By TY BEAVER 

H&N Staff Reporter

January 5, 2011

Photos courtesy of the Environmental Protection Agency  A fisherman on a spit across the Klamath River estuary.

   The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approved California’s water quality improvement plan to reduce certain pollutants in the Klamath River Tuesday. The plan is meant to improve water quality for endangered fish species that live throughout the watershed.  

     Craig Tucker, Klamath campaign coordinator for the Karuk Tribe, said meeting the standards may not be easy, but he and other supporters of the new standards want to work with the people they will impact.

   “We don’t expect anybody to comply with these standards by themselves,” he said.

   The California plan calls for reductions in the amount of phosphorous and nitrogen in the river’s water, along with improved dissolved oxygen content and cooler water temperatures. The EPA is also reviewing a plan to address water quality in the Oregon portion of the river with action expected this month.

   Removal of four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River, called for in the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement, would help with water quality, particularly when it comes to water temperature, Tucker said.

   Part of the Klamath Reclamation Project is in California and would be subject to the approved pollution limits. Those regarding nitrogen content could be the largest hurdle for irrigation districts to meet, Tucker said.

   Kevin Moore, spokesman for the Klamath Falls office of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation,   said the federal agency is in the process of evaluating the California water quality plan and determining how to implement it.

   “The new approved TMDL for California doesn’t prescribe specific actions to meet the requirements,” Moore said in an e-mail. “The full impact of the California TMDL on the Project won’t be known until the work on the implementation plan is completed in the next 18 months.”

   Tucker said while the Klamath River needs strict pollution standards to help fish, he and other supporters of the standards don’t plan on exacting punitive measures to enforce them.

   “I don’t think suing (irrigators) helps improve water quality,” he said.

   Rather, Tucker said he hopes to work with irrigation districts to find ways to reduce pollution going into the river, be it through creating new wetlands or putting in settling ponds to capture pollutants.