Recently, Congressman LaMalfa (CA-R) hand-delivered constituent letters to a meeting with Secretary of Interior, Ryan Zinke. The bundle of letters expressed strong opposition to removing the four Klamath River hydro-electric generating facilities.
You may also submit your own comments regarding dam removal to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)
1. Go to https://ferconline.ferc.gov/quickcomment.aspx
2. Enter your information including e-mail. Open automatic e-mail from FERC, follow link from there to submit comment.
3. In the Docket field, enter P-2082-062 to specify the project.
My own letter to Secretary Zinke is included below, for your perusal:
Department of the Interior
Secretary Ryan Zinke
1849 C Street, NW
Washington DC 20240
Re: Klamath River Dam Removals
October 20, 2017
On October 17, 2016, President Obama’s Secretary of the Department
of the Interior (DOI), Sally Jewel, submitted a recommendation to the Secretary
of Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) advocating for the removal of
four hydroelectric facilities on the Klamath River.
Jewel’s recommendation is diametrically opposed to the
opinions of my constituents, in Southern Oregon. Nearly 80% of voters in
Klamath County, Oregon and Siskiyou County, California, where the dams are
located, expressed their strong opposition to destroying these four important
facilities. These dams currently provide a consistent supply of low-cost,
renewable, hydro-electric base-load grid-power.
Jewel writes, “While these dams brought prosperity to
many, their construction came at a steep cost to tribes and fishing
communities. The returning runs of salmon repeatedly bludgeoning themselves
against the new dam walls were a harbinger of a declining
fishery that cast a cloud over those who, for millennia, have called the
Klamath home.”
These statements are all misleading. First, the dams not
only brought prosperity to the region, but they continue to bring prosperity to all people groups throughout the Pacific
Northwest. Throughout Oregon and the Northwest, enormous percentages of electrical
grid supply is provided by the inexpensive, run-of-river hydro-electric
generation facilities in the region.
Second, I would suggest that salmon are not “bludgeoning
themselves” against existing dam structures that have been in place for over a
half-century. School children know that salmon return to the place where they
were hatched to spawn. This means that scores of generations and millions and
millions of salmon have never tried to swim past the dams. Also, fish ladders
currently exist to help native fishes return to their spawning grounds and they
have been successfully navigating these waters for decades.
Third, the problems associated with enormous volumes of
sludge accumulated behind the dam structures ought to be a genuine concern for
future generations of salmon, trout, aquatic wildlife and river habitat. The
Draft Environmental Impact Statement did not address or investigate mitigation
efforts that might be required to handle the potential damage from the
estimated 20 million cubic yards of accumulated sediment. This issue is not
easily side-stepped because it is an equivalent 2 million ten-yard dump truck
loads of silt, sediment and sludge which will be dumped into the river system. Surely,
the existing downstream salmon fisheries will bear the burden from this harmful
sludge.
Fourth, “the greatest harbinger of
a declining fisheries which might cast clouds over” those who live, work, and
play in the Klamath region needs to be correctly identified. It isn’t dams.
Rather, like the rampant wolf population explosions in Montana, the salmon
declines are directly related to federal policies.
The passage of the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) in
1972 committed the United States to long-term management, conservation, and moratoriums
on taking marine mammals, like the seals, sea lions and porpoises. Studies by
the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have documented the enormous growth in sea lion
populations and the negative impact that seals and sea lions have on free
swimming salmonids in rivers and estuaries in the Northwest.
This is no small matter. The sea lion population has
ballooned to over 300,000 mammals in the Pacific Northwest. Each adult lion consumes
nearly 18 pounds of fish per day. This equates to a take of nearly one
million tons of fish annually.
Additionally, salmon are a transpacific anadromous species
that spends between three and five years in the Pacific Ocean migratory
patterns before returning to their spawning grounds. During this time in the
open ocean uncontrolled foreign fishing
fleets have years of unfettered access
to these fish populations.
Therefore, the dams are not
the problem.
The salmon populations have been thriving while the dams
have been in place. The dams provide inexpensive, renewable electricity, flow
control for watershed volume and temperature, recreation and agricultural reservoir
capacity, and Forest Service fire suppression storage in the extremely remote
regions of Northern California and Southern Oregon.
Decommissioning and removing the dams owned by PacifiCorp is
not about the river, its cultural significance, jobs, race, ag-business, or
water. Rather it’s a potpourri of special interests, rent-seekers disguised as
noble businessmen, enlarged bureaucratic dominion and strategically manipulated
environmental emotions
I humbly ask for your consideration of the items I have
enumerated here and the evidence that has been accumulated by the investigating
agencies. I also suggest that a willingness to listen to the constituents who
have lived, worked and invested their lives in the Klamath River watershed should
play an important role in your determination.
In closing, as a State Senator representing Southern
Oregon, my constituents have made their voices clear. The dams are viable
economic assets that taxpayers have funded. Destroying these resources will not
contribute to Making America Great Again.
Therefore, my request is that the Bureau of Reclamation
(BOR) deny the decommissioning of the four dams within the Klamath River
system.
Sincerely,
Dennis Linthicum Oregon State Senate 28
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1728 Capitol Address: 900 Court St. NE, S-305, Salem, Oregon 97301 Email: sen.DennisLinthicum@oregonlegislature.gov Website: http://www.oregonlegislature.gov/linthicum
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