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Klamath Water Users Association

MYTH MAKING ON THE KLAMATH RIVER

Dan Keppen

Aug 8, 2003

Media outlets throughout the country this week - including The Oregonian - have taken a cue from environmental activists and are carrying accounts of alleged high-level government mismanagement and environmental devastation in the Klamath River watershed. The conclusions developed in the Oregonian's recent editorial on Bush Administration policies in the Klamath Basin ("Karl Rove at the headgates", August 8, 2003) reflect a complete acceptance of activist-driven myth-making that has its roots in an unfortunate natural resources crisis that occurred in late 2002 on the lower Klamath River.

Overview
Traditional advocates of high mainstem Klamath River flows quickly concluded last fall that the fish die-off was due in large part to Klamath Project operations, despite the fact that the fish died below the confluence of the Klamath and Trinity rivers, 200 miles downstream of the Klamath Project. Media outlets - including the Oregonian's editorial staff - also jumped to this conclusion, within days of this unfortunate event. A coalition of environmental activists have since exploited the die-off with legislation, litigation, and press attacks aimed at removing Klamath Project farmers and ranchers from their land.

One very natural potential explanation for the fish die-off - completely ignored by environmental activists and tribal interests in their zeal to link the fish deaths with Bush Administration environmental policy - was the temperature of the Klamath River at the time of the die-off. Any Oregon child would understand the adverse impact high water temperatures can have on salmon, but curiously, many in the media refused to address this natural phenomenon. The topic is also important because of how water project operations can, or cannot, affect water temperatures in riverine areas important to salmon.

2002 Findings

During late summer and early fall of 2002, Dave Vogel, a fisheries biologist with 28 years experience, conducted a field investigation to assess water temperatures in the main stem Klamath River. Vogel measured main stem water temperatures hourly just prior to and during the fall-run Chinook salmon migration season. He found that water temperatures in the upper Klamath River downstream of Iron Gate Dam during September 2002 were unsuitable for adult salmon, a finding that was similar to that of previous studies. Vogel also found that large numbers of salmon entered the lower Klamath River earlier than usual and were exposed to two dramatic and uncharacteristic cooling and warming conditions causing disease outbreak from warm water and crowded conditions. According to Vogel, the combination of these factors was chronically and cumulatively stressful to fish and is probably the most plausible reason for the fish die-off.

These data indicate that September 2002 was unique, but not for the reasons portrayed by the California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG) in a draft report that was released to the media in early 2003.

The Myth Debunked

The recent Oregonian editorial resurrects the conclusions quickly reached by anti-farming interests last year, despite the fact that a judge recently ruled that the cause of the die-off was a "triable issue of fact". In other words, based on the conflicting evidence presented by the parties regarding the cause of the fish die-off, Judge Armstrong could not link this event to Klamath Project operations.

That hasn’t stopped a coalition of well-funded environmental groups and other anti-farming interests from launching a crusade to eliminate the farming way of life in the Klamath Basin. Justification for many of the attacks we’ve seen in the past year has at it’s core the allegation that Klamath farmers killed those fish.

Arguments made by environmental advocates and tribal biologists are lacking because they do not articulate how increased releases from Iron Gate Dam could have prevented the fish die-off more than 170 river miles downstream of the dam. If the primary cause of the fish die-off was warm water, it was physically impossible for Iron Gate Dam to cool the river down to tolerable levels for salmon.

The simple myth promulgated by environmental activists theorizes that 2002 was unique because there was a large salmon run and low river flows, which explains the fish die-off in September 2002. In fact, contrary to this claim, 1988 had a much larger salmon run than 2002 and the lower Klamath River flows were similar to that observed in 2002. In 1988 the lower Klamath River flow during September was 2,130 cfs, the salmon run was 215,322 fish and there was no consequent fish die-off; in 2002, the lower Klamath River flow during September was 2,129 cfs, the salmon run was 132,600 fish, and 33,000 fish died. These facts provide empirical evidence that this theory is invalid.

CDFG spokespersons and California Resources Secretary Mary Nichols also concluded within days of the fish die-off that operations of the Klamath Project, located 200 miles upstream of the die-off, were somehow to blame. Unfortunately, CDFG’s draft report – released just two months later - contains several major errors. In it’s most amazing finding, CDFG asserts that toxic substances could not have caused the fish die-off, even though it admits that water samples were not taken until 7 days after the onset of the fish die-off. Therefore, that potential source of mortality is still in question.

The Oregonian's recent editorial - printed just one day after the paper reproduced a similar editorial authored by the New York Times - hypocritically throws out allegations and conclusions that are grounded in politics and propaganda, while in the same breath, endorsing its hope that the Klamath crisis will be resolved using the “best science”. While we are not surprised that a distant entity like the Times would employ this approach, we are disappointed that Oregon's largest newspaper would promote a myth-driven position so damaging to many of its own rural readers.

Dan Keppen
Executive Director
Klamath Water Users Association
Klamath Falls, Oregon

Klamath Water Users Association
2455 Patterson Street, Suite 3
Klamath Falls, Oregon 97603
(541)-883-6100 FAX (541)-883-8893 kwua@cdsnet.net