Report: Klamath fish need more water

A National Research Council study has said it agrees with recommendations from Utah State University researchers led by Thomas Hardy that more water would help increase Klamath River salmon runs.

PORTLAND, Ore. – Conservation groups seeking removal of four aging Klamath River dams near the California border welcomed a report Wednesday by the National Research Council confirming studies indicating that salmon and other fish need more water.

“This report is a major victory for salmon, commercial fishermen, Native Americans, and everyone else who cares about the health of the Klamath River,” said Steve Pedery, conservation director for Oregon Wild, based in Portland.

The report comes as federal agencies prepare a new evaluation of salmon and endangered stocks of the Klamath fish known as suckers, as interest groups try to negotiate a settlement of water issues, and as federal regulators decide the fate of the four dams on the river, which runs through Southern Oregon and Northern California.

The battle over water management in the high desert basin has pitted farmers and irrigators against Indian tribes, fishermen and environmental groups.

A leader of the National Research Council study said it agreed with recommendations from Utah State University researchers led by Thomas Hardy that more water would help increase salmon runs.

“That conclusion is based partly on – frankly – scientific judgment,” said William Graf, a University of South Carolina geography professor and chairman of the committee of scientists who wrote the report released Wednesday. “But it's also based on more data that's become available in the last, say, two to four years.”

The council, the research arm of the National Academy of Sciences, reviewed two separate water studies on the Klamath River Basin.

One study was the Utah State study, on the lower part of the river. The other was by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, on the upper reach.

The council praised both studies but found flaws. It criticized the Bureau of Reclamation study for basing its water flow models of the upper Klamath on monthly averages instead of daily flows, and elimination of Klamath tributaries from the modeling.

The council praised the Utah study for its detailed measurements of stream beds and fish habitat simulation but found it suffered from the same flaws as the government study because it also lacked daily flow and tributary analysis.

Greg Addington of the Klamath Water Users Association, which represents farmers who irrigate in the basin, had jury duty Wednesday and did not get a chance to thoroughly examine the report. Addington, however, said he agrees with the council that the tributaries need to be part of the analysis. He said the report appears to emphasize the need for a watershed-wide approach to fish issues, and farmers agree with that.

“We know we're part of the system, but it's a big system,” he said.

Cecil Lesley, chief of the water and lands division for the Bureau of Reclamation in Klamath Falls, said both studies will be considered by federal fish agencies in their evaluation of salmon and endangered Klamath sucker stocks, called a biological opinion, expected to be released next spring.

Pedery, however, and Glen Spain, Northwest regional director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, said the Bush administration tried to delay the Hardy report because it could represent the “best available science” requirement for completing the biological opinion.

“The science speaks for itself and confirms what we've all known – and that is fish need more water than they've gotten historically,” Spain said.

The report was released while talks continue over whether to remove four dams from the lower Klamath owned by PacifiCorp, a Portland utility owned by a company that is controlled by billionaire investor Warren Buffett.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has suggested the dams could remain in place if fish are transported around them, while other federal agencies have recommended construction of costly fish ladders.

Low water flows on the Klamath were partly blamed for dramatic cutbacks last year in commercial ocean salmon fishing.

Craig Tucker, spokesman for the Karuk Tribe of California, said Wednesday the talks on the fate of the dams may lead to a decision before the end of the year on what could become one of the largest dam removal projects in U.S. history.