[env-trinity] Klamath dams' removal would have severe impacts

[Josh Allen]

http://www.redding.com/redd/op_editorials/article/0,2232,REDD_18098_4607
266,00.html

 

Klamath dams' removal would have severe impacts

By Marcia H. Armstrong
April 9, 2006

It has been 20 years since Congress passed the Klamath Act for the
purpose of recovering anadromous fish (salmon) in the Klamath River
system. Much of that time, parties have engaged in a tug of war over
flows. Fingers have been pointed upstream at the negative of natural
resource use on fish habitat, resulting in a cessation of timber harvest
on local national forests and a suit that has halted suction-dredge
mining. Although some support has been provided to the heroic voluntary
habitat restoration efforts of farmers and ranchers in the Scott and
Shasta River valleys of the mid-Klamath (where the fish spawn and rear),
the bulk of funding has been expended elsewhere. 

With 700 miles of coastal fisheries about to be restricted because of a
second year of low chinook returns to the Klamath, obviously what we
have been doing is not working. Yet all we hear is the same old cry for
flows, finger pointing and the demand to shut down more activities upon
which the inland economy depends. 

Research being done in the Klamath by Scott Foott of the
California-Nevada Fish Health Center indicated that in 2005, half of
chinook juveniles sampled were infected with the parasite Ceratomyxa
Shasta and 91 percent infected with the parasite Parvacapsula.
Thirty-eight percent of the fish sampled were dually infected. The
infection is generally lethal. The infection rate has been increasing
over the sampling period since 1995. These are the same infections that
caused the fish die-off of adult salmon near the mouth of the Klamath in
2002. The parasites have not been found in the mid-Klamath tributaries. 

Foott has observed that increased Klamath River flows in May did not
appear to affect the rate of infection in juvenile fish. It was actually
the increase of water temperature to 18 degrees centigrade, accompanied
by a reduction in flows, that finally seemed to cause a decrease in
infection in juveniles during the month of June. In regard to the adult
die-off in 2002, the National Research Council in its final 2003 report
stated, "... no obvious explanation of the fish kill based on unique
flow or temperature conditions is possible" and "It is unclear what the
effect of specific amounts of additional flow drawn from controllable
upstream sources (Trinity and Iron Gate Reservoir) would have been."
High temperatures may have stressed them, making them more susceptible
to disease, but they did not die of low flows. The adult fish died of
disease. 

The hue and cry has been raised to tear down the dams on the Klamath.
Siskiyou County thinks that it would be rash to rush into removal of the
Klamath River dams. There are more than 1,600 property owners around
Copco Lake behind the lower complex of dams. In addition to providing
low-cost renewable energy from hydropower, these facilities provide
roughly $750,000 a year in tax revenue. The impact of dam removal to the
county and local residents would be substantial. 

There are no compelling data or studies to demonstrate that dam removal
is the best answer to assist in the recovery of fish. Information from
PacifiCorp indicates that water quality would actually be decreased by
dam removal. The county is particularly concerned about the effect that
sediment migration might have on salmon runs. 

Alternatives to dam removal have not received the attention they
deserve, such as fish ladders, trucking and other means of bypassing the
dams. The county feels alternatives to dam removal should be tested on a
pilot basis. 

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over,
expecting different results. Siskiyou County's economy now stands at 11
percent unemployment -- 18.8 percent on the Klamath River corridor. Our
median household income at the 2000 census was only $29,530. Let's take
some new approaches to solving this problem before all of our economies
collapse. 

Marcia H. Armstrong is a Siskiyou County supervisor. 
She lives in Fort Jones.

 

 

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