Klamath River: And The Award Goes To…
Congratulations on the first annual ‘River of Death’ award
By William Simpson, March 11, 2024 3:44 pm
The first annual “River of Death” award goes to the Klamath River Renewal Corporation (‘KRRC’) and its CEO Mark Bransom.
Let’s face it, it really takes a lot to kill-off an entire aquatic ecosystem, and in the process, contaminate the Klamath River to the point where the County Health Department has to issue a press release warning citizens to stay out of the water!
Residents should not be in or drink water from the Klamath River due to high levels of arsenic, lead and aluminum, the Siskiyou County Environmental Health said today. According to the report, heavy metals in the Klamath River have increased due to sediment buildup that happened after drawdown of the river’s three reservoirs in January. This is part of the Lower Klamath Dam Removal project.
But, the Klamath River Renewal Corporation has managed to accomplish something that is unheard of on the west coast of the United States.
Their accomplishments in earning the ‘River of Death’ award, with the help of their contractors, have reached new heights in perpetrating ecological disaster.
Lets Review:
1. Ignoring the will of the American people living in Siskiyou County.
78% of local citizens who know the Klamath River and the lakes on that river like a friend, voted in a referendum on removing the klamath river dams said, ‘no dam removal’. KRRC had no problem giving the Citizens of Siskiyou County the middle finger.
2. Breaking promises to keep citizens and Siskiyou County California informed and up-to-date on plans and provide full and complete transparency, as they forced themselves and their agenda onto the County and the Klamath River.
3. Obfuscating, spinning and candy-coating science regarding toxins and heavy metals known to be problematic in the lakebed sediments if released into the main-stem of the Klamath River.
4. Disregarding their own published and well-socialized plan to dewater Copco and Iron Gate Lakes over the span of two months, and instead dumped the lake water and toxic sediments into the main-stem of the Klamath River over the period of just a few days.
5. Killing Billions of lifeforms in the main-stem of the Klamath River down river from the dam removal project, including native species organisms and fish, and adversely impacting terrestrial wildlife.
6. Creating a river that is now polluted and will remain polluted for decades as a result of the 15-million metric yards of sediments remaining in the lake bottoms continuing to erode clay, toxins and heavy metals into the Klamath River.
7. Ignoring the best science available that said the lake bottom sediments were a serious problem and must be removed and relocated away from any watershed. Arguably this was done in favor of profitability (taking the cheap route out).
Planting toxic sediments listens-well, but is guaranteed to fail, here’s why:
Anyone thinking logically knows that the Klamath River floods periodically. And because KRRC’s plan failed to wash the majority of the polluted lake bottom sediments down river during their off-plan three-day dump of water and sediments, the now remaining 15-million metric yards of polluted sediments are merely a ticking time-bomb.
The so-called plan to plant the remaining polluted sediment beds is just a fake solution that flies in the face of reality!
Let’s Assume the following scenario (best case situation):
The plantings take hold, and few years pass. Maybe some fish survive and show up in the Klamath River. At this point, hundreds of $-millions more of California and Oregon taxes have been spent restoring the river and developing the fishery by cleaning-up and mitigating the January 23, 2024 sediment dump of 5-7-million metric yards of polluted clay sediments.
This process will likely include the expensive dredging in numerous locations of the Klamath River to remove impacted clay from ecologically critical ‘deep pool refugia’ and spawning beds used by fish.
Then, we have a flood. As we all know, a flood will in fact dislodge and transport large quantities of polluted sediments remaining on the lake bottoms into the river, killing the entire River again.
The empirically evident results of dumping just 5-7 million metric yards of that polluted clay sediment into the River easily killed all the aquatic life on the Klamath River, when it was dumped on January 23, 2024.
Imagine the additional epic damage to the Klamath River if some or all of the remaining 15-million metric yards of polluted clay sediments (planted or not) are washed into the main-stem of the Klamath River via a flood.
Those meager plantings, even if they take hold, cannot withstand the force of a flood-torrent rushing through the lake-bed canyons where the 15-million metric yards of polluted clay sediments currently remain.
KRRC’s failure to acknowledge this very real probability arguably brings their so-called plan into the realm of incompetence and gross negligence.
And assuming they realize what they are doing shows a total disregard for the correct methodologies for restoring the river, which some experts might characterize as devious and sinister given the current and likely future impacts on the health, safety and economic welfare of the local people, including indigenous people, as well as the remaining wildlife.
We hope Mr. Bransom attends the March 12th Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors meeting so that he can accept the award for KRRC.
William Simpson’s article first appeared in Siskiyou News and was published at the request of the author.
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I had an ugly thought reading this, so I did some checking, which made my suspicions stronger. Removing these dams, in the way it was done, just destroyed the economies, property values, and water supplies of the most reliably conservative communities in California. Areas of the state that went overwhelmingly for Trump in 2016 and 2020. Right before the 2024 general election. Make of it what you will.
I’ve expressed the same sentiment to my friends. 3 of the 8 Republican senators are up here. that’s 8 of the 40 California State Senators. McClintock had hearings with the EPA whistle-blower that was fired after giving testimony against the EPA. Also, they want to crush the State of Jefferson movement. This should be Gavins Achilles heel should he slip into the election. Cheers my friend.
This is CHILLING and it is entirely believable that this was done with destructive intention, given devastating multiple fires (etc.) of suspicious (Dem) origin in past election years in conservative areas.
Thanks for posting —- can’t believe my suspicious brain didn’t go there with the very first installation in this Klamath Dam removal series.
It sounds like the Klamath River Renewal Corporation (‘KRRC’) and its CEO Mark Bransom deserve more that just a “River of Death” award? Maybe Mr. Bransom and the leftist clowns at KRRC deserve to be hauled before tribunals and be held accountable for the devastation that they’ve caused?
