Tribe decries algae

By Nicholas Grube

Triplicate staff writer

When Allen McCloskey walked into the Yurok Tribal Council Chambers in Klamath on Monday he carried a 5-gallon water jug of toxic blue-green algae as if it were a briefcase.

But as he continued toward the center of the room filled with his fellow Yurok Tribe members, other citizens and officials from the state Water Resources Control Board, he planted it like a flag in front of them.

Taken from the reservoir behind the Iron Gate dam on the Klamath River, the algae served as a visual aid to nearly 20 people — many of them Yurok — who urged the state regulators to deny a water quality permit for PacifiCorp, a certification that is needed in order for the Oregon-based utility company to continue operating its dams on the Klamath.

Many people at Monday's meeting called for removal of the dams and spoke about how the structures contribute to the growth of massive blue-green algae blooms that float down river and impact the health of those who live and work near the waterway.

"I was 19 years old (before) I was allowed to swim in the river," Yurok Tribe member and employee Robert McConnell said. "I've had a rash on my body ever since. That was 40 years ago."

Public health warnings, issued by both tribal and state agencies, have become common on the Klamath over the past few years due to the increase of the blue-green algae in the water.

The algae releases a toxin called microcystin into the water that can cause eye irritation, skin rashes, vomiting and diarrhea with limited contact. Long-term exposure is known to lead to severe liver damage and can even result in death.

Some say the dams are to blame because reservoirs, with stagnant, warm, nutrient-rich water, create the perfect habitat for the algae to thrive.

The potential health risks associated with the algae not only make daily life on the river hard, but it also makes it difficult for the Yurok Tribe members to perform some of their ceremonies that directly involve contact with the river.

"Our medicine people, when they go to the river to bathe," McConnell said, "they have to get in that water."

It's not just the algae that's been a detriment to the tribe's culture, but it's also the lack of salmon in the river, which is the focal point of Yurok tradition.

The Klamath River was once considered one of the largest salmon fisheries on the West Coast. Now each year brings uncertainty as to how many fish will return to the river.

That's a concern for fishermen throughout the region, but the Yuroks' take on the issue turned out to be the main focus Monday.

"It's so much more than water and fish like it is for other people," Dave Severns said. "Our culture revolves around it."

With PacifiCorp's dams blocking hundreds of miles of prime spawning habitat and the already dwindling salmon stocks, many people are concerned about the future of the tribe's cultural traditions.

"Our spirituality and our culture are linked to the river and the salmon," Yurok Tribal Council member Dale Ann Sherman said as she addressed officials from the Water Resources Control Board. "The dams are taking away our lives and we ask that you look at that seriously."

Almost everyone who spoke at Monday's meeting asked for complete dam removal, although a couple of people were apprehensive about taking out the structures.

"We haven't really talked about what happens when we remove the dams," said Crescent City resident Rich Mossholder.

He said if the dams were removed, the silt that has built up in the reservoirs would flow downstream and have undesirable effects to both fish populations and the overall ecology of the Klamath River system.

"The Klamath River will not be the Klamath River anymore," Mossholder said. "It's going to take 50 years for this river to come back."

For this reason he said it was important to look at other alternatives to dam removal.

"You don't burn down the house because you spilled chili on the floor," he said. "You don't do that with the dams here."

The California Water Resources Control Board will now take all the comments it received at Monday's meeting and incorporate them into an environmental analysis that will study the impacts the Klamath dams in California — Iron Gate, Copco 1 and 2, and Fall Creek — have on water quality.

PacifiCorp needs the board's approval in order to get a new 30- to 50-year license from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to operate its dams.

No one from PacifiCorp spoke at the meeting.

Reach Nicholas Grube at ngrube@triplicate.com.