Herald and News

Letter to the Editor

January 25, 2012

   Does it bother anyone that Oregon, thanks to our Democrat state assembly and senate, is paying $184 million versus California’s $16 million for dam removal on the Klamath River; when three of the four dams are in California?

   Does it seem ironic Sen. Jeff Merkley talks of building infrastructure, while at the same time introducing legislation to destroy it? And knowing that the ESA is a major destroyer of the Oregon economy, has not introduced reform legislation? Nor has he introduced legislation to exempt the naturally caused poor water quality   of Upper Klamath Lake from the Clean Water Act. This water quality is a major lever for dam removal. (Neither has Sen. Ron Wyden.)

   Does dam removal, ostensibly to bring salmon to the Upper Klamath Basin rivers where there is no reliable evidence salmon regularly came, make any sense? That any salmon that might get above Upper Klamath Lake would be edible by today’s standards, when pre-dam salmon were described as dark, fungus covered and dying by the time they were 30 miles above the confluence of the Trinity River? When enough fish returned to California hatcheries on the Klamath to produce more fish than historically existed? Salmon native to the system?

   Regarding Sen. Wyden’s visit, why should we care to go listen to, in my opinion, the same old lies? Wyden speaks as though he is fiscally conservative but his voting record says otherwise. He has voted for just about every Obama “spendulous bill”. He has not, to my knowledge,   introduced any ESA reform bill. But he will, of course, try to get money for the counties to keep us beholden to him. The taxpayer is going to be on the hook for close to a billion dollars for a massive destructive boondoggle.

   Steve Rapalyea

   Chiloquin

   Editor’s Note: Sen. Ron Wyden canceled a planned trip to the state last week due to inclement weather.