The Klamath River starts in Oregon, at the Upper Klamath Lake, and runs southwest into northern CA, emptying into the Pacific at the town of Klamath. It has been inhabited by humans for nearly 7,000 years, due to its importance for fish migration, primarily salmon and trout. It is also known as the "upside-down river", since the upper portion is primarily developed, while the lower part remains wild. The upper part of the Klamath is high desert country, and also where much of the agricultural interests are along the river. (Can you see where one of the issues starts to arise here? Agriculture and desert.....) I want to give you a brief overview of the conflicting interests over the Klamath River, with more details to follow: irrigators, fish protected by the Endangered Species Act, native tribes, hydroelectricity, recreation, and to a small degree, property owners along the river.
The Klamath River also has seen historic fur trapping, logging, and gold mining along its shores, along with steamboats in the calm upper waters. But the biggest impact humans have had on this river are the 5 major dams along the main stem of the river (with more in the rivers and streams that feed into the Klamath). These dams, built by PacifiCorps and COPCO, were designed to produce hydroelectricity and to help irrigate the crops along the upper river. So why are these dams bad? You already know that fish don't have the ability to jump or fly over dams, which has lead to the creation of fish ladders. But here on the Klamath, fish ladders would be absurdly cost and time intensive, more so than the simple removal of the dams. And putting in fish ladders only solves one of multiple problems. When the dams stop or slow down the flow of water, the water heats up around the dams, as well as becomes much more likely to allow the spread of disease or algal blooms. So at this point, the fish that have been swimming miles upstream from the ocean to spawn are facing the insurmountable obstacle of multiple dams, the threat of higher temperatures, and the threat of disease and toxic microcystin levels. The irrigators have had it made in the past, as they are allowed to take as much water from the river as they want, with no regard to the fish or even tribal people that need the water downstream. This lead to the fish kill disaster of 2002. In 2001, the irrigators had their water completely shut off in the interest of saving the fish protected under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). As you can imagine, they were not happy, and argued their case well enough that in the next year, also a "critically dry" year, they were allowed unmonitored access to the river, resulting in the fish kill. If you want more information on this, click here.
So now, there is a huge push to remove the dams. PacifiCorps and COPCO have not even received a license to renew their dams, and with all of the conflicting interests, this seems the best way to go. California will carry most of the burden of the cost for removing the dams, as most of the dams are in CA. There are obviously downsides to the removal of dams, particularly for property owners along the shores of the reservoirs, and for the first few years during and after the dam removal, the fish will lose much of the population. But the dam removal is expected to lead to an eventual increase in water quality and fish migration (and survival), recreation business should skyrocket, and the irrigators will receive the water they absolutely need.
Another related story is a whale that had been hanging out in the lower Klamath. She brought her calf upriver about 2 months ago, and has been receiving a lot of attention. Unfortunately, she died just a few days ago, forcing her calf to head back out to sea. There is talk of a Native American belief that this is an omen that the world is out of balance. The link the the article is below.
Article: Klamath River whale
***Update as of 8/18/11- Local, state, and federal agencies, and the local tribes have admitted that this inland whale has brought about unprecedented cooperation among all to find a solution to the multiple issues plaguing not only the Klamath River, but its tributaries, and to improve the health of the Pacific Ocean to avoid this incident again.***
Kudos to you for reading this far, so I will just leave you with one challenge. What are some local environmental issues in your area? If you don't know, go find out; if you do, get involved; if you are already involved, help get others involved.
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