[env-trinity] Redding.com: Tribes, Pacificorp at odds over algae in Klama...

Sat Jun 15 14:33:08 PDT 2013

Colleagues.... 

Please do NOT repost the Hoopa Valley Tribe's anti-algaecide Petition  
below. Anyone considering signing it should read it very carefully and  also 
understand that the Petition is to some degree merely a ruse perpetuated by  an 
employee of the Hoopa Valley Tribe to gather opposition against the Klamath 
 Settlement Agreements. In that respect, the Petition is somewhat of a 
Trojan  Horse, cleverly riding the algaecide issue for very different purposes, 
and has  drifted far from the point of opposing the use of algaecides in the 
river. 

The Petition is, in fact, highly deceptive!

Unfortunately, the Petition is far more about the Hoopa Valley Tribe's  
efforts to gather support for its unique position in opposition to the  Klamath 
Settlement Agreements than it is about the algaecide issue. The  Petition 
insists, for instance, that it is "time for PacifiCorps to move forward  with 
needed Clean Water Act certification" in its pending Application before the 
 California State Water Board. What the Hoopa Valley Tribe does not tell 
you,  though, is that the current Clean Water Act Section 401 Certification  
Application is NOT FOR DAM REMOVAL, it is for FULL DAM RELICENSING. And this  
Application has nothing whatsoever to do with the experimental use of  
algaecides -- which the Regional Water Board approved.

Moving even one more step forward toward Klamath dam relicensing makes no  
sense, given that PacifiCorp and nearly every other Klamath Basin major  
stakeholder (except the Hoopa Valley Tribe) is working diligently through  the 
Klamath Settlement Agreements to remove these dams by 2020, not to relicense 
 them! The pending 401 Relicensing Application process is suspended while  
Settlement Agreement efforts toward dam removal are being worked on. Forcing 
 PacifiCorp and the Water Board to instead move forward with the current 
401  Certification process for relicensing is merely a devious way to try to 
sabotage  the KIamath Settlement Agreement, which the Hoopa Valley Tribe has  
short-sightedly pledge itself to doing. The end result of such a process 
will  only be years of tangled and expensive litigation, and may even be 
partial  or total relicensing!

In short, this current Petition is highly deceptive, only  peripherally 
about algaecides, is based on a number of false  assumptions, and unfortunately 
has little to do, in the body of the  Petition, with what it is purported 
to be all about. 

Most people in the basin, including myself, strongly oppose more use of  
algaecides in the river and would sign a Petition that was only about  that 
issue in a heartbeat. But deceptively using this one "hot-button issue" as  a 
ruse to sabotage a Settlement Agreement that the Yurok Tribe, Karuk Tribe,  
Klamath Tribes, Humboldt County and more than 40 other major Klamath Basin  
stakeholder groups have agreed to -- and which represents the most certain 
way  to get these four dams down within the shortest period of time -- does  
everyone a great disservice!   Its authors should be ashamed of  themselves!

=============================================
Glen H. Spain, NW  Regional Director
Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations  (PCFFA)
PO Box 11170, Eugene, OR 97440-3370
O:(541)689-2000 --  Fax:(541)689-2500
Email: fish1ifr at aol.com
Home Page: _www.pcffa.org_ (http://www.pcffa.org/)   

In a message dated 6/14/2013 12:17:53 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,  
windhorse at jeffnet.org writes:

How about puting the petition on  line?
Lots more would  sign!
Jim
Visit our Websites:
_www.CarpenterDesign.com_ (http://www.carpenterdesign.com/) 
_www.BirdingandBoating.com_ (http://www.birdingandboating.com/) 
541  885 5450

----- Original Message ----- 
From:  _Tom  Stokely_ (mailto:tstokely at att.net)  
To: _env-trinity at velocipede.dcn.davis.ca.us_ 
(mailto:env-trinity at velocipede.dcn.davis.ca.us)   
Sent: Thursday, June 13, 2013 9:17  AM
Subject: [env-trinity] Redding.com:  Tribes,Pacificorp at odds over algae 
in Klamath River

http://www.redding.com/ne
ws/2013/jun/12/tribes-pacificorp-at-odds-over-algae-in-klamath/ 

Tribes, Pacificorp at odds over algae in Klamath  River
    *   By _Alayna Shulman_ (http://www.redding.com/staff/alayna-shulman/)  

    *   Posted June 12, 2013 at 6  p.m.

