Toxic algae flourishes in reservoirs, prevents Tribes from traditional river uses

The Klamath Riverkeeper, the Karuk Tribe of California, and the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Association (PCFFA) are jointly petitioning for the California State Water Board to hold PacifiCorp accountable for dangerously high blooms of toxic blue green algae in Klamath reservoirs. Since 2005, Iron Gate and Copco reservoirs have seen some of the most toxic blooms of the toxic algae Microcystis aeruginosa ever recorded in the United States.

Health experts warn that even modest exposure to the toxin produced by the algae, called microcystin, can lead to skin rashes, vomiting, and diarrhea. High doses of the toxin, such as those found in the Klamath reservoirs each summer, could lead to massive liver failure and even death in humans. Microcystin also can poison and kill fish and wildlife.

PacifiCorp’s dams provide optimal growth conditions for the toxic algae by trapping nutrient rich water in shallow warm reservoirs. Last year the microcystin toxin levels behind the Klamath dams exceeded World Health Organization guidelines for a “moderate health risk” by nearly 4,000 fold. Neither the United States EPA nor the State of California as yet have independent guidelines for these toxins.

The Iron Gate and Copco reservoirs, behind the Klamath dams, have not only become “toxic algae factories” that generate microcystin, as set forth in the petition, but also have caused deteriorating water quality. Petitioners say the toxic releases have made many people not use the Klamath River.

For Karuk ceremonial leaders and participants, the toxic blooms also constitute an infringement on their freedom to practice their religion. During certain ceremonies, participants bath in the river for long periods of time making them especially susceptible to exposure. “This is one of the ways that companies like PacifiCorp are complicit in the genocide of Native American Cultures,” said Leaf Hillman, a Karuk Ceremonial leader and tribal Vice-chairman.

The Klamath dams are owned by Portland-based PacifiCorp, which in turn is owned by Billionaire Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Company. Although the Buffett family has a reputation for philanthropy, particularly among Native American causes, they have shown little interest in addressing the negative impacts their own company has had on the Klamath River Tribes and the West Coast salmon fishery.Tribes, commercial and sport fishermen, Humboldt County, many river-based businesses, conservation groups, several state and federal agencies, and the Governors of California and Oregon have all called for the removal of the dams as a means to restore sustainable runs of salmon to what was once the third most productive salmon river in America. The human health impacts of the reservoirs have also been held up as a reason for dam removal.

More about the campaign to remove the Klamath dams

The Klamath was once the third most productive salmon producing river in the United States. Today, because of ill conceived dams and a legacy of mismanagement, the Klamath is shadow of its former self. Before the dams, a million salmon returned to spawn each year. This year, for the third year in a row, fewer than 30,000 fish returned. That forced fisheries managers to dramatically curtail the salmon fishing season, putting fishermen up and down the California and Oregon coasts out of work.

The problem is a series of hydropower dams owned by energy company PacifiCorp. The dams were constructed without fish ladders, and they block salmon from accessing upwards of 300 miles of spawning habitat. The dams produce little power and provide no flood protection. The only thing they do is harm the Klamath river and its salmon. Additionally, the dams have devastating impacts on water quality in the Klamath River. Recent analysis of water samples from Copco and Iron Gate Reservoirs reveal extremely high levels of the toxic blue-green algae Microcystis aeruginosa, which produces a compound known to cause liver failure and promote tumor growth. Samples taken from areas frequented by recreational users of the reservoirs contained cell counts as much as 3,900 times greater than what the World Health Organization (WHO) considers to be a “moderate health risk.”

PacifiCorp is currently seeking a license from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to operate the dams for another 30-50 years. Despite what some experts consider an ironclad case for the removal of PacifiCorp’s Klamath dams, FERC issued a draft environmental impact statement that recommends only modest changes to current dam operations.

FERC’s staff reccomendation ignores the mandates of agencies for fish screens and ladders, and calls for dam removal from Tribes, conservation groups, and even NOAA Fisheries. The proposal to allow PacifiCorp to drive fish around the dams not only perpetuate the damage caused by PacifiCorp’s dams, but it is illegal too.

