This is the first article in a series about the Klamath Dam Removal project in Siskiyou County.
The removal of dams along the Klamath River in Siskiyou County, Northern California was sold as necessary to save salmon – specifically, “to restore habitat for endangered fish.”
The dams are part of the Klamath project, a series of seven dams built in the 1910’s and 1920’s in the Klamath Basin to bring electricity and agricultural water mitigation for Southern Oregon and Northern California, the Globe reported in 2020. However, in recent years, concerns over the dams’ effect on the wildlife and fishing industry have been raised, especially regarding claims of fish facing extinction because the dams.
In 2018, plans were released to destroy the dam system. However, those plans halted in 2019 because of data errors and issues over who owns the dams. The Bureau of Reclamation swiftly issued a study on the dams’ effects through 2024, leading to California to again push for destruction of the dams.
In June 2020, the Federal Energy Regulatory Committee halted plans again, ruling that PacificCorp, an Oregon utility company owned by Warren Buffett’s Omaha-based Berkshire Hathaway, would have to transfer it’s hydroelectric license and co-licensee with the Klamath River Renewal Corp., as well as pay $250 million toward getting out of the demolition project to avoid any liabilities around the demolition.
Governor Newsom implored Buffett to back the demolition project to save the salmon populations that Native American tribes in the area rely on. “The river is sick, and the Klamath Basin tribes are suffering,” said Newsom in his letter. “The Klamath dam removals are a shining example of what we can accomplish when we act according to our values.”
Many tribes also issued a joint letter with Governor Newsom in support of the dams destruction.
2024
“Drawdown of three reservoirs on the Klamath River is well underway, and this step in the dam removal process has already dramatically altered the landscape along the river in Southern Oregon and far Northern California,” OPB.org reported. “Iron Gate, the lowest of the three remaining dams, was first breached on Jan. 9, followed by J.C. Boyle on Jan. 16. On Jan. 23, a concrete plug in the tunnel at the base of Copco 1 was blasted away. The reservoirs drained swiftly, leaving behind vast expanses of fissured mud the color and consistency of chocolate cake batter. The Klamath River is winding through the naked landscape, finding its new shape.”
“Dam removal is expected to improve the health of the Klamath River, the route that Chinook salmon and endangered coho salmon take from the Pacific Ocean to their upstream spawning grounds, and from where the young fish return to the sea.”
It sounded good on paper – at least it did to the bureaucrats agitating for it.
But according to local officials, “it’s an environmental disaster.”
“I’ve been around natural disasters all of my life, and I’ve never seen anything like this,” Siskiyou County Supervisor Ray Haupt recently told the Globe. “The river is essentially dead, as is everything in it.”
Haupt was a District Ranger in the Klamath National Forest for 33 years, retired in 2010, and now owns a Forest and Natural Resources Consulting Business. He is a California Registered Professional Forester, a member of the California Professional Foresters Association, an Ag advisor for Etna High School and the College of the Siskiyous tech programs, and is an author of multiple Forest Management and Fire Policies for NAFSR, the National Association of Forest Services Retirees.
Haupt said the sediment plume extends 2 miles into the ocean. And he and local residents are witnessing a massive salmon extinction event.
Supervisor Haupt isn’t the only resident making these observations. OPB.org reported:
Many have seen dead fish stranded in the mud, and on Jan. 27, residents spotted a doe and yearling that had become hopelessly stuck trying to reach water. Volunteer firefighters from the Hornbrook Fire Protection District tried to rescue the mired animals but abandoned the mission as dusk fell. Soon after, an officer from California Department of Fish and Wildlife euthanized the deer.
“The mud was so thick; it was so far out there; they tried so hard,” said Chrissie Reynolds, a long-time resident of Copco Lake who drove to the scene to try to help. “But all that time, those animals were suffering.”
Supervisor Haupt also shared photos of Copco Lake, left almost dry with the dam removals.
“The speed of drawdown did not allow crews to assist with ‘sediment evacuation’ as was planned,” OPB reported. “In that scenario crews would use jets of water and shovels to slough off chunks of mud from the banks as the water level dropped.”
Haupt said what’s left of the water in Copco Lake is brown and thick with mud, and dead fish are everywhere.
Rep. Doug LaMalfa (CA-1) also expressed his disbelief in the results of the dam removal, in a January 30th Facebook post, summarizing the politics of the situation:
Environmentalists and the State of California are celebrating the world’s largest dam removal on the Upper Klamath River, while their work kills endangered species, destroys roads, threatens homes with bank collapse and is already seeing drinking water wells go dry. They purposefully made a disaster and are leaving taxpayers and the locals to clean up their mess.
Dam removal advocates refused to see the big picture, trusting a questionable Master’s thesis over the locals who knew better. Now, we see the results that are being ignored by the media and environmental groups – utter devastation of an ecosystem, and death. Dam removal advocates simply ignored the immense amount of sediment behind each dam, and how releasing it would impact water quality and river health. Now look, the water is black and thick with mud and toxic heavy metals covering every bit of gravel needed for spawning, deer are dying in the muck as is chokes out all life – and it absolutely reeks.
Shameless environmental groups cried that the removal of the dams is essential for fish health and would reverse salmon and steelhead population decline. Tell me, does this water look like a better habitat for the fish?
Newsom and the environmentalists were more interested in the trophy of the dams’ removal than the harm they caused.
The Yreka News posted a video described as a “massive fish kill:”
Video taken 02/06/2024 on the banks of Iron Gate lake, Hornbook, CA footage by William E. Simpson II. This is a screen shot:
Experts say this is a “massive sediment poisoning” and will cause the die-off of numerous species.
