State Chapters > California
California County Declares State of Emergency Over Dam Removals on Klamath River
Hoodat:
California County Declares State of Emergency Over Dam Removals on Klamath River
Jill McLaughlin | 3/30/2024
Siskiyou County, in the northernmost part of California, declared a state of emergency March 26 and requested state assistance to help residents impacted by the state’s dam removal project on the Klamath River.
Since January, residents living along the river have watched as the 100-year-old Copco Lake disappeared after the state began drawing down dams along the bi-state waterway. The state’s plan to remove four dams along the river is part of its strategy to restore salmon fisheries and habitat.
The county’s board of supervisors approved the emergency declaration resolution at a special meeting Tuesday on a 4–1 vote. Officials said they hoped state assistance could help them monitor the effects of sediment released that has sent algae and chemicals downriver into communities and affected fish.
“This is a proactive move,” Board Chair Michael Kobseff told residents at the special meeting. “The proclamation is to get attention from the state of California and hopefully somewhere from the federal agencies. … It’s just to provide assurance to the community.”
After samples tested showed high levels of arsenic and other metals, county residents were warned this month not to drink or touch Klamath River water that has already killed scores of fish and some wildlife. . . .
https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/california-county-declares-state-of-emergency-over-dam-removals-on-klamath-river-5618711
California voters once again feeling the effects of what they voted for.
Hoodat:
Residents saddened by loss of Copco Lake amid Klamath dam removal
Juliet Grable | Feb. 3, 2024 | 11:25 a.m.
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.
The transformation has left some residents reeling.
April Sears, a resident of the Copco Lake community in California, says the last week has been “horrible.”
“First of all, we lost the lake,” she said. “It kind of hits you hard, like you lost your best friend or somebody.” A few days ago, she lost water in the home she rents on Patricia Avenue. Klamath River Renewal Corporation, the entity overseeing dam removal, is putting Sears up in a hotel in Ashland, Oregon, while they resolve the situation. Nearby, KRRC has already installed an above-ground tank to furnish 11 homes with potable water after their shared well failed.
For some residents, the worst part of drawdown has been witnessing its effects on the wildlife they have come to know and love. 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.”
Two days later, residents spotted another group of eight deer that had become trapped in the mud, but they had already died. . .
https://www.opb.org/article/2024/02/03/klamath-dam-removal-residents-saddened/
Hoodat:
The Klamath River salmon die-off was tragic. Was it predictable?
RACHEL BECKER | MARCH 6, 2024
A recent large die-off of young salmon released into the Klamath River shocked and dismayed state biologists, reinforcing that human efforts to restore nature and undo damage can be unpredictable and difficult to control.
The tiny Chinook salmon turned up dead downriver just two days after they were released from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s brand new Fall Creek Fish Hatchery, built to supply the Klamath River as it undergoes the largest dam removal in history.
The $35 million state hatchery, on a tributary just upstream of Iron Gate dam in Siskiyou County, was constructed to help the river’s threatened coho and dwindling fall-run chinook salmon, a mainstay of commercial and recreational fishing and tribal food supplies.
The hatchery’s first release ended with an unknown number of the 830,000 young Chinook salmon found dead, their eyes bulging, in a federal sampling trap about 9 miles below the dam.
State officials called it “a large mortality,” but said there’s no official count yet and released no additional details about the size of the die-off.
California’s fish and wildlife officials said they suspect “gas bubble disease,” a condition similar to decompression sickness in scuba divers, is to blame — likely caused when the salmon traveled through a 9-foot-wide tunnel out of Iron Gate dam to reconnect with the Klamath downriver.
Gas bubble disease in fish is caused by “environmental or physical trauma often associated with severe pressure change,” officials said.
Jason Roberts, inland fisheries program manager with the state agency, said it’s an outcome that state, federal, and tribal scientists involved in the decision didn’t anticipate. . .
https://calmatters.org/environment/2024/03/california-klamath-river-salmon-dead/
Yet another failure brought to you by 'government'.
Smokin Joe:
--- Quote from: Hoodat on April 01, 2024, 02:53:57 am ---Residents saddened by loss of Copco Lake amid Klamath dam removal
Juliet Grable | Feb. 3, 2024 | 11:25 a.m.
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.
The transformation has left some residents reeling.
April Sears, a resident of the Copco Lake community in California, says the last week has been “horrible.”
“First of all, we lost the lake,” she said. “It kind of hits you hard, like you lost your best friend or somebody.” A few days ago, she lost water in the home she rents on Patricia Avenue. Klamath River Renewal Corporation, the entity overseeing dam removal, is putting Sears up in a hotel in Ashland, Oregon, while they resolve the situation. Nearby, KRRC has already installed an above-ground tank to furnish 11 homes with potable water after their shared well failed.
For some residents, the worst part of drawdown has been witnessing its effects on the wildlife they have come to know and love. 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.”
Two days later, residents spotted another group of eight deer that had become trapped in the mud, but they had already died. . .
https://www.opb.org/article/2024/02/03/klamath-dam-removal-residents-saddened/
--- End quote ---
Anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of sedimentology (or who had played at damming up a stream or ditch as a kid), would have known there would be a reservoir load of fine sediment that had settled, especially behind a long standing dam. The mud and its effect on wildlife was completely predictable, and the effects on shallow aquifers predictable also.
But this tells me why a colleague's topic for his Master's thesis was rejected: it would have documented the first 20 years of formation of a freshwater delta at the headwaters end of Lake Sakakaweja, which has had another 40+ years of sedimentation since. Needless to say, if the lake were to be drained, the flooded bottom land once prized for farming would be an inaccessible and impassable plain of goo.
DB:
And government will hire more people and spend more money cleaning up the massive mess they made. A self-fulfilling government jobs program depleting the taxpayer...
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