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Klamath River native species killed by KRRC's sediment management. (Photo: courtesy Walt Moody)

Klamath River Native Species – Dead or Alive?

KRRC went ‘off-plan’ and engaged in the radical process of de-watering the lakes over the course of just a few days

By William Simpson, April 4, 2024 2:30 pm

Dam removal comes with a BIG price when done wrong.

The big question that goes to the credibility of Mark Bransom and Klamath River Renewal Corporation (‘KRRC’) is this:

Were native species in the Klamath River killed by the sediment management and water released from the Klamath Dams?

During numerous recent public presentations, Mark Bransom categorically denied that native species in the Klamath River would be killed due to KRRC’s release of polluted sediments from Iron Gate Dam on January 23, 2024.

And Bransom continued in the delusion and misrepresentations to the public that native species aquatic life was not killed after the January 23rd sediment discharge, even after being presented with the overwhelming evidence! The point here is KRRC and Bransom are misleading the public media and press.

It’s a material fact that the Klamath River Renewal Corporation (‘KRRC’) has on numerous occasions during the past 2-years, publicly presented its definitive plan for de-watering the lakes behind the Klamath River Dams over a period of about 2-months (aka: ‘Reservoir Drawdown’), prior to the removal of the dams themselves.

A slow drawdown over a couple months would help minimize extreme sedimentation of the Klamath River and impacts on aquatic life-forms.

That plan was included in a slide in their powerpoint presentation that was presented to the Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors several times over the course of a couple years, as the definitive plan. The de-watering process as seen in KRRC’s slide below, shows the lakes being de-watered over the course of a few months. (see image)

Instead of staying ‘on-plan’, KRRC went ‘off-plan’ and engaged in the radical process of de-watering the lakes over the course of just a few days!

Some argue it was the cheap and quick way to get rid of the unwanted polluted sediments that had concerned dam removal planners for decades by attempting to wash most of them into the Pacific Ocean.

On January 23, 2024, just a week before a United States Geological Services (‘USGS’) river sediment and water study was released, KRRC opened the bottom diversion tunnel of Iron Gate Dam and a torrent of water and about 5-million cubic yards of polluted sediment (78% clay) was spilled into the main-stem of the Klamath River.

Within a few days of KRRC’s Jan. 23rd sediment dump, billions of life-forms were killed.

More native species aquatic life-forms, dead. (Photos courtesy Walt Moody)

A sampling imagery study along the Klamath River from below Iron Gate Dam and down the Klamath River show tens of thousands of native species fish, DEAD, including some endangered species. From these random small-area samplings, it can be reasonably estimated that millions of native fish were killed!

Dead native fish documented include: Salmon, Steelhead, Sculpin, Lamprey, Eels, Bull Trout, Klamath River Crayfish, and Smelt are just some of the numerous species killed.

More aquatic life-forms dead in the main-stem of the Klamath River. (Photos courtesy Walt Moody)

Additionally to the native species fishes and other native organisms that were killed, we find dead reptiles and amphibians, also likely killed on the order of thousands.

It was and remains the obligation and duty of KRRC to be aware that the sediments in the lake bottoms of Copco and Iron Gate Lakes were polluted and act in an ecologically responsible manner.

KRRC should have known that their flawed (rushed and incomplete) management of the polluted sediments would in fact adversely impact all the aquatic life in the Klamath River below the dams.

Instead of heeding the true mission of river restoration, and walking their own talk of restoring the Klamath River and its salmon run, Mark Bransom, speaking for KRRC incorrectly argued that the sediments were not polluted, and insisted that no native species aquatic life in the Klamath River below the dams would be killed as a result of their sediment release.  The undeniable empirical evidence shows that Mr. Bransom was completely wrong.

The actions of KRRC and it’s contractors have indeed created a ‘River of Death’ !

