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A coalition
of Klamath River-area tribes, fishermen and environmental groups
converged in Nebraska this weekend to plead for the removal of the
Klamath River dams they say are killing fish, destroying
livelihoods and threatening cultures.
The four hydroelectric dams up for federal relicensing are owned
by PacifiCorp.
The group’s multi-state effort to raise awareness of the dams
culminated in a rally Saturday at PacifiCorp parent company
Berkshire-Hathaway’s shareholders’ meeting in
Omaha
, which was estimated to have
attracted 27,000 attendees.
Also attending the meeting was Warren Buffett,
Berkshire-Hathaway’s reportedly environmentally friendly
billionaire chief executive officer, who the group hoped would
listen to their message.
Dam removal advocates cite state and federal energy agency studies
that show PacifiCorp could save nearly $100 million by removing
the dams rather than spending the millions needed for fish
protection mitigations identified as part of the relicensing
process.
Leading up to Saturday’s rally, the tribes hosted a
traditionally prepared roasted salmon meal on Thursday and
performed a Brush Dance healing ceremony Friday.
Traveling with the group to
Omaha
was
Eureka
resident Ronnie Pellegrini, the
wife of Humboldt Bay-based commercial fisherman Paul Pellegrini.
Pellegrini was among the more than two dozen people who awoke
early Saturday morning and waited in line for hours for a chance
to speak to Buffett.
She used her time to explain the 95 percent hit to her family’s
income as a result of last year’s devastating commercial salmon
season restrictions.
Pellegrini asked Buffett if there was anything he would do to help
the decline in the salmon fishery as a result of PacifiCorp’s
dams.
Buffett told her the relicensing matter was for the state and
federal regulators to decide.
Another member from the group to address the shareholders was
Wendy George, a Hoopa Valley Tribe council member, who asked
Buffett if he would be willing to meet with the tribal members to
discuss the issue, which didn’t result in a commitment.
Pellegrini called Buffett’s responses “disappointing, but
predictable.”
Despite being rebuffed, Pellegrini said she was able to speak with
many of the shareholders who attended the meeting.
“Most of the shareholders we spoke to were sympathetic,” she
said.
Klamath Coordinator Craig Tucker, of the Karuk Tribe, said in a
telephone interview Saturday that Buffett missed the point.
Tucker said it was clear to him from Buffett’s answers that the
company’s top chief was not informed about the issues,
highlighted by his response that the dams’ fate was in the hands
of the federal regulators and the 37 different parties involved in
the ongoing negotiations.
“Yes, there are 37 parties, but there are only two opinions,”
Tucker said. “PacifiCorp’s and everybody else’s.”
Tucker said the trip was positive overall.
Not only were the tribes able to attract extensive media coverage,
Tucker said they were able to educate many Berkshire-Hathaway
shareholders about the plight of the
Klamath River
.
Portions of the West Coast’s commercial salmon season have begun
this month and are offering more opportunities compared to the
near closure of the
North
Coast
’s season.
But fishermen worry that persistent water quality problems on the
Klamath River
, combined with unusually low snow
pack, might cause similar conditions this year as those seen in
2002, which led to the mass die-off of tens of thousands of fish.
In a statement earlier this week,
Eureka
fisherman Dave Bitts, a former
president of the Humboldt Fishermen’s Marketing Association,
warned that there are currently no emergency measures in place to
deal with low flows that could produce high water temperatures and
toxic algal blooms.
A hydrologist at the National Weather Service’s
California
Nevada
River
Forecast
Center
in
Sacramento
confirmed this week that flows
this summer and fall would be “below average.”
However, he said specific flows would depend in large part on how
the water in the basin is managed by the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation, the utility companies that operate dams on the river
and other man-made constraints, which can’t be predicted.
Zeke Grader, with the lobbying group Pacific Coast Federation of
Fishermen’s Associations, said he is optimistic that the
Klamath River
’s problems can be solved.
However, he said there is a lack of foresight among the state and
federal agencies’ officials to make the right moves.
With millions of dollars lost from the state’s economy last year
from salmon season restrictions, Grader said it would be wise to
spend the $1 million or more needed to put the right people in
place to provide the necessary guidance, including beefing up the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Fish Health Unit.
Randy Brown, the deputy field supervisor for the USFWS’ Arcata
Office, said this week the agency was working toward finding
answers and reducing salmon mortality.
Although the agency didn’t have a dedicated team just for the
Klamath River, Brown said scientists from the USFWS’ Fish Health
Center facility in Anderson, along with other agency staff, were
working on the disease and parasite problems related to the low
flows and toxic algae conditions.
From a funding standpoint, Brown said the case could be made that
“more would be better,” but he added that the USFWS and other
groups have recently come a long way toward reaching solutions
through positive collaboration with a diversity of groups.
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