 (http://www.redding.com/photos/2013/jun/12/81352/)  

AP PHOTO/JEFF BARNARD 
This Aug. 21, 2009, photo shows water trickling over an  algae-covered 
spillway at Copco 1 Dam on the Klamath River outside  Hornbrook. Regional Indian 
tribes are at odds with PacifiCorp over a plan to  kill toxic algae blooms 
in the Klamath River that critics say could cause a  whole other pollution 
problem in the Northern California  waterway.

Local  tribes are at odds with PacifiCorp over a plan to kill toxic algae 
blooms in  the Klamath River that critics say could cause a whole new 
pollution problem  in the already-controversial waterway. 
A  petition to stop the electricity giant’s plan to kill algae in the 
Siskiyou  County river with hydrogen peroxide-based “GreenClean Liquid” picked 
up some  2,000 signatures in its first week, said Regina Chichizola, a Hoopa 
Valley  tribe member who started the protest drive. 
Chichizola  said she questions PacifiCorp’s study from its pilot run of the 
algae  program that killing the blooms with the substance doesn’t produce 
harmful  amounts of microcystin, a naturally occurring toxin. 
“I  feel like this shouldn’t be done on an experimental level,” Chichizola 
 said. 
Toxins  in the river are problematic for both fishers and other recreation 
fans as  well as local tribes, Chichizola said, since they use the waterway 
for  sacred ceremonies. 
But  PacifiCorp says it’s “inconceivable” the plan would cause any 
toxicity  problems. 
“We  think it’s, frankly, irresponsible to be raising public health 
concerns over  something that is inconceivable — that this would cause health 
problems down  river, in the reservoir, anywhere,” said Bob Gravely, a spokesman 
for the  company. 
Meanwhile,  the Karuk Tribe has entered into a conflict resolution process 
with  PacifiCorp over the plan, hoping to find a civil way to ease concerns 
it  could prove toxic. 
“We  feel confident we’re going to work through this with PacifiCorp,” 
said Craig  Tucker, tribe spokesman. 
The  Karuk Tribe even sent an in-depth letter to PacifiCorp rejecting some 
of the  analysis from the 2012 study based on what time of day it occurred 
and the  depth of the water, both of which can affect results, a water expert 
for the  tribe said. 
While  Tucker said the data from a pilot project last year is up for  
interpretation, it’s still concerning that the plan includes unnatural  
substances. 
“It’s  a tough pill for tribal communities to swallow because...chemicals 
are  inconsistent with tribal cultural beliefs,” he said. 
Gravely  pointed out that the 2012 study results indicated that microcystin 
wasn’t a  problem. This year’s study would include a screen so that a more 
isolated  pocket of water could be treated without being diluted, he said. 
Nonetheless,  Clayton Creager, senior scientist for the North Coast 
Regional Water Quality  Control Board, said the board has some worries as well and 
is examining the  permit that allows PacifiCorp to use the algae-killer. 
“We’re  evaluating the status of their current permit,” he said. “It’s 
because we  have specific concerns and we’ve received lots of complaints.” 
The  U.S. Department of the Interior recommended in April that four dams on 
the  river be torn down to protect local tribes and fish species, and 
Chichizola  said that’s a safe way to prevent algae, since much of it originates 
from  the dams. 
In  2010, Indian tribes, farmers, salmon fishermen and conservation groups  
signed historic agreements calling for sharing water in dry years and the  
removal of the four dams to open up hundreds of miles of salmon habitat shut 
 off for a century. PacifiCorp, which owns the dams, agreed to the removal  
rather than pay millions of dollars for fish ladders and other  
improvements. 
In  addition to raising concerns over the algaecide plan, Chichizola 
blasted  PacifiCorp for not soliciting public comment on the plan, despite its  
significance to the public. 
“We’re  concerned mainly with the people who are using the river, and we’
re  concerned with the complete lawlessness around this action,” Chichizola  
said, saying the plan has turned the Klamath into a “corporately controlled  
river.” 
But  Gravely said his company notified Siskiyou County officials and also 
ran a  notice in a local newspaper. 
“This  has all been done as part of a very public process, and in 
accordance with  every regulation that applies to it,” he said. “I don’t know 
exactly what  they’re saying didn’t happen or wanted to happen...we made our 
required  notices. We feel like we have a responsibility to address these  
issues.”

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