This is the third article in a series about the Klamath Dam Removal project in Siskiyou County: This is the First; This is the second.
In 2018, plans were released to destroy the Klamath River dam system by American Rivers, an environmental non-profit which claims “up to 85% of the dams in this country are unnecessary, harmful and even dangerous.” The removal of dams along the Klamath River in Siskiyou County, Northern California was sold as necessary to save salmon – specifically, “to restore habitat for endangered fish.”
The dams are part of the Klamath project, a series of seven dams built 1910 to 1920 in the Klamath Basin to bring electricity and agricultural water mitigation for Southern Oregon and Northern California, the Globe reported in 2020.
Emotions run high on both sides of the dam destruction issue. The Globe wants to know why the Klamath Dams are being removed, and who is behind it?
As Fox reported, “Newsom supports a 2016 agreement under which PacifiCorp would transfer its federal hydroelectric licenses for the dams to a nonprofit coalition, the Klamath River Renewal Corp., that was formed to oversee the demolition.
“PacifiCorp ratepayers in Oregon and California are contributing $200 million for the project but the plan allows the utility to avoid liability for additional costs. Another $250 million would come from a 2014 voter-approved California water bond.”
However, the 2014 voter-approved water bond was passed by voters to build more water storage in the state. The initiative was aimed at increasing the supply of clean, safe, and reliable water and “restoring habitat” – not the destruction of it.
According to the California Legislative Analyst’s Office:
The proposition provides a total of $7.5 billion in general obligation bonds for various water–related programs. Some of the larger allocations include $2.7 billion for water storage projects and $1.5 billion for watershed protection and restoration projects.
The original 2008 agreement for dam removal was between four parties—PacifiCorp, the federal government, California, and Oregon—to remove the four dams announced on November 13, 2008, according to “Historic’ dam removal decision,” reporting in the Mount Shasta Herald. “PacifiCorp ratepayers would fund part of the plan and the State of California would fund much of the remaining projected cost. Total cost would be around $800 million.”
It appears what Gov. Newsom did on his own was to commit California taxpayers to paying for the removal of the dams, while facilitating Warren Buffett’s PacifiCorps energy provider out of legal liability.
The Globe reported in 2020:
Governor Newsom’s appeal implored Buffett to back the demolition project to save the salmon populations that many Native American tribes in the area rely on. “The river is sick, and the Klamath Basin tribes are suffering,” said Newsom in his letter. “The Klamath dam removals are a shining example of what we can accomplish when we act according to our values.”
Feining concern for the salmon and tribes, Newsom facilitated the destruction of one of California’s largest rivers and the draining of giant reservoirs. In his letter to Buffett, Newsom said dam destruction could also revive salmon populations for regional Native American tribes that rely on salmon fishing.
But did he have to kill thousands of fish to “save” the salmon?
‘Unplugging’ the dams
“The Klamath River dams have been unplugged. And with the water that was drained from Copco and Iron Gate Lakes came millions of tons of polluted sediments,” William Simpson wrote in Siskiyou News Feb. 19th, the day the Globe spoke with him. “Now the remaining polluted clay-mud sediments that have been deposited on the lake bottoms are in plain view.”
Simpson, a resident of Siskiyou County, said massive samples of sediment in the Klamath Basin contain high levels of heavy metals – chromium, aluminum, arsenic and lead. And this sediment was supposed to have been removed ahead of the Klamath Dams “unplugging.”
Someone, somewhere in the dam deal decided $450 million was too much money to spend on sediment removal, even though everyone knew it was polluted, Simpson said.
He explained his concerns to the Globe, and in his 2/19 article:
Heavy metals documented by USGS and other agencies, that have been concentrated from the Klamath River waters into the sediments deposited on the bottoms of the lakes. Even when there are minimal or non-hazardous amounts of heavy metals contained in the sediments being transported by the river and settled in a lake, as is the case in Copco and Iron Gate Lakes, over time these heavy metals can become highly concentrated in the sediments that have settled to the bottom of a lake. Science and logic suggest that Copco Lake has been concentrating heavy metal sediments for 106-years, and Iron Gate Lake has been concentrating heavy metal sediments for about 60-years. And both of these lakes have been storing phosphorus and nitrates through the biological actions of the algae in the lakes, which was safely sequestered in the clay sediments on the lakes bottoms.
