Klamath River people challenge dam owner

The Klamath River's dams are a nuisance and create a threat to public health, American Indian and fishing interests are alleging in a major federal lawsuit against the dam's owner Pacificorp.

The Klamath River's dams are a nuisance and create a threat to public health, American Indian and fishing interests are alleging in a major federal lawsuit against the dam's owner Pacificorp.

The suit filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco Wednesday looks to stop the company from operating its dams in a way that proliferates toxic algae blooms and threatens the river's fisheries and people who swim or hold religious ceremonies in its water. The law firms of Kennedy and Madonna -- run in part by Robert Kennedy, Jr. -- and corporate law heavy hitter Joseph Cotchett of Cotchett, Pitre and McCarthy filed the suit.

The plaintiffs are members of the Yurok and Karuk tribes, a commercial salmon fisherman who runs a boat out of Half Moon Bay and a riverside business owner, as well as the nonprofit group Klamath Riverkeeper.

They claim that Pacificorp and regulators have failed to reverse deteriorating water quality in the river and its reservoirs. Operation of the dams warms water and accentuates toxic algae blooms, they claim, which have crushed the river's fisheries and pose a serious threat to public health.

”We've been doing our due diligence trying to get authorities to deal with the issue,”

said Leaf Hillman, vice chairman of the Karuk Tribal Council and a priest who spends long periods of time in the river for religious ceremonies each year. “As time has gone on it's gotten a little more frustrating.”
Hillman spoke by cell phone from Omaha, Neb. where tribal and fishing interests are protesting the Klamath dams at the shareholders meeting of Pacificorp parent company Berkshire Hathaway. The groups are asking Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett to push Pacificorp to remove the dams.

Pacificorp spokeswoman Jan Mitchell said it's the company's policy not to comment on pending litigation. She said Pacificorp has been working with a group of stakeholders to come up with a resolution of the dispute over the river's hydropower dams, and has been working with federal regulators on a parallel course to relicense its operations.

The Karuk Tribe recently asked the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board to impose restrictions on the discharge of toxic algae from Pacificorp's reservoirs. The board turned down the request last month, saying its authority is trumped by the Federal Power Act.

Board Executive Officer Catherine Kuhlman said mandatory closures of lakes or water bodies -- like those the state of Oregon imposes -- during big algae blooms would require state rule-making action. She said the board, the tribes and local health officials are coming out with voluntary guidelines meant to guard against exposure to harmful algae this summer.

The suit says the dams unnaturally heat water in the reservoirs, prompting algae blooms and delaying cooling of the river as fall run chinook salmon begin their run to spawning grounds. It also claims that the reservoirs slow water from warming in the spring, stunting the growth of young salmon which can make them susceptible to parasites and predators.

In 2004, the U.S. Geological Survey found the dams do the same thing, and suggested that removing the dams might make the river more friendly to salmon in the fall.

Well-known trial lawyer Kevin Madonna said in a phone interview that the case is about standing up for people who are politically powerless against a company who has diminished the resource it profits from.

”It's a fundamentally undemocratic situation,” Madonna said.

Madonna wouldn't comment on why the suit was brought by individual litigants instead of as a class action.

Cotchett's firm is well-know for its huge lawsuits against corporations, savings and loan organizations, and even against Vice President Dick Cheney over the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's name.

John Driscoll can be reached at 441-0504 or jdriscoll@times-standard.com.