Video cameras provide round-the-clock monitoring of the headgates compound.

Klamath, Oregeon - 12/27/01 Workers completed the installation of a tall, black fence around the headgates of the A Canal Wednesday, part of a $90,000 Bureau of Reclamation project to enhance the safety and security of the property.

The security project was agreed to by the Bureau on Sept. 12, when protesters met with Interior Department officials to broker an agreement allowing U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agents to be reassigned in the wake of the terrorist attacks the previous day.

The headgate safety enhancements also include the installation of three video cameras and two motion sensors, an improvement that drew immediate comment on an Internet discussion board devoted to the water crisis in the Klamath Basin.

Somewhat tongue-in-cheek, the postings talk about using laser pointers to disable or damage the video cameras, valued at almost $2,000 each.

Bureau spokesman Jeffrey McCracken said he doesn’t see the humor.

“We are talking

A new security fence surrounds the headgates of the A Canal, which was the scene of prolonged protests last summer.

about an effort here to provide security for the headgates,” McCracken said. “We are not going to talk about those issues,” he added, referring to the Internet posts.

Dave Tinkham, a maintenance engineer for KGW-TV in Portland, said the likelihood of a laser light source doing damage to a video camera is slight, but it exists.

“There is a possibility of (a laser light source) doing damage,” said Tinkham, whose job includes caring for the hand-held cameras used by reporters in the field. “As a rule, incandescent light will damage the solid state circuitry in a camera.”

Tinkham said the amount of light entering a camera’s lens is controlled by an iris which shuts out excessive light before the circuitry is damaged.

“The light would not so much destroy the camera as blind it,” Tinkham said.

Ironically, damaging or attempting to damage the cameras would break a federal law, while trespassing behind the fence would not, since no federal law addresses trespass on federal property in general.

The cameras and motion sensors will be monitored constantly, Bureau spokes-man David Jones said.

“Both the cameras and the sensors are remotely monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week at a remote location,” Jones said. “We will not discuss the location for security reasons.”

On the Internet: www.klamathbasincrisis.org.