[env-trinity] Two Rivers Tribune -OPINION: Klamath River Restoration Needs Tribal Unity

[Tom Stokely]

http://www.tworiverstribune.com/2012/10/opinion-klamath-river-restoration-needs-tribal-unity/ 
OPINION: Klamath River Restoration Needs Tribal Unity
Dear Editor,

Your report – Tribes Object to Chemical Tests on the Klamath River in the October 9 edition – quoted PacifiCorp spokespersons as stating that they are allowed to release algaecides into the Klamath River as one of the “interim measures” included in the KHSA Dam Deal. The Dam Deal also includes a provision for dispute resolution. The Karuk and Yurok Tribes are parties to the KHSA Dam Deal. That means they could have invoked the Deal’s dispute resolution process as a means to block PacifiCorp’s algaecide use.

The fact that these tribes did not invoke the process available to them to block use of the poison tells us a lot about current Klamath River politics. Instead of using the KHSA to block the algaecide tests, Craig Tucker, who helped lead the Karuk Tribe down the KHSA path, defended the company which he says is “under a lot of pressure” from regulators. In light of these facts Tucker’s promise that the Karuk Tribe will fight algaecide treatments next time rings hollow. The claims ring especially hollow in light of the recent secret Klamath Water Quality Conference which your taxes helped fund. At that secret Sacramento Conference, the use of toxic chemicals in other reservoirs was promoted as the preferred solution to the Klamath River Basin’s agricultural pollution. Why was the public locked out of a conference funded with taxpayer money?

And by the way, contrary to yet another false claim from Craig Tucker, the KHSA will not bring an end to toxic algae in our Klamath River. That’s because the KHSA would not decommission PacifiCorp’s Keno Dam (located below Klamath Falls). Instead it would transfer Keno to the US Bureau of Reclamation which would use it to serve the interests of irrigators. Keno is already more polluted than Iron Gate and Copco and it already contains toxic algae. If the KHSA is authorized by Congress, toxic algae will still flow down the Klamath River for the foreseeable future.

In the old days (before the KHSA and KBRA) united tribes and environmental groups would have challenged PacifiCorp’s use of poison in court. Now these divided forces can only manage toothless complaints to the press while some tribal spokespersons deliver media spin to the people instead of defending them.

That is the price of division. Because of the KHSA and KBRA, PacifiCorp and the US Bureau of Reclamation now call the shots on the Klamath River. These powers now also provide funding on which the Yurok, Karuk and Klamath Tribes are dependent to sustain tribal jobs. Under these circumstances, folks like Mr. Tucker have become little more than servants to the real powers and, in the words of Chairman Masten, this has “led to an air of lawlessness.”

Unless and until the unity of the Lower Klamath-Trinity Tribes is restored, this will continue to be the case.

Felice Pace
Klamath, CA
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