Now why would KRRC be located at 2001 Addison Street, Suite 317 in Berkeley, CA instead of being located Klamath Falls area? No doubt Mr. Bransom and his all female staff (Laura Hazlett, Ren Brownell, Olivia Mahony, Kristin Silva, and Anna Storey) preferred to view the devastation that they caused in the Klamath River Basin from afar?
After reading Mr. Bransom and his KRRC staff’s questionable qualifications in their bios, it’s not surprising that they’ve caused an ecological disaster? For example, Olivia Mahony, Senior Project Manager, Board and Special Projects holds a Bachelor Degree in Psychology and a minor in Social and Economic Justice from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Olivia has staffed the KRRC since its inception, providing Board management and strategic support for the Corporation and facilitating project alignment. Hmmm, she has a lot to account for?
(https://klamathrenewal.org/krrc-staff/)
BLAME YYOUR FARMERS NND RANCHERS ALL THEY WANT IS MONEY.
WHY WASNT THAT LAKE STIRRED UP FIRST?????!!!!
How are farmers and ranchers to blame for tearing down the dams which released toxic sediment. You must be poorly educated and lack basic reasoning skills? Blame your Democrat and tribal masters who got big payoffs to tear down the dams which in the process destroyed the Klamath River Basin ecosystem.
I’m curious as why lead had to be listed first.
Ahead of arsenic, really?
That is 12 letters out of Alphabetical order, XII in lead loving Roman Numerals.
Don’t bother.
Thank you for up til now.
Good bye.
But think of all the opportunities to waste, er “spend” billions of dollars to not fix the river. Mansions and Ferrari’s must be bought! Think of all the poor grifters out there that need opportunities to strike it rich! It is the Kalifornia way!
find the source of the pollution
I sent article to friend and follows is their respone. Could you respond?
It is what it is.
Money or whatever.
Aint going back now.
When Mount Saint Helens blew up they thought that ecosystem would never return but within 18 months or less there were fish coming back up the rivers there was new foliage growing everywhere and now it is once again a pristine ecosystem.
Every damn removal project that has happened in the last 10 to 15 years has been 100% success no matter what the cost is nature wins.
Every single one of us humans are really good at complaining and bitching
The end result Will be more fish and more Wildlife and doesn’t matter what the cost is that’s just what it will be.
There’s always pros and cons to every situation Doesn’t matter if it’s work relationships Or Millions of other things.
Amen!
What a piece of garbage article. Just need to look at the comments to see who this article is for. The removal of dams are going to have a short term negative effect. The goal is for the river to be restored to its natural habitat. Patience people.
The work of these dam removals has been decades of research, with inter-governmental, tribal and farmer community collaboration. It was not forced upon anyone, but an agreement was made, with knowledge and scientific evidence that led to these agreements.
Of course, the MAGAS have been pretending everything is alright for too long, are behind the times and when anything positive is done for the world they gotta come around and complain about it or just pretend they are on the opposite side of their neighbors. I mean, they are pro-Russia all the sudden? Absurd!
Your comment is 100% on the nose accurate to the point you literally restored a sliver of my faith in humanity upon reading it.
I’m from Siskiyou County, a lifelong outdoorsman and fisherman, and have worked jobs ranging from firefighting to fisheries biology. I have been following the process of removing these dams since the moment it was conceived over a decade ago. This article is dangerously moronic and purposefully misleading, holds a clear political agenda, and is meant for a specific audience primed to believe whatever anti-science and anti-reality dribble they’re fed.
PS for anyone reading: On the subject of these dam removals being “forced” on locals, I call absolute BS. Hell, the ranchers and farmers who used these putrid, outdated reservoirs for irrigation (and filled them with these poisons to begin with through unmitigated runoff alongside other industries upstream) were given the opportunity and ample time to buy the dams but were unable to come up with the funds necessary to maintain their integrity…that’s this crazy thing called capitalism, boys and girls.
“drivel” not “dribble,” genius
Removing the dams is what the Native American tribes along the river wanted. Have patience, allow nature and mankind time to restore the area.
Finally Justice for the pain and genocide Native Americans have endured!
No doubt it was tribal leaders who wanted the dams removed for big wampum payoffs rather than tribal members? How many decades will it take to nature and mankind time to restore the area–if at all?
Once the tourism, sawmills, agribusinesses, and other businesses that support the Klamath Falls area are shut down, there will be hardly anyone left who could afford to throw their money away at the tribe’s Kla-Mo-Ya Casino?
That’s all the evidence we need that dams are ticking time bombs of toxic sludge. Deal with it now or deal with it later — the dams are damned in the long run.
This is not the first dam removal and won’t be the last. Mother Nature will fix the river and its inhabitants fast. She is intelligent. Man not so much. The irony is that the natives knew exactly how to live alongside and with Mother Nature. European man came along and with his “best science” has managed to screw up pretty much everything he has touched. This is about habitat restoration.
Only a mentally ill environmental nazi or a paid off globalist shill would want dams removed that caused an environmental disaster and then try to justify it by claiming that “natives” are somehow more enlightened when tribal leaders sold out their people for wampum payoffs while leaving tribal members mired in poverty.
I know what a metric tonne is. I know what a cubic meter is. I know what a cubic yard is, not to mention a US ton. Metric yard? A wee bit off the plate. …. . Please explain.
just another slap in the face towards the red voting part of California and Oregon. the people in this region have no say in what happens. they are controlled by Los Angeles, Frisco Bay area and portland, or.
I would bet newsom and Biden wanted a catatosphere.
hopefully other states and regions take note and maybe rethink dam removal. Biden wrong again. newsome wrong again.