Feuds build over river regs

By Sara Wilmot
Investigative Reporter

Pioneer Press

Fort Jones, CA

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

page 1 col 5

Conflict continues to surround the Klamath River as state agencies are attempting to impose strict regulations on farmers and irrigators along the river in the name of fish and clean water.

The Klamath Basin Total Maximum Daily Load Agreement is an effort to restore fish habitats and improve water quality in the Klamath River and its tributaries. The North Coast Water Quality Control Board (NCWQCB) in conjunction with other state agencies is overseeing the drafting of the agreement which is a highly debated issue with many conflicting opinions.

Public review of the Klamath Basin TMDL Agreement is currently underway and will be open for public comment for about another month and half.

Some parties are fighting for clean water and fish rights while farmers, ranchers and timber workers question the necessity of these new, stricter regulations on their farming and logging practices. In addition they worry about the economic impact these regulations could have on an already struggling industry.

If implemented, the TMDL will regulate the amount of input land owners are permitted to contribute into the water way. These include silt and nutrients and chemicals used in irrigation that could potentially flow into the river in water run off.

The Klamath River has been listed as impaired by the state water control board, which says the mission of the TMDL is to protect and restore the water. The Klamath's tributaries include the Scott, Shasta and Trinity rivers which all flow into the Klamath River before continuing on into the Pacific Ocean.

Jeff Fowle, an active member of the California Farm Bureau and second vice president of the Siskiyou County chapter, said the Farm Bureau and other agricultural organizations feel the drafting of the agreement is being rushed which has left questions unanswered along with shaky scientific studies.

"Because of the pressure, we don't feel a quality document is being developed," said Fowle. "Many individuals are rightly afraid of what could lay in the future."

Fowle claims environmental lawsuits have forced these state agencies to shift into high gear to the get the TMDLs completed.

The environmental groups are concerned that agricultural development along the waterways and an increase in chemicals and nutrients running off into the water have resulted in the decreased number of salmon making their way up the river to spawn.

The chemical imbalance of the water and increases in water temperatures have impacted the fish environment and diminished the purity of the river's water, the groups claim.

History Tells a Different Story

Yet farmers are saying that there is little historical proof of the changes in fish numbers and water temperatures the state's water quality board is claiming.

David Leland, chief of the watershed protection division of the North Coast Water Quality Control Board, admits that it is difficult to document differences in fish numbers and water temperatures.

"Forty years ago we just did not have the technology we have today to take these measurements, so yes there is not much documentation of differences," said Leland.

Leland said that much of the knowledge of the impairments in the river are because of the large body of literature that explains the needed temperatures and environmental conditions ideal for salmon and other aquatic life to thrive.

Roy Hall Jr, chairman of the Shasta Nation, believes common ground can be found between fish rights and getting farmers the water they need.

History tells a much different story about the conditions of the rivers, said Hall.

When settlers first made their way to the area they documented the rivers ran low and the water was not pure.

"They wrote of a tainted river, with unusable and undrinkable water," said Hall. "These were all pre-dam conditions."

Hall said not only is the historical basis of the TMDL shaky, but that the environmental groups are not looking at all the contributing factors that have lowered salmon numbers. He believes that off shore fishing in international waters off the Pacific is greatly depleting the salmon populations; therefore less fish are coming up the Klamath to spawn.

How Many Salmon Are There Really?

Fowle said because of the lack of historical documentation of fish numbers and river conditions it is difficult for anyone to know how much of a difference there really is. He said farmers have been requesting that the Water Quality Control Board provide them with a ratio of spawners to smolt being produced in the Klamath River.

This means the numbers of salmon that are coming from the ocean up the river to spawn versus smolt, which is the number of offspring being produced that are leaving the river and migrating to the ocean.

Fowle said there is little information about the number of salmon that are actually leaving the system.

"Tell us how many fish we are growing," said Fowle. "We think that the ratio is probably pretty good."

The Farm Bureau is asking the environmental agencies to provide them with their ideal fish ratios and that farmers and ranchers will work with them to get the numbers they hope to see.

"You will be hard pressed to find farmers or ranchers who say we don't want fish," said Fowle.

How The TMDL Could Affect Farmers

According to Ernie Wilkinson, President of the non profit organization Save our Shasta and Scott Valleys and Towns, S.O.S.S, under the Klamath TMDL there is a total of three categories of pollutant contributions that farms will fall under.

He said a farmer could be granted a conditional waiver which means the water quality control board says what you are contributing to the river is okay as long as you continue to help remediate the problems. The other is a waste discharge permit which grants an individual entity a certain amount of pollutants to enter the river. And the last option being total prohibition under which a farm or ranch can no longer contribute any sort of a run off into the river due to an immense amount of pollutants.

Under the Klamath Basin TMDL ranchers and farmers must develop best management practices which will help implement the new regulations. These include establishing better buffer zones between farm land and the river. This can be done with the use of grasses which will act as a filtration system and trees which will provide shade canopy over the river, decreasing the water's temperature.

But Fowle said that even this is a contradicting idea as the trees make it difficult for the grasses to thrive. He said it is nearly impossible to have both the shade canopy from trees and filtration from grass in the same general area.

Farmers and ranchers could be required to conduct surveys and studies to establish how much of a contribution they are each having on the impairment of the waterway. But Fowle said the studies are not cheap and it is unrealistic to ask people to use private money to help solve a so called public problem.

"We are all land rich but cash poor," said Fowle. "It has become such that land owners are guilty until proven innocent instead of the other way around."

Leland said the water contol board is more interested in working collaboratively with farmers and ranchers in the efforts to restore the river. But he said it is hard to say if cost on the part of farmers would be needed.

"The best way for a land owner to show intent to protect water quality is through some sort of ranch water quality control plan," said Leland.

What About the Dams?

But beyond little historical documented differences and potential costs to private parties is the uncertainty surrounding the removal of the four dams along the Klamath River. If the dams were to be removed, it could potentially jeopardize the entire intention of the Klamath Basin TMDL.

Wilkinson said there is no doubt that if the dams are to come out it will affect the TMDL.

"The built up sediment behind the dams holds toxins and silt," said Wilkinson. "There would be a change in the overall river condition if the dams come out."

Wilkinson said he believes the efforts of the Klamath TMDL are intended to serve as a function of regulation for the duration of the negotiations of the dam removal.

Leland said concerns of dam removal coming into play with the TMDL have been raised by the Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors, and told the Pioneer Press that the water quality board has taken into account the potential for dam removal. He said it is still something the water quality control board is looking into.

For farmers and ranchers like Fowle and Wilkinson, they believe that most ranchers are already doing what they can do to limit agricultural impact on the river systems.

Wilkinson worries that the TMLDs already established for the Klamath tributaries including the Shasta and Scott rivers could be outranked by new regulations under the Klamath TMDL.

He feels the condition of the river is a result of many contributing factors including natural changes in the environment and the overall lack of water due to decreased snow packs.

The public comment period has been extended to August 23 and the final adoption hearing will take place October 28 through 29.

Hall said that now anything anyone can do is what and see what happens after the close of the public comment period.

"We all want what is right for everyone," said Hall. "For the fish and for the farmers."

(Permission to post this article from the publisher.)