[env-trinity] Native Americans in protest at ScottishPower threat to salmon

[Richard Pruitt]

Native Americans in protest at ScottishPower threat to salmon
Tribes set to visit Glasgow HQ in bid to save river fish
By Rob Edwards, Environment Editor



ONE of Scotland’s leading multinationals, ScottishPower, is facing 
angry protests from native Americans who accuse its US subsidiary 
of destroying a salmon river in California.

Four tribes – the Karuk, Yurok, Hoopa and Klamath – fearful for the
fate of their traditional fishing grounds, are threatening to bring
their protest to ScottishPower’s Glasgow headquarters. 

They warn the company that it is risking years of bitter conflict 
and serious damage to its environmental credentials.

According to Leaf Hillman, of the Karuk, shareholders are raking in 
multi-million pound profits as the tribes suffer. “While they kill the
fish with their hydro-power dams, downstream native Americans go 
without fish to eat or electricity in their homes,” he says.

“ScottishPower claims to be a green utility, but what its subsidiary 
is doing is cheating us out of a possible solution.” The company is 
guilty, he alleges, of a “betrayal of trust”.

The Klamath River in northern California and southern Oregon was once 
the third biggest salmon-producing river in the US. But now two species
are extinct, one is threatened and the remaining two have been reduced 
to 10% of their former populations.

The four tribes, backed by anglers and environmentalists, say dams and 
power stations operated along the river by ScottishPower’s subsidiary, 
PacifiCorp, are to blame. The dams have prevented salmon from reaching 
their natural spawning grounds up river.

“These are small, old dams that provide little power but a do a great 
deal of damage to the river, blocking hundreds of miles of historic 
salmon spawning habitat,” said Glen Spain, regional director of the 
Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations. 

“Salmon kills caused by these dams have destroyed fishing jobs all 
along the west coast.”

In 2002, the 240-mile Klamath River suffered the largest fish kill in 
US history, with more than 33,000 fish dying because of a shortage 
of good quality water. The tribes and environmentalists claim the 
dams played “a significant part” in the disaster, though ScottishPower 
denies this.

The tribes have lived along the Klamath for millennia, depending on its 
fish for sustenance. Now the 50-year-old hydro schemes have come up 
for relicensing, they were hoping to get them adapted to enable 
salmon to swim upriver to spawn as they once did.

But when PacifiCorp submitted its relicensing application in February 
it failed to promise to install salmon runs, or to investigate shutting 
down some dams, and instead suggested salmon could be caught and hauled 
upstream in trucks.

“Despite our good faith involvement with PacifiCorp, we have been 
ignored,” said Merv George Jnr, director of the Klamath River 
Inter-Tribal Fish and Water Commission. “As the parent company, 
ScottishPower should be held accountable and uphold its 
responsibilities to native people.”

On May 5, the tribes wrote to its board in Glasgow requesting it 
direct Pacifi Corp to enter into settlement negotiations. 
They are also trying to raise money to finance a protest visit to 
Glasgow to highlight “environmental racism”.

The Klamath power stations generate 151 megawatts, about 2% of all 
PacifiCorp’s hydroelectricity. The river has 12 turbine generators, 
five reservoirs and five dams, the largest of which, Iron Gate, is 
173ft high.

In November 1999, PacifiCorp was taken over by ScottishPower, 
which last year had a global turnover of more than £5 billion 
and a profit before tax of more than £800 million. 
ScottishPower provides electricity and gas to four million consumers 
in the UK, many of them in Scotland. ScottishPower argues that the 
conflicts over the Klamath are a legacy of dams built decades ago 
to standards very different from today’s. 

“Removal of the dams would perhaps please the tribes, but it could 
spell disaster for farmers in the area in terms of irrigation,” 
said a spokesman. “Our relicensing proposal aims for a compromise. 
In this situation it is very difficult to please all sides.” PacifiCorp 
was obliged to seek maximum benefits from a renewable energy source.

Friends of the Earth Scotland sides with the tribes. 
“Environmental injustices often arise where companies operate overseas, far from the scrutiny of shareholders or customers, and this sounds like a classic example,” said chief executive, Duncan McLaren. “ScottishPower may be proud of its green credentials, but this case makes me question whether it is genuinely accountable to the communities it affects.” 


Copyright © 2004 smg sunday newspapers ltd. no.176088 



Richard Pruitt
rickpruitt at earthlink.net
Why Wait? Move to EarthLink.
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