On the Klamath River, pain flows
downstream. Another perspective
We well remember what happened when
the government was forced to
cut off irrigation water to the Klamath Reclamation Project in 2001.
Residents realize there are serious, substantive problems that will
require much effort and sacrifice to solve. We realize that lots of
things "flow downhill". You illustrate with pain. It
seems that
misinformation also flows downhill.
You say the Klamath River is too sick and
shallow, that the issue
is the Klamath is dewatered by irrigation. The Klamath Reclamation
Project uses 4-5% of the water the river delivers to the ocean.
Anybody can check that from data for river flows and irrigation
diversions. Irrigation has not dewatered the river. Even in the
summer, the Klamath Project augments summer flows.
You need to understand that when water needs
are perceived to be
greatest, the only water available, in Klamath Lake, is hypereutrophic
and often as warm as 80 degrees. If this water was not stored behind
Link River Dam, it would have long since flowed to the sea and wouldn't
be available for this argument.
You use the 2002 fish kill one more time.
There was more water in
the Klamath in 2002 than in many other short years, which didn't see
fish kills. Those years often had good salmon production. You tout the
California Fish and Game study and ignore the National Academy of
Sciences which drew very different conclusions.
In my opinion, cool, rainy weather before the
kill started the
salmon upriver. Nobody seems to have paid any attention to the weather
forecast that said the weather would warm up. Olfactory signals from
warm water lured the fish to their doom. The warm Klamath flow should
have been ramped down as much as control of the river allowed.
Cooler
flows can only come from the Trinity River (remember the dead fish were
Trinity bound). Just after the kill, the weather cooled off. If
water
demand from Klamath Lake had been reduced, for just those few days,
forcing the salmon to stay in the ocean, flow releases from the lake
(as well as warm Iron Gate Reservoir) would have been cooler and may
have actually benefited the fish.
Warm summer and early fall water from Klamath
Lake can't be turned
into cold salmon water when daily temperatures can be in the 90's. It
can only raise river temperature, increase blue green algae, and
increase the presence of whatever disease organisms you name. Blame for
that kill is widespread. People, up and down the river, screwed up in
2002. We all are suffering from those mistakes, not just the fisherman.
Everyone needs to realize that if agriculture
disappears tomorrow,
the gain will be 5% more water. Remember the water gained is warm and
lethal to salmon. That will not solve the problem. Remove the dams
tomorrow and in low water years there will be little to no outflow from
Klamath Lake in the summer.
Steve Cheyne