Klamath River: Fishable, Swimmable?

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 19, 2010

Contact: Erica Terence, Klamath Riverkeeper, (c) 530-627-3311
Tom Lyons, California Coastkeeper Alliance, (c) 415-810-2960

Klamath River: Fishable, Swimmable?

Activists Take the Clean Water Act into Their Own Hands to Restore Flows in the Klamath

(Orleans, CA) Thirty-eight years after Congress promised fishable, swimmable, drinkable waterways with the passage of the Clean Water Act, too many rivers in the Klamath River Watershed lack the most basic element of a healthy waterway: water.

“How can you regulate water quality without sufficient flows of water?” asks Erica Terence, the Klamath Riverkeeper.

On May 18, 2010, the California Coastkeeper Alliance and Klamath Riverkeeper led a discussion on the health of the wild and scenic but embattled Klamath River. Discussions at the training centered around two key tributaries to the Klamath where salmon runs have crashed in recent years due to severe dewatering.

Last summer the Scott River became a dry riverbed as temperatures soared and the River’s entire flow was diverted by farmers and ranchers for irrigation. The neighboring Shasta River’s flow was similarly reduced to a trickle by diversions. In both rivers these flow shortages have stranded adult fish and left spawning grounds dry. The groups are exploring how a flow impairment listing under the Clean Water Act could help leverage more water in these streams to provide relief for endangered fish runs there.

Every two years, California must compile a list of the water bodies that are too polluted to be safely used for drinking water or for fishing, swimming, boating, surfing, aquatic habitat, or the other “beneficial uses” that Californians used to enjoy more widely. Currently, the Water Board focuses on traditional sources of pollution, but has only acknowledged flows in a handful of instances.

“The Clean Water Act is one of the most powerful tools to ensure clean, abundant waterways,” says Tom Lyons with the California Coastkeeper Alliance. “But its applicability to flows in our rivers, creeks, and streams has been under-utilized, something our organizations are working to correct.”

As the list of polluted waterways grows longer every year, restoring waterways for fishing, swimming and drinking seems increasingly out of reach. Rivers in the Klamath watershed are impaired by toxic algae, temperature, and nutrient pollution caused by dams, cattle grazing and irrigated agriculture. All of these problems are exacerbated by lack of adequate waterway flows.

Over the next few months, the State Water Board will finalize the 2010 polluted waters list and collect data for the 2012 list. The Board’s creation of a list of “impaired,” or severely polluted, water bodies is only the first step. The federal Clean Water Act and state Porter-Cologne Water Quality Act together require the Board to identify the pollutants responsible, and design and implement a plan to restore the waterways’ original uses.

Klamath Riverkeeper restores water quality and fisheries throughout the Klamath watershed, bringing vitality and abundance back to the river and its people. http://www.klamathriverkeeper.org.

California Coastkeeper Alliance is co-sponsoring workshops on impaired waters throughout California during May and June. http://www.cacoastkeeper.org/programs/clean-abundant/severely-polluted-waters.