- checking login information
The Environment & Wildlife Cause
1,458,441 people care about Environment & Wildlife
Loading...Klamath River: A Big Dam Controversy Finally Resolved
For decades, fishermen, farmers, environmentalists and Native American groups have been fighting over water and fishing rights on the Klamath River, which starts in Oregon and flows about 263 miles southwest through California.
Although the river was once full of clean water and world-class runs of wild Pacific salmon, recent years have seen the development of a series of dams owned and operated by Pacificorp, which has decimated salmon populations and polluted the river with toxic algae (KlamathRiver.org).
Now, thanks to a groundbreaking agreement signed by Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the chief executive of the utility PacifiCorp, Greg Abel, and three Native American tribes, the river will finally flow free once again.
According to the New York Times, private and public stakeholders recently inked two agreements outlining the dismantling of the dams, the restoration of 350 miles of the Klamath River and water-sharing rights between farms and fish.
“The Klamath River, which for years was synonymous with controversy, is now a stunning example of how cooperation and partnership can resolve difficult conflicts,” said Secretary Salazar in a DOI press release. “The Agreements provide a path forward to meet the needs of local communities, tribes, farmers, fishermen and other stakeholders while restoring a beautiful river and its historic salmon runs,” Salazar said.
This news represents a huge victory for grassroots groups like Klamath Riverkeeper, which has spent years collaborating with local people, Tribes and commercial fishermen to put pressure on Pacificorp to remove the dams.
The Department of Interior will undertake a rigorous, science-based analysis, as well as a full analysis under the National Environmental Policy Act, and make a final determination by March 31, 2012, whether the benefits of removing the dams will advance restoration of salmon in the Klamath Basin and be in the public interest.
Read more: activism, conservation, environment & wildlife, hydro power, rivers
Image Credit: Flickr Creative Commons - PatrickMcCully
Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may
not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.
Recent Comments from Causes
Big deal. Obama is a turncoat,enemy of America,reveling top secret info. He should be put in prison.DO…
Boy she sounds like a lot of fun. She didn't just rain on their parade she ran a tank over it. She must…
Enter the Code of Hammurabi Circa anywhere from 1000 to 300 years earlier than any documentation supported…
meet our writers
43 comments
+ add your ownClose all dams and let the rivers run in their natural state as they have for thousands of years. We can put solar power on all our homes and build wind farms, solar power and geothermal power plants to power our cities. Leave our rivers alone and let them flow in their natural state.
Thanks for this info.
Save the river give it back!
thanks for this post
In my opinion a near future decades' removal of any of the Klamath River hydroelectric dams, per consequence of toxic blue-green algae in the dams' reservoirs, the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement, and fishways absence primarily, is contrary to humanity's best welfare and environmental health, and advocated for: Discrediting the Endangered Species Act; promoting fossil fuel combustion-powered electricity generation; financially transacting both Klamath River dams removal and electricity generation system substitution for those removed dams. Blue-green algae, only a minority percentage of which is toxic blue-green algae, is present abundantly in Upper Klamath Lake and in Klamath River to Irongate dam. The algae occurs because of the high natural phosphorous content of Upper Klamath Lake, and possibly because Upper Klamath Lake drainage wetlands, that used to provide decaying vegetation-stained water that may have suppressed algae growth, were converted to dry agriculture land. The blue-green algae fixes nitrogen into a biologically available form, that along with the high natural phosphorous content of Upper Klamath Lake, provides excellent irrigation water fertilization for agricultural use, without requiring fossil fuel combustion. The toxic blue-green algae in the Klamath River dams' reservoirs, is not too deleterious to fish in the Klamath River, and perhaps would not excessively contaminate sea-run salmonids. Klamath River should be managed as a multiple use rive
Thank yoou
Humans really have to learn to be careful when it comes to changing something that destroys natural habitat.
Hydro-electric dams make clean power however they almost always effect the wild-life and the environment surrounding it.
The dams had had a very bad reputation for hurting the various life forces in the rivers. The salmon is important on several levels. Please don't take so long to take them off of the rivers.
Isn't this article a copy from a news article..should say so. Let's hope this dam removal works, too.
login to add your comment
use your care2 login
add your comment
20