STATE HEARING BEGIN ON PACIFICORPS DAMS
Will California give PacifiCorp a 50-year license to pollute
or Un-Dam the
Klamath?
Hearing Dates: July 22nd in Sacramento (Time to be
announced)
July 31 in Klamath at the Yurok offices 11-1pm
July 31, in Orleans at the Karuk DNR, 6 to 8
August 1st in Yreka at the Yreka Grange 11-1 pm
PacifiCorp’s Klamath Dams threaten the health of the Klamath
River by
degrading water quality and creating massive blooms of toxic
blue green
algae on an unprecedented scale. While downstream Tribes,
fishermen and
recreational interests are continually exposed to these
algal toxins, no
action has been taken by California to correct the problem.
Meanwhile
PacifiCorp continues to spend millions to fight impacted
communities in
court, argues that the states cannot regulate water quality
during FERC
processes, and suppress their own monitoring results.
California can now stop PacifiCorp's dam pollution
Now the state of California is considering PacifiCorp’s
application for a
Clean Water Act permit for continued operation of the dams.
The Clean
Water permit may be the most important step in the dam
relicensing
process as the Supreme Court has ruled that states can deny
Clean Water
Act permits and thereby trump attempts to relicense
polluting dams.
Klamath Riverkeeper has joined local communities’ struggle
to make sure
PacifiCorp does not get another 50-year permit to pollute.
Take Action to Make the Klamath Fishable and Swimmable
In the next six months there will be multiple public
hearings, rallies and
comment periods relating to whether PacifiCorp will get this
permit. Go to
http://www.klamathriver.org or call our office for
sample comments and
information on upcoming hearings and rallies. Contact
Jennifer Watts at
the State Water Board at
jwatts [at] waterboards.ca.gov or (916) 341-5397 for
background information on the 401-certification.
For rides to Sacramento from the Klamath River or North
Coast, call
Georgianna Myers, Klamath Riverkeeper Empowerment Project
Coordinator, at
707 599-0877 or call Molli White from the Karuk Tribe at 530
627-3346 ext.
6. Email
sregonlady [at] gmail.com or
regina [at] klamathriver.org for more
information.