Klamath First Advocates -Act Now To Restore Klamath Water Quality

What would you think if someone told you that PacifiCorp’s Klamath River dams are NOT the most important issue for those who want to restore the Klamath River and Klamath Salmon? You’d say that someone is either misinformed or crazy right? That’s because we’ve been barraged by press coverage of Dam and Water Deals crafted behind closed doors while other Klamath issues and happenings have for the most part been ignored. But the plain truth is that pollution - the lack of water quality conducive to recovery of Klamath Salmon and restoration of the Klamath River - is the #1 factor preventing recovery and restoration. The dams are part of the problem but they are not the largest polluter.

Right now the North Coast Water Quality Control Board (NCWQCB) – the entity charged with assuring water quality on the Northcoast and Klamath – has begun the process of developing a Water Quality Restoration Plan for the Klamath River. This is a critical part of what is called the TMDL Process. The Restoration Plan is where the rubber of science hits the road of enforcement. A good plan will provide the correct actions and enforcement mechanisms needed to (finally) clean up the Klamath.

The NCWQCB is currently conducting “scoping” for the Water Quality Restoration Plan including five workshops where the Water Board’s staff will present the Plan and receive written and oral comments from the public. The five workshops are as follows:
• March 3, 12:30 PM, Yurok Tribal Office, Klamath, CA.
• March 3, 6:30 PM, Humboldt State U., BSS Building, Room 162, Arcata, CA
• March 4, 6 PM, Tulelake Butte V. Fairgrounds, Floriculture Room., Tulelake, CA.
• March 5, 6 PM, Willow Creek School, Montague, CA.
• March 12, 2 PM, Hearing Room, NCWQCB Office, Santa Rosa, CA

You can read or download various TMDL and background information at the NCWQCB’s web site: http://www.swrcb.ca.gov/northcoast/water_issues/programs/tmdls/klamath_river/. Comments can be submitted until 5 PM on March 27th to: MStJohn [at] waterboards.ca.gov

The Klamath River is listed as “impaired” as required by the Clean Water Act because its waters will not support the “beneficial uses” of that water - as expressed in water quality standards established for the River. The Klamath is impaired by excessive amounts of nutrients and organic matter, high water temperatures, low dissolved oxygen concentrations, and the blue-green algae toxin microcystin. These impairments are damaging beneficial uses including salmon and other fisheries, Indigenous cultural uses and recreation.

The #1 source of these impairments is well established but not well known; it is the agriculture industry. Water being released from the Klamath Straits and Keno Reservoir in the Upper Basin is highly polluted and most of that pollution is agricultural waste water. The Shasta and Scott Rivers are also polluted and the main source by far is agriculture – both direct deposit of manure by livestock and agricultural waste water released to the river. The temperature, low dissolved oxygen and microcystin toxin impairments are directly related to this agricultural pollution. PacifiCorp’s dams and reservoirs – both the 4 that are proposed for removal and the one that is proposed for transfer to the Bureau of Reclamation – make the bad water quality they receive much worse. But they are NOT the main source of Klamath River’s water quality problems.

Please take the time to attend one of the “Scoping workshops” and to speak up for the Klamath River and Klamath communities. Tell the Water Board that you expect them to develop a plan that will actually work because it includes adequate enforcement mechanisms and penalties for polluters – whoever they may be.

If you can’t make one of the meetings – and even if you can - please submit written comments to the Water Board. Consider emphasizing the following points in your comments:
• The TMDL must develop a Restoration Plan that - unlike previous restoration efforts and TMDL Action Plans - will actually get the job done now and not years in the future. The Salmon and the communities of the Klamath and Northcoast can not wait any longer for effective clean-up.
• The Plan must identify where all the pollution is coming from (who is responsible) and what each source of the pollution (responsible party) needs to do to clean up or eliminate the pollution it is discharging to the River. Individual polluters – including individual large agricultural operations – must be identified and assigned a pollution reduction target.
• The Plan must contain a way to enforce the pollution limits that will be effective. The go-slow and softly methods that the Water Board has used in the Shasta and Scott will not get the job done. WE WANT REAL AND EFFECTIVE ENFORCEMENT OF POLLUTION LIMITS ON ALL WHO ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR POLLUTING OUR RIVERS AND STREAMS.
• Agricultural operations (farms, ranches and irrigation districts) must be required to:
1. Keep their livestock out of the river and all tributaries,
2. The Forest Service and BLM must make their grazing permittees keep their livestock out of the springs, streams and lakes,
3. Irrigators must remove pollution from agricultural waste water BEFORE it is returned to the streams and rivers.
• The Water Board should not delegate its responsibilities to organizations that are dominated by polluters. The Resource Conservation Districts are such entities; they are controlled by agricultural interests and can not be depended on to enforce pollution limits.
• Restoration funds must not be relied upon to eliminate pollution – that is the responsibility of the polluters, not the taxpayers. Using restoration funds to mitigate pollution will assure that real restoration will never happen.

If you submit comments please forward a copy to: unofelice [at] gmail.com.