FERC is woefully out of step with the rest of the Klamath stakeholders. Filings from the states of California and Oregon, four Klamath basin tribes, 10 environmental groups, and a host of federal agencies all support removing the Klamath dams. Even FERC’s own economic analysis shows that removing the Klamath dams will cost less than constructing the fish ladders and screens PacifiCorp will be required to install under a new license.

Nutritional Justice on the Klamath River

For thousands of years, the Karuk Tribe of Northern California maintained the health of the Klamath Basin by controlled
burning, careful harvesting of plant species, and regulation of salmon runs and harvest in the Klamath River. “Having evolved over an immense period of time, Karuk land management finds multiple expression: environmental knowledge, technical and ritual practices,
underlying attitudes toward nature and a conception of the role of humans in the natural system” John Salter, Karuk Tribal Anthropologist, and Leaf Hillman, Director of Natural Resources for the Karuk tribe explains:“With us the relationship to the land is an inclusive way of life in which the spiritual link is constantly re-emerging.”The Klamath River salmon runs are central to Karuk ceremonies and worldview.

However, sustainable management of salmon runs that included the entire watershed does not fall within the California Water Code’s strict definition of “reasonable and beneficial use.” Indigenous groups such as the Karuk suffered massacres, land theft, the loss of physical health and economic base, and cultural degradation during the colonization of California. “The Karuk tribe was one of the fifteen tribes that signed treaties that were never ratified by Congress,” Ron Reed, Cultural Biologist for the Karuk, explains. “[The federal
government] took our 1.4 million acres, our hunting, and our water rights and we have been fighting every step of the way for what is rightfully ours. The Department of Natural Resources is failing miserably at managing our tribal resources that they are mandated by law to protect. We are still climbing out of this shattered existence that is with us today.”

Hydroelectric dams operated by Pacificorp along the Klamath River pose one of the most immediate threats to the cultural practices and physical health of the Karuk people. The dams block salmon from 350 miles of spawning habitat. Water policy decisions that overlooked the inextricable tie between spiritual practices, tribal livelihoods, and ecosystem management caused the crash of the Karuk fishing economy and a rise in chronic poverty among the Klamath River tribes. The median income
for Karuk families is just $13,000 per year. The loss of fisheries replaced the traditional salmon and river-based diet of the Karuk with the high-starch, processed-food diet of poverty, which led to high rates of diabetes and heartdisease. A recent study of nutrition among the Karuk found that “the devastation of the resource base, especially the fisheries, is also directly linked to the disproportionate unemployment and socioeconomic status of the Karuk people today.... The present decreasing access to traditional foods must therefore be understood in the broader context of cultural genocide.”

In 2004, Pacificorp submitted an application to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to renew their dam operation licenses. For three years, the Hoopa, Yurok, Klamath and Karuk tribes, the Pacific Coast Federation of Fisherman’s Associations, and environmental groups such as Friends of the River met with Pacificorp to discuss the environmental, cultural, and fishery impacts of the dams. Pacificorp addressed none of these concerns in the license renewal application.
The Klamath River dams provide less than 2 percent of Pacificorp’s total operating power; a study by the California Energy Commission found that already-operational power plants could easily replace any energy
lost from decommissioning the Klamath River dams. Their continued operation will cause cultural and physical destruction that water policy decision-makers are unwilling to factor into their cost-benefit analyses. Commenting on the relicensing process, Reed said, “You can sit there and say, Okay, that acre of land with potatoes or alfalfa is worth this amount of money. But we are talking about cultural resources here. How can I put money terms on these things? I threw my heart on the table for three years, saying these are the impacts of these dams on my people and it basically went unheard ... They were working out of their boxes and didn’t realize the relationship of every aspect of [dam impacts] is related to our culture.”

After the negotiations with Pacificorp failed, the tribes and their allies began a campaign to “Bring the Klamath Salmon Home.” In 2004, tribal leaders traveled to Edinburgh, Scotland and presented their concerns at the annual stockholders meeting of Pacificorp’s parent company, the multinational energy giant ScottishPower. As a result of the alliance’s organizing and media campaigns, Pacificorp has entered into a settlement renegotiation with indigenous, environmental and fishing groups. While Karuk tribal members face the possibility of another long, drawn-out, and ultimately futile process of negotiations, they continue to rely on government commodity foods and a single fishing spot to survive.