Ironically, but without any humility, Gov. Gavin Newsom recently announced:
Following the Newsom Administration’s request for a Federal Fishery Disaster Declaration amid dramatic declines in key salmon stocks in 2023, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced $20.6 million to support impacted fishing communities in California, including commercial fishermen, recreational fishermen, subsistence users and charter businesses.
So after killing off hundreds of thousands of salmon and fish, Gov. Newsom is getting federal money to restore “impacted fisheries.”
Is this gross government incompetence or something more sinister?
Part ll: Why are the Klamath Dams being removed and who is behind it?
View Comments (78)
Thank you for educating me on this. I had no idea.
They are about to do the same thing at the Columbia River Basin. The hydroelectric power from the Snake River Dams are the backbone of the electric grid in the Pacific Northwest. All to save the salmon.
all to make the people poor and dependant on the gov. they could give a fuck less about salmon
Exactly correct
Yep.
Hydro is virtually carbon free, massive energy — instead of creating even bigger and better dams, the GND ideologues are tearing down the dams we have. How can people be this clueless?
Please don't try to promote hydro as a type of green energy. This is the end result. Hydro kills a river.
I will promote it as green! Because government and bureaucrats and the so called experts with the corp of engeneers don't know that flushing out behind the dams from time to time will take care of theis ecological disaster doesn't mean hydro electric power is the cleanest and cheapest available right now! The electric grid would collapse without it!
Your ignorant.
hydro does not kill a river. how did your brain come up with that. the Klamath dam removal killed the river. do your homework before you start spouting false information.
You people are voting for this, wake up.
That's because it's fake news.
Another example of brain-dead leftist policy implementation and its disastrous consequences. They KILL what they are purportedly trying to SAVE. The California side of the Klamath River basin was a pristine and beautiful area back in 2002 when I went there to look at some riverfront properties. LOTS of salmon and steehead migrating upstream. Glad I decided not to purchase now that dams are being removed and destroying the habitat.
The Green Cult is more accurately known as the death cult. Look at wind power that kills millions of birds every year and now whales too. Then there is the clear cutting of forests for wind mills and the shutting down of farms.
Bill Gates also wants to cut down forests and bury the trees.
People need to wake up to reality!
Eco-terrorist is the real term to use.
Bill Gates wants to cut down the humans and bury the people with vaccines. Covid? Over 14 million dead worldwide. He is the epitome of evil.
Liberalism destroys everything it touches.
What a NIGHTMARE. More Gavin Newsom-created DISASTER. Alongside the self-righteous but WRONG and DESTRUCTIVE "environmentalists" and their allies and henchmen who pushed and pushed.
Now what? Will we even see any of these people incorporate into their deluded minds what they have DONE here? Will any one of them AT LEAST be conscience-stricken enough to take responsibility for this catastrophe, such as Gavin Newsom? Will GO-GO-GREEN activists even be remorseful? Will their cheering sideline observers finally realize that whatever environmentalists proclaim as "good and necessary for the environment" has in reality the exact opposite effect? Disastrous effects, in fact?
This is an incredibly destructive blow, and we don't even know or can know all of the fallout from it yet, although what has been told is bad enough. BEYOND bad enough.
Appreciate so much Katy Grimes' coverage of this man-made disaster, without which I wonder if anyone would have even known of this result, including those of us who have generally been against all dam removals for years and years as a VERY bad idea but without a complete in-depth knowledge and expertise in it. Awaiting Part 2 of this series and the list of villains.
Due to obvious heat effects on organic soil components, wildland fires are also thought to potentially be a major cause of significant slope instability.
Hmm, why is it the so called environmental “experts” seem to destroy what they touch?
They blow up a dam that fed rivers and created ponds and small lakes. What exactly did they think was going to happen to the landscape and the wildlife that depend on it?
Conservancy projects are kind to the environment. These nut jobs are not!
Devastating outcome!
One Fed Up Cali Girl .... Were the lakes behind the dams used for collecting water by planes and helicopters and used for fighting wild fires caused by lightning? I guess this resource is no longer available.
So once again Newsom and the rest of the criminal Democrat mafia who created this chaos, destruction and death are not being held accountable? The fact that Newsom got taxpayer money to restore “impacted fisheries” after he pushed to remove the dams is infuriating. If there was any real justice in this country, Newsom, Oregon Democrat Gov. Tina Kotek, the unelected bureaucrat stooges on the Public Utilities Commissions in Oregon and California who were appointed by Democrat governors, Democrat party mega donor Warren Buffett, and all the other Democrat connected consultants and contractors involved in destroying the dams and the Klamath River ecosystems would be hauled before tribunals and be held accountable?
"Governor Newsom implored Buffett to back the demolition project to save the salmon populations that Native American tribes in the area rely on."
That's complete BS. "Native tribes" do not have a viable fishing industry.
The sinister part is that Newsom wants to "restore" California to a primitive state that relies on solar for electricity and has limited water for its residences and agriculture. The irony is that Newsom recently extended electrical production at Diablo Canyon and gave up electrical production at the Klamath River Dams. The loss of water storage will create man-made droughts. Newsom and company are not working to better California but to destroy it. The only bright side is that once this corrupt leadership is out of power and replaced with commonsense leadership there is going to be a boom cleaning up and replacing the damage done by this regime.
Question; where can we get information about the silt plume spreading out into the Pacific Ocean from the Klamath River?