[env-trinity] Group files suit against Pacificorp for alleged toxic blooms

[Tom Stokely]

KLAMATH RIVER DAMS:

Klamath River people challenge dam owner

Eureka Times Standard – 5/3/07

By John Driscoll, staff writer

 

The Klamath River's dams are a nuisance and create a threat to public health, American Indian and fishing interests are alleging in a major federal lawsuit against the dam's owner Pacificorp. 

 

The suit filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco Wednesday looks to stop the company from operating its dams in a way that proliferates toxic algae blooms and threatens the river's fisheries and people who swim or hold religious ceremonies in its water. The law firms of Kennedy and Madonna -- run in part by Robert Kennedy, Jr. -- and corporate law heavy hitter Joseph Cotchett of Cotchett, Pitre and McCarthy filed the suit. 

 

The plaintiffs are members of the Yurok and Karuk tribes, a commercial salmon fisherman who runs a boat out of Half Moon Bay and a riverside business owner, as well as the nonprofit group Klamath Riverkeeper. 

 

They claim that Pacificorp and regulators have failed to reverse deteriorating water quality in the river and its reservoirs. 

 

Operation of the dams warms water and accentuates toxic algae blooms, they claim, which have crushed the river's fisheries and pose a serious threat to public health. 

 

”We've been doing our due diligence trying to get authorities to deal with the issue,” said Leaf Hillman, vice chairman of the Karuk Tribal Council and a priest who spends long periods of time in the river for religious ceremonies each year. “As time has gone on it's gotten a little more frustrating.” 

 

Hillman spoke by cell phone from Omaha, Neb. where tribal and fishing interests are protesting the Klamath dams at the shareholders meeting of Pacificorp parent company Berkshire Hathaway. The groups are asking Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett to push Pacificorp to remove the dams. 

 

Pacificorp spokeswoman Jan Mitchell said it's the company's policy not to comment on pending litigation. She said Pacificorp has been working with a group of stakeholders to come up with a resolution of the dispute over the river's hydropower dams, and has been working with federal regulators on a parallel course to relicense its operations. 

 

The Karuk Tribe recently asked the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board to impose restrictions on the discharge of toxic algae from Pacificorp's reservoirs. The board turned down the request last month, saying its authority is trumped by the Federal Power Act. 

 

Board Executive Officer Catherine Kuhlman said mandatory closures of lakes or water bodies -- like those the state of Oregon imposes -- during big algae blooms would require state rule-making action. She said the board, the tribes and local health officials are coming out with voluntary guidelines meant to guard against exposure to harmful algae this summer. 

 

The suit says the dams unnaturally heat water in the reservoirs, prompting algae blooms and delaying cooling of the river as fall run chinook salmon begin their run to spawning grounds. It also claims that the reservoirs slow water from warming in the spring, stunting the growth of young salmon which can make them susceptible to parasites and predators. 

 

In 2004, the U.S. Geological Survey found the dams do the same thing, and suggested that removing the dams might make the river more friendly to salmon in the fall. 

 

Well-known trial lawyer Kevin Madonna said in a phone interview that the case is about standing up for people who are politically powerless against a company who has diminished the resource it profits from. 

 

”It's a fundamentally undemocratic situation,” Madonna said. 

 

Madonna wouldn't comment on why the suit was brought by individual litigants instead of as a class action. 

 

Cotchett's firm is well-know for its huge lawsuits against corporations, savings and loan organizations, and even against Vice President Dick Cheney over the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's name. #

http://times-standard.com/local/ci_5808211

 

 

Editorial: Clean environment vs. clean environment

Eureka Times Standard – 5/3/07

 

For years, as the debate over the Klamath River's four hydroelectric dams has raged, the company has offered up lots of reasons why the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission should relicense them for another 30 to 50 years. But none has approach the chutzpah of its latest argument: Keeping the dams will help fight global warming. 

 

It was probably inevitable, given that the overwhelming evidence of global warming has convinced everyone except the most diehard carbon-emission lovers. It's now politically correct for PacifiCorp to claim that even though the dams provide power to only a small fraction of its customers, the only viable alternatives to the river are building plants using coal or natural gas. 

 

Thus, the long tug of war -- clean environment vs. jobs, or vs. the automobile, or vs. urban sprawl -- takes on a whole new dimension: clean environment vs. clean environment. 

 

The Klamath has been sick for decades because of the dams. They block several hundred miles of potential spawning habitat for salmon. Low water flows cause the water to become too warm, causing thousands of salmon to die from disease. Reservoirs pollute the river by prompting toxic algae blooms, which can also be dangerous to people. The salmon fishing industry in the Pacific Northwest has been brought to its knees. 

 

PacifiCorp proposes to trap fish and haul them up above Upper Klamath Lake, then truck the young fish back down again. But state and federal studies have shown that decommissioning the dams could be tens and even hundreds of millions of dollars cheaper than keeping them in place, while letting the salmon swim their way up and down. 

 

The trucking argument seemed ridiculous, but the global warming rationale takes the cake. Give it up, PacifiCorp -- take down the dams. #
http://www.times-standard.com/allopinion/ci_5808212

 

 

Group files suit against Pacificorp for alleged toxic blooms

Associated Press – 5/2/07

By Sarah Skidmore, staff writer

 

PORTLAND, Ore.- A group of Klamath River tribal leaders, commercial salmon fishermen, recreational business owners and the Klamath Riverkeeper Group sued in federal court in Northern California Wednesday claiming two PacifiCorp dams on the river cause massive toxic algae blooms. 

 

The lawsuit contends the reservoirs behind Iron Gate and Copco dams in Northern California are a toxic nuisance, threatening salmon fishing and posing a human health threat. 

 

The suit wants Portland-based PacifiCorp to stop operating the dams in a way that causes the blooms. 

 

PacifiCorp spokeswoman Jan Mitchell said the company does not comment on pending litigation. 

 

PacifiCorp is seeking a new operating license for a number of its dams. But numerous Indian tribes, commercial fisherman and conservation groups want the dams removed rather than relicensed—saying the dams hurt water quality, wildlife and cause other problems. 

 

The company contends removal would eliminate a source of renewable, low-cost power. 

 

PacifiCorp serves 1.6 million customers in six Western states. 

 

A collapse of wild salmon returns to the Klamath River triggered drastic cutbacks in salmon fishing off the coasts of Oregon and California last summer and prompted the governors of the two states to call a summit to consider removing the dams. 

 

The summit was delayed so the various parties could try to reach an agreement. 

 

PacifiCorp began settlement talks with 26 other parties affected by the dams as part of the relicensing process. 

 

Regina Chichizola with the Klamath Riverkeeper said none of the individuals named in the lawsuit are involved in the settlement talks. 

 

The individuals involved are part of a larger effort to draw attention to their concern and are headed for Omaha, Neb., this week where Berkshire Hathaway is holding a shareholders' meeting. 

 

PacifiCorp, is owned by MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co., which is controlled by billionaire Warren Buffet. Berkshire Hathaway is his investment group. 

 

They hope to capture Buffett's attention. 

 

"We believe Warren Buffet really does care about health issues and poverty issues, what PacifiCorp is doing is hurting the health and viability of (others)," Chichizola said. "By talking to Warren Buffet, we are hoping to appeal to those concerns." #
http://www.contracostatimes.com/search/ci_5802774

 
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