Regulations establish new pollution standards for California portion of river

By SARA HOTTMAN 

H&N Staff Reporter

September 9, 2010

      Regulators on Tuesday established new water quality standards for the California portion of the Klamath River.

   Alexis Strauss, water division director of the Environmental Protection Agency, said she would likely grant final approval to the new standards around November, when the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality is expected to submit its proposed standards for the Klamath River north of the California state line.

   Officials with the energy company PacifiCorp said the new California standards are unattainable, and Klamath Falls officials said they’re disappointed California regulators approved the new standards ahead of Oregon, which could have serious ramifications for the city of Klamath Falls.

   PacifiCorp officials said in written comments that the water quality targets are “inappropriate and unachievable because they do not reflect the Klamath River Basin’s nutrient enriched characteristics.”

   Strauss said the company thought the blue-green algae mitigation and water temperature reductions were not feasible, but said pollution reduction is a long-term project.

   “We’re at the start of a very long journey here,” Strauss said. “We’re starting decades of trying to make things better on the Klamath.”

   Klamath Falls officials are concerned that California’s regulations will force Oregon’s to be more stringent, requiring the city to clean waste water to an unnatural degree, and costing it more than $200 million in new facilities.

   California’s Klamath River pollution allowances — called total maximum daily load, or TMDL — were developed over eight years. TMDL is a regulatory tool that stems from the Clean Water Act that controls the amount of pollution allowed into the water.

   The California TMDL primarily addresses temperature, organic enrichment, nutrients, sediment, and microcystin, peptides that can be toxic.

   “The TMDL has been peer reviewed, U.S. (Geological Survey) reviewed, the tribes have water quality experts that have reviewed it,” said Craig Tucker, Klamath campaign coordinator for the Karuk Tribe, which advocated for the TMDL. “It is scientifically   defensible and wholly appropriate.”

   Impact on Klamath

   Since the California portion of the Klamath River is downstream, Oregon will have to set pollution levels upstream to meet downstream regulations.

   City of Klamath Falls officials in July asked California officials to wait until Klamath’s TMDL was decided.

   In written comments to the California Water Resources Control Board, city officials said that it is “illogical” for California, downstream from Oregon, to adopt its pollution limits first because that would put “undue pressure” on Oregon officials to hastily adopt regulations, and ignore the city’s concerns.

   “I haven’t had a chance to review them, but the city of Klamath Falls would be very disappointed if the state of California did not consider the comments from the city before they adopted their TMDLs,” said City Manager Rick Whitlock.

   In the Klamath River, phosphorous levels are under contention. Phosphorous depletes oxygen in the water, and high levels can kill fish and other aquatic life.

   The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality’s water quality division wants the Klamath Basin area to reduce phosphorous levels 90-plus percent, which stakeholders say is improbable in an area with high levels of naturally occurring   phosphorous.

   The city of Klamath Falls would have to install facilities that clean water to the degree the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality is currently proposing.