by Marcia Armstrong, Siskiyou County Supervisor 7/5/08

The life cycle of the polychaete (worm) involved in the diseases C-Shasta and P. minicornis has been tied to the presence of algae mats. The tribes et. al. use this to tie the algae at the dam reservoirs with a claim that they are killing fish. The actual science disproves this. Here is a link to the actual scientific studies being done on disease  http://www.fws.gov/arcata/fisheries/projectUpdates.html . 

Note the two disease "hot spots" for fish disease in the Klamath River are the Williamson River and Beaver Creek. The Williamson is a tributary into Upper Klamath Lake, well outside any Hydroelectric Project influence and Beaver Creek is at Rivermile 161, approximately 30 miles downstream from Iron Gate Dam. In fact the reports above show that the 2 areas that had the lowest fish disease mortality were in the Project vicinity - the Keno Eddy (in the Project, above the J.C. Boyle reservoir) and the R-Ranch which is immediately below Iron Gate Dam.

Marcia

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