath Reclamation Project. A Joint Powers Agreement allows signatories to the agreement, who have statutory authorities that are common to each participant, to exercise those common "powers" jointly for the benefit of all parties.

Each of the Parties to the Agreement has the power to purchase, generate, transmit, distribute, sell and interchange electrical energy, and to manage water resources, in addition to other powers.

Each of the Parties (Klamath Project Districts) either by statutory authority or by a vote of their patrons enjoys the same powers as a Public Utility District (PUD) or Municipal Utility District does.

It is the desire of KWAPA and its founders to use this common authority, to identify areas where we can make more efficient use of our energy, and exercise those authorities afforded a PUD to the benefit of all irrigators and the community as a whole.

Each of the parties has the authority to manage water resources. KWAPA is currently managing the Water Users Mitigation Program (WUMP) with the Bureau of Reclamation through a cooperative agreement.  WUMP is designed to investigate the capability of KWAPA to manage a water supplementation program within the Klamath Project. It gives us the opportunity to design and implement a water management plan that irrigators would control and operate. Something we have not had the opportunity to do in the past.

It needs to be said that KWAPA, at this point in time, is not a function of the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement (KBRA), however it is anticipated that upon approval of the Restoration Agreement, there would be certain duties and responsibilities that will fall to KWAPA.

KWAPA believes that this is a rare opportunity for irrigators and the larger community to work together within the framework of KWAPA, and potentially the KBRA, to better use our common authority to find locally based solutions to energy issues, water management issues, and coordinate in other areas to the benefit of the whole community.

KWAPA is the product of discussion between local irrigators, districts and others in the community, over the last year. It is our intent to have all irrigation, drainage, and improvement districts as members of KWAPA, and then look for additional partnerships beyond those associations.