Feds sued over salmon dieoff

Environmentalists join with fishermen's group to demand ample water for Klamath fish.

Conservationists joined a commercial fisheries group Thursday in suing Uncle Sam after a salmon dieoff this week in the lower Klamath River.

Filed in U.S. District Court in Oakland, Calif., the lawsuit, whose plaintiffs include the Ashland-based Headwaters environmental group, WaterWatch of Oregon and the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, demands that a minimum survival water flow level be set for fish.

They say the 10-year plan implemented last spring by the National Marine Fisheries Service for coho salmon recovery on the lower Klamath River has created artificially low water and has resulted in the massive fish kill.

An estimated 40,000 salmon, mainly chinook, have been found floating belly-up in the lower river, all killed by the abnormally warm water, according to the plaintiffs.

NMFS and the Bureau of Reclamation, which oversees the Klamath irrigation project, have been named as co-defendants.

The federal program allows farmers in the Klamath Basin to resume irrigating fields after last year's water shutoff during a drought, while phasing in increased water allotments for threatened coho over a five-year period.

"What really pisses our people off is that we've got a permanent drought institutionalized in the lower basin," said Glen Spain, northwest director for the fishermen's associations, speaking at a press conference in Medford Thursday.

"We will have less water this year, despite more rainfall, than we had in the basin last year," he added. "This drought was primarily caused by the Bureau of Reclamation."

He was referring to the fact that lower river flows are 25 percent to 30 percent less than at this time last year. His group represents about 3,000 families with West Coast commercial fishing operations.

NMFS spokesman Brian Gorman said he had not yet seen the suit and could not comment on specifics. The legal action is among at least 12 filed against the federal agency for West Coast salmon species, he said.

"I just wish we didn't get sued so often. I can't keep them straight," Gorman told The Associated Press.

Klamath Basin farmers say the flows are naturally low and that water from the project would be naturally warm because it flows from the shallow Upper Klamath Lake.

Medford resident Bob Hunter, an attorney for WaterWatch, disagreed. The warm, fish-killing water is the direct result of human controlled flows, he said.

"To continue to operate this project like the bureau is proposing over the next 10 years is a recipe for extinction," he said.

"These dieoffs could have been predicted given the flow levels in the operating plan."

During the severe drought of 2001, the flow was maintained at 1,000 cubic feet per second at Irongate Dam, the plaintiffs note. The flow Thursday morning at that site was 762 cfs. The yearly summer average flow at the site for the past 41 years has been 1,300-plus cfs, according to plaintiffs.

During a hot day, the water temperature can reach 80 degrees on the Klamath River, Spain said.

"Anything above 65 degrees is fatal within a few days," he added. "Anything above 70 is fatal within a day."

As the water temperature increases, the oxygen the fish depend on for survival decreases, the plaintiffs said. Low water flows also reduce shaded areas along the river bank, they said.

"There isn't a lot that can be done this year," Spain said. "But we have to have more water in the river for the fish."

The suit expands on a previous action filed on April 24, asking for an emergency increase in river flows from the lake for juvenile coho migrating to the ocean.

"We are basically saying the current plan is failing," Spain said. "It has to be rethought and redone and has to provide up-front benefits to fish."

Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at pfattig@mailtribune.com