IRON GATE LAKE - Felice Pace's sister group is at it again. They are
suing the California Department of Fish and Game and Pacific Power
alleging that the Iron Gate Fish Hatchery is releasing to much fish
"waste" which is hurting the fish in the river.

"Klamath Riverkeeper's lawsuit asserts that operation of the Iron
Gate Dam hatchery has resulted in repeated violations of the Clean
Water Act and is just one of the ways that PacifiCorp, as the owner
of the four dams along the Klamath River, is destroying the River,
its salmon runs, and the coastal fishing economies of the California
and Oregon Coastline," the group's press release states.

The department of fish and game has received its second 60 day
notice, Steve Martarano, supervising information officer told the
Pioneer Press Friday.

"We've been in contact with them [Klamath Riverkeepers]," he said,
and couldn't comment further.

Pacific Power supposedly has been named in the suit as well. Dave
Kvamme, lead spokesperson for Pacific Power told the Pioneer Press
that they have not been served with the suit, but it has apparently
been filed with the courts and those in his office have seen it.

He said that it claims that the discharges from the fish hatchery are
out of compliance.

Pacific Power owns the fish hatchery and funds 80 percent of the operations.
The hatchery is actually operated by the California Department of
Fish and Game, according to Kvamme.

The data that has been recorded regarding the fish hatchery
discharges, had been recorded in error, Kvamme told the Pioneer Press.
Rather than recording the data in micrograms it was being
consistently recorded as a gram, which then showed the discharges to
be out of compliance.

It was as if all the decimals had been moved over.

Since the department of fish and game corrected the decimal placement
error, the North Coast Water Quality Control Board decided there
should be no enforcement action taken.

It would appear that the litigants formed for the purpose of filing
this suit, according to Kvamme.

The organization Klamath Riverkeepers uses the same address and phone
number as Felice Pace's Klamath Forest Alliance. Pace has been
aligned with the extreme eco-defense group EarthFirst! for years.

Regina Chichizola, the spokesperson for Klamath Riverkeepers, was
previously with Cascadia Rising!, another extremely radical group
with is linked with EarthFirst!