Dam Idiots Caught Using Junk
Science on Klamath River
by
Brian
Sussman,
Human Events, July 1,
2011
In the name of saving salmon,
radical environmentalists in
Northern California have
concocted a $1.4 billion plan to
destroy four hydroelectric dams
and dramatically restrict water
to hundreds of thousands of
acres of prime farmland.
However, an independent panel of
scientists hired by the federal
government to review the
proposal has determined the
primary goal of the
deconstruction project is based
on junk science.
According to the just-released
350-page assessment, funded by
the Fish and Wildlife Service,
experts expressed “strong
reservations” that the expensive
effort could significantly
increase the Chinook salmon
population in the Klamath River
system.
As usual, the environmentalists
were caught ginning up their
case to destroy the dams using
phony data. In this case they
concocted an imperfect
computer-generated model to cast
the dams as evil salmon-killers.
The report states, “There are
many pieces of information we do
not know about the Klamath
system, and none we know with
absolute certainty. The process
of developing the model, trying
to reproduce historical
conditions … must be internally
consistent.”
In other words, just like the
climate models that are used to
scare humanity into ending the
use of fossil fuels, the
anti-dam eco-freaks were caught
doing the very same junk in,
junk out shuffle.
Perhaps the most laughable
aspect of their agenda involves
annually plucking fish out of
the lower Klamath River, placing
them in huge rolling aquariums,
and trucking the creatures more
than a hundred miles to the
upper Klamath.
I’m not kidding. It’s called
“trap and haul.”
Says the report: “A perpetual
trap-and-haul program may be
needed to provide adult Chinook
salmon, especially the fall run,
with access to the upper basin
during much of the migration
period.”
Not only would such a program be
costly, the panel agrees fish
would likely die in the process.
The four large dams on the
Klamath River, which originates
in Oregon, are used to irrigate
210,000 acres of cropland in
both Oregon and California. In
addition to the precious water,
hydropower from the dams’
generators supplies
emission-free electricity to
150,000 households. However,
environmentalists have never
been known for their empathy
toward the human race. They’ll
saddle up with a banana slug or
garter snake long before they’d
front for Homo sapiens. In this
case, they’ve hooked up with the
salmon, saying the water quality
created by the dams has depleted
the fish population.
Environmentalists have never
liked these dams. After decades
of battle, a collage of
eco-groups, government
bureaucrats and the utility that
runs the dams (PacifiCorp, a
corporation owned by the
Berkshire Hathaway investment
fund and run by wealthiest
liberal in the world Warren
Buffett) finally created a pact
that calls for the removal of
the dams, beginning in 2020. The
agreement also includes
extensive restoration programs
for fisheries and migrating
birds, plus renewed
guarantees—albeit at a severely
reduced rate—of water deliveries
to farmers. The project must be
approved by Interior Secretary
Ken Salazar (slam-dunk) and
Congress. Federal officials are
to rely on reviews by the
independent panel, federal
agencies and others to determine
whether the decommissioning is
in the public interest. This
first analysis is not helpful to
the dam-wreckers.
Let’s walk through this idiotic
plan one more time. Dams that
provide “green” electricity to
150,000 households (perhaps as
many as 600,000 people) will be
torn down, causing 210,000 acres
of prime farmland to suffer
critical water reductions. Big
trucks blowing carbon dioxide
out their tailpipes, filled with
fish, will annually hit the road
in a bizarre trap-and-haul
scheme designed to save the
salmon.
And the potential benefit to the
Chinook population? According to
the experts, the net increase in
spawning fish will be a mere
10%. All this for $1.4 billion.
And how do the greenies try spin
the massive expenditure required
to deconstruct the dams?
According to the Klamath
Riverkeepers, the spending
“means new jobs in Siskiyou
County and a huge cash influx to
local businesses.”
Riverkeepers fails to note the
inevitable higher food prices
due to less available water for
crop irrigation. They’re also
hush regarding the increases in
electricity rates once the cheap
hydropower is gone. Oh, and they
don’t mention that PacifiCorp
customers will take an
additional hit when the utility
passes along its share of the
cost for deconstruction: $200
million.
As for the rest of the funding,
federal taxpayers will pump in
nearly $1 billion for water
management, habitat restoration
and never-ending monitoring
efforts, and the state of
California would provide as much
as $250 million in bond money
(which is a pipe dream because
California is financially
insolvent).
Congress needs to make sure this
plan is junked. We need more
dams and fewer eco-idiots.
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