Fish Kill Suit Targets Basin
By Ryan Harper, K-Falls Herald & News
September 26, 2002

A number of environmental and fishermen's groups filed a lawsuit today challenging the Bureau of Reclamation's 10-year operations plan for the Klamath Reclamation Project.

They claim that the existing plan caused the recent deaths of more than 10,000 salmon near the mouth of the Klamath River by preventing necessary water from reaching the downstream fish.

The suit was filed by Earthjustice, an environmental law firm, on behalf of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, and was joined by WaterWatch, the Oregon National Resources Council, the Northcoast Environmental Center, the Klamath Forest Alliance and others.

The suit was also joined by Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif., whose 1st Congressional District includes Northern California's Del Norte and Humboldt counties. The mouth of the Klamath River is in Del Norte County, and both counties are home to fishing fleets.

The suit comes at the end of an unusually dry spring and summer in which the Bureau of Reclamation curtailed flows in the Klamath River, in accordance with its long-range operating plan for a dry year, while making full irrigation deliveries and asking farmers to conserve as much water as possible.

The suit was filed because of a fish kill that began last week near the mouth of the Klamath River. More than 10,000 adult chinook, coho and steelhead were found dead out of a run estimated at 100,000 fish. The cause is under investigation.

Some biologists and fish managers have expressed doubt that Klamath Project operations are a significant factor in the fish kill. They said the deaths are too far downstream, and too many tributaries join the Klamath between the Iron Gate Dam and the river's mouth. Some of these are dammed and divert water for agriculture in California.

Other scientists have not discounted a possible connection, but said that accusations are groundless because not enough information is available to lay the blame on Basin farmers.

Paul Wertz, a spokesman for the California Department of Fish and Game, was one of those who said it's still too early to make accusations.

"It's not good science," he said. "It's not something you can do that fast."

But the groups filing the lawsuit are laying the blame, saying that irrigation in the Basin caused the salmon deaths and the plan must be changed to prevent future die-offs.

Zeke Grader, the executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, said that biologists may be hedging their bets.

"The Bureau certainly is responsible," he said.

And the plaintiffs have Thompson on their side.

"This massive fish kill will only get worse if the Department of the Interior continues to ignore the downstream fishing, tribal, and working communities of the lower Klamath Basin," he said, in a statement released this morning.

Bureau of Reclamation spokesman Jeff McCracken was unable to comment on the lawsuit, but in a recent interview regarding the fish kills he said that the Bureau has operated the project in accordance with biological opinions received from federal fish agencies earlier this year.

"We're following our approved biological opinions for flows down the Klamath River," he said.

Dan Keppen, director of the Klamath Water Users Association, said that the Klamath Project makes up only a tiny portion of the watershed and is being unfairly singled out.

"Clearly we don't know what's causing this problem," he said. "It's way too premature to point the finger."

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