Federal Suit Filed Over Calif. Hatchery

An environmental group sued an energy company and California's wildlife agency Tuesday over claims that a fish hatchery is releasing pollution that is deadly to fish downstream in the Klamath River - a river that was once brimming with salmon.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - An environmental group sued an energy company and California's wildlife agency Tuesday over claims that a fish hatchery is releasing pollution that is deadly to fish downstream in a river that was once brimming with salmon.

Klamath Riverkeeper, part of an environmental alliance headed by Robert Kennedy Jr., filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Sacramento, alleging that discharges from the hatchery violated the Clean Water Act.

At issue is the hatchery at the Iron Gate Dam located on the Klamath River near the Oregon border. The dam is operated by the California Department of Fish and Game and owned by PacifiCorp, an energy company based in Portland, Ore.

High concentrations of fish parts, excrement and food released from the hatchery's salmon and steelhead pens feed toxic algae blooms that have caused the Klamath's salmon population to drop sharply, said Regina Chichizola of Klamath Riverkeeper.

The department is also releasing drugs given to the hatchery's fish into the Klamath in violation of state water regulations, Chichizola said.

The utility, controlled by billionaire Warren Buffett, serves 1.6 million customers in six Western states.

A PacifiCorp spokesman said a Fish and Game report used the wrong unit of measurement, giving a false impression that too much waste was being discharged from the hatchery.

Fish and Game has corrected the error, company spokesman Dave Kvamme said.

The Fish and Game department could not comment on the litigation, spokesman Steve Martarano said.

The Klamath was once the West Coast's third-biggest producer of salmon, but last year federal fisheries managers practically shut down commercial salmon fishing after the third straight year of poor returns of wild chinook.

Klamath Riverkeeper described the lawsuit as a way to increase pressure on the company to remove hydroelectric dams.