This arguably reckless action has also adversely impacted citizens who live on and around the Klamath River and the emptied lakes, now lined with polluted sediments, soon to be toxic clay dust during the daily diurnal summer winds that frequent the canyons of the now emptied lakes.

In addition to the lake bottom sediment being 78% clay (per Gethard Engineering Consulting – Seattle, WA), which by itself is considered a ‘pollutant’ by the EPA when contaminating rivers, the lake-bottom sediments contained various organic toxins (Dioxin, PCBs, DDT, etc.) and several heavy metals at varying levels of toxicity according to the published CDM Smith-Stillwater Study titled;  ‘Screening-Level Evaluation of Contaminants in Sediments fromThree Reservoirs and the Estuary of the Klamath River, 2009-2011’ (see attached). These pollutants are bio-accumulative, so even low doses over time add-up.

It is the job of a CEO, in this case Mark Bransom, to honestly report when something is going wrong, and immediately propose course corrections. Plan or no plan, when the unexpected happens, effective adaptive management is the rule; aka ‘Plan B’, and if needed ‘Plan C’.

As it stands, and as we have learned the hard-way, these lake bottom sediments are deadly to all aquatic life-forms in the River. So it’s just insane to risk having any more of these sediments entering the Klamath River.

The Siskiyou County Agricultural Commissioner offered his expert testimony, stating that the seeding (plantings) of the massive amounts of remaining sediments will probably not stabilize the sediments from wind-erosion, let alone a torrent of water scouring the lakebed canyon during the floods that do occur.

Having seen what 5-million yards of polluted clay (78%) sediment did, imagine what 2 or 3 times as much would do during a flood.  It’s just insane to continue going-along with the delusions that are being sold to the public and media by KRRC and its supporters.

In the highest and best interest of restoring the Klamath River, we must now demand that the estimated 15-million cubic yards of polluted sediments remaining in the canyon lake bottoms be removed and safely relocated.

This must happen before remaining sediments continue eroding and leaching into the Klamath River during time of precipitation, becoming toxic airborne dust in summers, and adding to this disaster by eventually being dumped into the Klamath River in large quantities during floods.

California Governor Gavin Newsom must take control of this ongoing disaster, before it escalates to even greater proportions!

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22 thoughts on “Klamath River Native Species – Dead or Alive?

  1. There’s talk of dam removal on the Ell River, this damned dam removal needs to be stopped! Can we at the very least make sure that Hetch Hetchy dam be the next one on the list so that San Francisco and the East Bay dry up and blow away?

    1. Get on board with you supervisors, congressmen and women and your senators. Do not vote for Gavin Newscum or anyone involved in the New World Order (NWO) or the Green New Deal (GND). These are the people pushing all of these dam removals. The only way to stop this is to expose who is responsible. Tell all your friends to do what I just suggested. Do it now before it is to late.

  2. Of course it was a fiasco. That guy Bransom has zero relevant professional engineering qualifications. He is just very good at playing the eco NGO scams. He has made a very nice living out of that particular scam the last few decades. Pays himself $300K+ p.a. Nice little piece of grifting for someone who is pretty much unemployable except at a juniors salary elsewhere. In a real job. He’s be lucky to get $70K at CalTrans.

    If you want a good laugh read his “PhD”. The kind of work that would have been an end of year project for second / third year civil engineering students at a good school back in the 1950’s and 1960’s. Thats undergrad level stuff. Of at least it would have been decades ago.

    https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/graduate_thesis_or_dissertations/tt44pq91p?locale=en

    Funny how all the eco “experts” with PhD’s turn out to have no actual substantive qualifications when cross examined. You should see the CV’s of the people CARB hires for their “scientific studies”. Very much bottom of the barrel people. The ones who dont have totally fake academic qualifications that is. Plenty of those too.

