By Jesse Calvert
Grants Pass
Klamath Falls Herald and News Letter to the Editor
July 22, 2006
I became interested in the 2002 kill of more than 33,000 fish on the Klamath River in California, 16 miles from the ocean.
Now four years later, drastic reductions in salmon runs cause a renewed search for a scapegoat, putting hard-working Klamath farmers and coastal fishermen at risk.
I heard suggestions that the Trinity River and Lewiston dams had a role in this and, on a recent trip, decided to try to check for myself.
I knew already that the Klamath Basin is a good water heater.
Agency and Upper Klamath lakes are warm late into fall when we used to go duck hunting.
I have flown over Upper Klamath Lake in late summer and the warm water algae was so thick you could see old paths of boats in it. This is not water you would choose to save salmon with.
The source of the Trinity is in the high mountains of the Trinity Alps northwest of Redding. Until the Trinity-Shasta dams were built, it was a major source of cold water for the Klamath when it flowed into it at Weitchipec and then to the fish-kill area 18 miles from the Pacific.
Microscopic protozoa and bacteria that kill fish require warm water to multiply enough to cause the disaster. The Trinity, Lewiston and Whiskeytown dams had reduced Trinity flows by 80 to 90 percent and the salmon runs by 80 to 90 percent.
I went to the Trinity system and Lewiston Dam to see for myself. The Lewiston Dam is a type of control gate to send the Trinity River where gate controllers wish, either to the Klamath or down a 12-mile-long Cold Creek tunnel and thence to the Sacramento system. A thermometer should show you recovery of the Klamath farmer and the commercial fishermen is dependent on sending more cold Trinity water to Klamath at Weitchipec.