When sediments are disturbed, these many concentrated pollutants become a serious consideration and form a deadly cocktail for the Klamath River and its life forms. (emphasis Simpson)
Theodora Johnson shared similar concerns in her article for Cattle Mag and the Globe:
“Dam removal proponents claimed the project would help salmon, but now the Klamath River is being polluted with millions of cubic yards of decomposed algae, organic deposition, chemicals, and fine silt that has built up behind the dams. Dead steelhead trout and other species are floating to the banks. Any salmon spawning beds in the Klamath River were undoubtedly destroyed. At press time, conditions in the Klamath River were not likely survivable for the salmon juveniles that were beginning to emerge from the tributary rivers and creeks on their way to the ocean.”
“If 10 million cubic yards of sediment were to settle in the river, we’d see the equivalent of six lanes of freeway piled eight feet deep for nearly 100 miles. There are 192 river miles below the lowest dam, Iron Gate. In total, the river is approximately 250 miles long.”
William Simpson said there is an upside to the situation as it stands right now:
“Because these polluted lake-bottom sediments are no longer underwater, the expense of removing them is a lot less vs removing them by dredging methods when the lakes were in place. These hazardous sediments can now be removed using traditional excavation methods, which will be more cost-effective in mitigating these ongoing sources of River pollution.”
But who will pay for the sediment removal? Taxpayers?
Simpson also recently sent an Open Letter to the Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors, regarding the Klamath Dam Removal Disaster, imploring them to declare a state of emergency. Simpson noted that the County declared a State of Emergency after the McKinney Fire mudslide.
“By comparison, what has been unleashed by the actions and unplanned and unintended results of Klamath River Renewal Corporation’s (KRRC) off-plan rapid dewatering of Copco and Iron Gate Lakes, and the release of a torrent of water containing 5-7 million metric yards of deadly sediments and known toxins over the period of just a few days, instead of the months per their well socialize plan, has resulted in a environmental and ecological disaster of epic proportions in our County, adversely impacting citizens,” Simpson said.
In a discussion with the Globe Wednesday, Simpson said about 850,000 salmon fry were released into Fall Creek this week by California Fish And Wildlife. Fall Creek empties into the Klamath River.
Simpson said this is nuts. He said he is concerned that the volatile conditions in the Klamath River will likely hurt/kill the tiny fish as they enter the sediment-laden Klamath River, which he describes as mucky clay.
He said the “water flows are likely to be low in the coming months compounding adverse conditions for any aquatic life, let alone tiny salmonids that are quite vulnerable to turbidity and pollutants from clay lake bottom sediments.”
Simpson said he lives on the river and has been watching the “silty, sludgy, highly contaminated yuk we are calling a river” flowing by my house now for about 6 weeks. “Everything, every living mollusk, crawdad, turtle, fish, insect in and along the river is DEAD!”
Simpson reports:
The recently unveiled USGS sampling report further confirms the results (presence of chromium, arsenic and lead) from a private water test taken at the Klamathon Bridge below Iron Gate Dam by a local resident near that bridge.
And:
On Tuesday January 23, 2024, millions of tons of sediments were released from Copco 1 Dam and Iron Gate Dams into the Klamath River.
According to Klamath River Renewal Corporation (‘KRRC’) CEO Mark Bransom, approximately 5-7 millions yards of sediments were released into the main-stem of the Klamath River below Iron Gate Dam.
“Everyone, including the fisheries scientists are guessing as to what might happen next in this grand environmentally and financially costly dam removal experiment,” Simpson added.
Is this gross incompetence – “guessing” outcomes – or gross deception by government officials?
Simpson said if the county would declare a State of Emergency, they could receive state assistance, including aid funding to test residents’ water wells – a cost of about $1,000 each.
The Globe suggested Simpson not hold his breath on state assistance or funding, with Gov. Newsom pushing so hard for this dam removal project. And Notably, the governor, and state officials are ignoring the damage and destruction to Siskiyou County, claiming victory.
Next: Environmental lobby behind dam removal projects