    1. I agree with you. These people need to be exposed before it’s to late. Tell everyone you know.

  3. The Eel River dams (Scott and Cape Horn) to be removed will dry up Lake Pillsbury and affect the Van Arsdale reservoir. Another Jared Huffman ecological disaster in the making. His pet project is wind turbines off the north coast. That will be another ecological disaster and diminished energy for the people. All projects will probably have cost overruns in the billions of dollars, billions we don’t have.
    Why are they trying to destroy California?
    Vote them out of office.

    https://mendofever.com/2024/02/09/danger-looms-as-plans-to-remove-scott-and-cape-horn-dam-progress-letter-to-the-editor/

  4. I’ve seen the result of this.
    Just north of Yreka at the Randolf Collier rest stop, I spoke with a nice lady who was at the county visitor center and she pointed out to me how muddy the Klamath river was and and how it was affecting the locals, to the point of affecting local wells, and also having to truck in potable water.
    If this had happened under a Republican administration, the outrage would be endless.
    I learned in basic philosophy, the truth is the inverse and the converse.
    There is no truth here, just lies.

  5. All this really comes down to nature terrorism and this is unfortunately pushed by native Americans under the rouse of restoring natural balance by destroying nature to do it. They seem to always find individuals like Mr. Bransom to do their unserious business for a huge payday. Yes, humans have changed nature over the years to benefit themselves but that is what God has given us this world for, not to abuse but to use and sometimes you just can’t go back but move forward.

  6. give it a break. the Klamath River is a problem that has been more than half a century in the making, it is not going to get solved in a couple of months, but is a good start towards ultimate restoration.

  7. Criminal charges should be started against KRRC and it’s contractors both Federal and State. California Game and Fish should start the investigation and/or be investigated.

  8. it’s the Law of unintended consequences managed by those individuals that are educated far far beyond their intelligence.

  9. they going to say when people get sick govt just wants the land been trying for decades newsome and Biden such puppets they selling their own country out I live their on river owner since 1995 Indians did care about til now so do the math democrats getting rich off this let m keep on people noone will own their own house will be just in books how we use to . so sad I guess Mexico will get California back too. deserves us right the way we let democrats run us out

  10. You’re all just pissed because you lost your lakes to play in and you’ll lose property value. This needed to happen no matter how it happened. The native americans have been dealing with this bullshit for over a hundred years. Suck it up buttercup it’s going back to the old ways as it should be. You whining cry babies disgust me.

    1. It’s people like you that offer nothing to the discussion, act like you are fully informed, throw some First People into the mix, stir well and walk away. What would your solution have been? Obviously plan A has failed, so besides ” sucking it up”, let me hear some kind of intelligent solution. You act as if plummeting property values are just something people should be ok with? That the people living on the river are somehow responsible for the mess. When the dams were built I’m sure the engineers and many others realized you have to dump the garbage can periodically or it will fill up. At some point in the near future the lakes would have been mud flats, pretty much where they are now. Same clay and same toxins and same mess after first heavy rains . Not many solutions. How can you claim it’s going back to the old ways? At what point in geologic history was the Klamath a dying mud pit full of toxins from Oregon? At what point in history had man not been able to live in the Canyon because of toxic summer dust storms? Inform yourself a little -:maybe a quick little search about the Owens Valley and Owens Lake . Learn that things that took decades to create can’t be solved by a giant flush of the toilet . This act of the giant toilet flush obviously didn’t go so well and seems to be a criminal act. So wait for fire season, earthquakes, floods, riots…. whatever may jeopardize your home and life and remember your statement and repeat it to yourself…. Suck it up buttercup

  11. Mark Bransom should be Fired from all management positions, and any future positions of a resresponsible nature!

  12. All sediment management supervisors should be fired and prosecuted for destroying wildlife!!!!!

  13. It used to be called Fish x Lame,now it’s called Fish and Dead Life, just how it’s seen from a man that was born and raised in The mountains of the Klamath. Deer aren’t as plentiful ‘cause of too many bears n cats, close to 50 years since hunting, used to be a bounty on them. Communist manifesto is in full force, wake up butter cakes!!!???

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