-          TMDL's, Total Maximum Daily Load for the Klamath River and Lost River - implementation plan

Comments by Rex Cozzalio, 1/29/10

       Klamath River and Lost River TMDL Implementation Plan,  Workshop, public comment period ends 2/9/10

All regulations based upon ‘estimated’ ‘natural background nutrient and oxygen’ levels.  Only involved reading reveals those estimates are computer manipulated conjecture of ‘pre European’ back ground levels that are the criteria used for the goals set, which by the ‘graphs’ shown and our experience are extremely distorted and reflect unachievable ‘quality’ in a system that never existed.  That unachievable quality will cause continued and greater regulatory oppression until the entire system is shut down except for special interests and those capable of paying the fees (probably ‘participation’ and per gallon) for arbitrary ‘allocations’.

-          Riparian usage, access, and even emergency repair will essentially be lost due to blanket ‘waiver’ requirements outlawing typical usages across the board and any ‘impacts’ without full regulatory approval.  Under that, you could not do flood damage control or cut a tree you planted without prior and questionably granted permission.  The loss of that usage and costs for ‘participation’ and compliance will break many from the start, something to which, regardless of rhetoric, I believe they would not be adverse.

-          Implementing a ‘cap and trade’ style program which would prove extortive for their ‘wish list’ plans and which only entities with deep pockets could afford.

-          Creating a ‘water treatment plant’ as part of that ‘cap and trade’ for the purpose of ‘assigning’ those costs of ‘mitigation’ to Pacific Power, which is the cash cow since under the KHSA all those costs for Pacific Power are passed onto the ratepayers directly through the PUC.

-          No defined goals, criteria, or benefits guaranteed or even assured by implementation of these ‘theories’, which 20 years have shown to be ineffective, thereby leaving them total ongoing authority and continuity with no accountability or termination.  By any definition, that is a transfer of vested interest.

-          Assurance of a step by step expanding regulatory imposition upon the landowners due to failed improvements and need for additional funding, gradually increasing and moving those restrictions and fees farther up and out from the mainstem and tributaries.

-          As in the KBRA, they have disassociated physical actions from scientifically proven validity, continuing to endorse expanded marshlands as a solution for water quality while finding ‘impairment’ from the dammed deeper and colder lakes immediately below.  That disassociation again demands virtually no responsibility or accountability for results and rather establishes requirements that are difficult to change.

-          In order to give themselves lead agency control without the work or liability, while still collecting their fees, they are extorting everyone to ‘participate’ in a group with ‘blanket waiver’ like the RCD.  This puts the RCD as the ‘enforcement’ arm and collector of fees both for WQ, F&G, and for their own operation, demanding compliance and pitting neighbor against neighbor rather than towards the agencies.