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Fishermen sue federal officials for water in Klamath Basin
Thousands of dead salmon washing up on the banks of the Klamath River likely will be exhibit A in a federal lawsuit filed Thursday by commercial fishermen and conservation groups.
By Andrew Kramer
Associated Press
September 26, 2002
Thousands of dead salmon washing up on the banks of the Klamath River
likely will be exhibit A in a federal lawsuit filed Thursday by commercial
fishermen and conservation groups.
The suit filed in U.S. District Court in Oakland, Calif., demands the National Marine Fisheries Service revise its 10-year plan for coho salmon recovery on the Klamath River in southern Oregon.
The federal service approved the plan May 31.
It allows farmers in the Klamath Basin to resume irrigating fields after last year's water shut-off during a drought, while phasing in increased water allotments for threatened coho over a five-year period.
The suit was not filed in response to the dead chinook and coho salmon
found on the lower reaches of the river this week. But the dead fish are a
symptom of the low river flows and warm water conditions the suit seeks to
address, said Jay Ward, a conservation director with the Oregon Natural
Resource Council.
"The die-off will give us more footing," to pursue the lawsuit, he said.
California state biologists had collected about 1,500 salmon carcasses by
this week. The bloated fish washed up on rocks and floated in the river
shallows. Biologists say the total loss will be in the thousands.
Farmers say its unfair to blame them for the dead fish. They say flows from
other tributaries are low and the water from the project would be naturally
warm because it flows from the shallow Upper Klamath Lake.
The suit filed Thursday 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.
"Before, we were focused solely on the first three months of the spring
runs," said Kristen Boyles, a lawyer for the Seattle-based conservation
group Earthjustice and a lead attorney on the case.
Now the plaintiffs are asking the NMFS to review its plan for winter, summer and spring runs.
The amended filing also adds U.S. Representative Mike Thompson to the list
of plaintiffs. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which runs the Klamath
Project, is named as co-defendant.
Brian Gorman, spokesman for National Marine Fisheries Service, 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 said.
Klamath coho are among about 23 salmon species on the Pacific Coast that
fall under the legal criteria of threatened or endangered fish, but have
become a legal lightening rod because the livelihood of farmers upstream
depends on irrigation water.
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