Free Republic

Arizona Independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema and Nevada Rep. Susie Lee introduced legislation this week aimed at enabling $45 million in Bureau of Reclamation funds to be used for helping the Hoover Dam. Proponents of the "Help Hoover Dam Act" say it would cut regulations and allow the bureau to tap into the Colorado River Dam Fund to support efforts related to the dam's upkeep. Ed Gerak, Executive Director of Irrigation and Electrical Districts of Arizona, said in a statement that the funding could help mitigate possible price increases for electricity. This bill will allow the Bureau of Reclamation to use...

Tuesday, March 26th 2024 was a long and contentious day at the Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors (‘BOS’) meeting. This board meeting followed the March 5th, Siskiyou County Health Department advisory warning that people should not enter the Klamath River or drink the water. “SISKIYOU COUNTY, Calif. — 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.” Activists favoring dam removal seem to be hypnotically willing to look past any and all unintended adverse impacts that have unfolded and are further...

A well-funded environmentalist group played a key role in the push to remove dams in the Pacific Northwest’s Klamath River ahead of premature deaths of thousands of salmon. American Rivers — an organization that has received millions of dollars from left-of-center environmentalist grantmaking organizations in recent years — was “the orchestrator of the Klamath dams removal project,” according to Siskiyou News, a local outlet in Northern California. The drawdowns of several reservoirs pursuant to the scheduled removal of four dams in the river preceded the deaths of “hundreds of thousands” of young salmon in the waterway, according to Oregon Public...

Hundreds of thousands of salmon released in Northern California river die in 'large mortality' event / As many as hundreds of thousands of fall-run Chinook salmon died early last week due to suspected gas bubble disease. The fish were released into the 257-mile-long Klamath River near the California-Oregon border following November’s historic dam removal at the site, which was intended to help the stream flow freely again and bolster the habitat for the protected species.

California, which is in a state of perpetually self-inflicted drought, restricts all sorts of practical water solutions based they would hurt some living creature somewhere. (People, especially farmers, don’t count.) And along the way the state decided to demolish a dam to help some salmon. The destruction was celebrated by environmentalists and rubber-stamped by the media. Native American tribes, environmentalists and state officials have been big advocates for this dam removal. Governor Gavin Newsom announced “California’s Salmon Strategy for a Hotter, Drier Future” in hopes of restoring salmon populations in the state. The governor lists his six priorities: removing barriers...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom backed the controversial proposal to remove four Klamath River hydroelectric dams along the California-Oregon border. Now, the same fish he swore to protect could be killed in the process. The dams had been breached on claims that it would help salmon migrate, but the Klamath River is now full of destroyed spawning salmon beds and pollution including decomposed algae, organic deposition, chemicals, and fine silt which is killing its ecosystem, according to a report from the California Globe. Additionally, dead endangered steelhead trout and other species have been rising to the surface of the Klamath River,...

The Klamath River dams have been unplugged. And with the water that was drained from Copco and Iron Gate Lakes came millions of tons of polluted sediments. Now the remaining polluted clay-mud sediments that have been deposited on the lake bottoms are in plain view. The rapid unplanned release of fresh water from the lakes, over a very short period of time, has carried massive amounts of polluted sediments into the main-stem of the Klamath River.

Let’s face facts; some people are getting richer off the removal of the Klamath River dams. Glen Spain member [formerly] of Klamath River Renewal Corp. ‘KRRC’ board and fisherman’s advocate said “Economics Not Salmon Is the Reason PacifiCorp is Removing the Dams” It is now estimated by some experts that the total direct cost for the Klamath River dam removal project, will reach $800-million dollars, not the $450-million cost estimate projected over tens years ago. And then we have the costs related to the liabilities that are already arising from what is seen by many as an ill-fated project. According...

HORNBROOK, Calif. (AP) — Tribal, state and federal officials on Thursday cheered a plan for the largest dam removal in U.S. history along the Klamath River near the California-Oregon line as a major step toward restoring a once-thriving watershed that tribal communities have long relied on. “Clean water, healthy forests and fertile land made the Klamath River Basin and its surrounding watershed a home to tribal communities, productive agriculture, and a place where abundant populations of migratory birds, suckers, salmon and other fish could thrive,” U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said. The removal of four dams along the river will...