ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the public discourse by and about stakeholders that constitutes the "water wars" in Oregon surrounding Interior Secretary Norton's decision to release water for the Klamath Basin farms in July of 2001, despite enforcement of the Endangered Species Act that withheld water at the time to protect threatened and endangered fish. It focuses on the outcry for water rights in the war that also follows from what Kenneth Burke describes in Attitudes toward History as a strategic advantage provided by law, politics, and governmental action upon which the people democracy is based. The chapter overviews the Burke's burlesque frame of reference, with specific regard to rights and obligations, identifies the method of analysis, applies this critical perspective to the discourse of water wars surrounding Norton's announcement to release irrigation water for the Klamath Project, and then discusses implications of the discourse surrounding the controversy.
