Massive Salmon Die-Off on Klamath:
Agricultural Diversions of Water

New clash on salmon die-off: Fisheries advocates say regulators just dragging feet
GLEN MARTIN / SF Chronicle 3oct02

In a move that infuriated a range of government critics, federal regulators concluded Wednesday that it was premature to attribute the recent salmon die-off on the Klamath River to agricultural diversions of water.

In the past week, 20,000 to 30,000 chinook salmon, coho salmon and steelhead trout have died while migrating up the river to spawn. The kill was the biggest fish mortality incident on the Klamath in years.

Fisheries advocates, Northern California native tribes and environmentalists say the deaths are a result of low water releases from dams on the Upper Klamath.

But U.S. Fish and Wildlife Director Steve Williams said Wednesday in a news conference that "a rush to judgment" on the causes of the incident should be avoided.

"We have ruled out a toxic chemical spill," said Williams, who added that federal scientists knew little more than that for certain. "Until we can gather and analyze facts, it would be premature to speculate. We want any decision we make to be based on science."

Nevertheless, federal regulators have authorized emergency downstream flows for the river. Releases from Iron Gate Reservoir on the Upper Klamath are now running at 1,300 cubic feet a second, up from the roughly 800 at the time of the kill.

After staging protests last year against releases for downriver fish, farmers in the Upper Klamath Basin received full irrigation allotments this year, cutting the amount of water available for salmon.

Temperatures in the lower river soared this fall, and the fish fell prey to bacterial and protozoan diseases.

Williams said federal scientists would look at several possible causes for the incident, including water quality and volume, the ratio of wild to hatchery fish, the history of past fish kills and various other "biological and hydrological" elements.

The Klamath is a complicated river, Williams said, and "there are a lot of factors that could contribute" to the kill.

But Bush administration critics say the facts are a lot simpler than that. The problem, they say, is low river flows, the corollary to agricultural diversions in the upper basin.

"There is no better proof that fish need water than what happened this year, " said Troy Fletcher, the executive director of the Yurok tribe.

The Yurok is one of three tribes -- the Hupa and the Karok being the other two -- that live along the lower river. Salmon are essential to the economies and cultures of the tribes, and Klamath natives have long sparred with upper basin irrigators over disposition of the river's water.

"It's not surprising to us that (Bush administration staff members) are doing everything they can to avoid responsibility for this tragedy," said Fletcher. "We and a lot of other people have been telling them this was going to happen since they cut the flows in the summer."

Zeke Grader, the executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, a commercial fishing lobbying group, said his group had filed suit Thursday to get more flows down the Klamath.

"We're looking for sustained flows, not just these emergency pulses," he said. "What we're worried about now is that the eggs laid by the surviving spawners will be sterile because the water is so warm. We could lose a whole year's class of fish, which would devastate tribal, commercial and sport fisheries three or four years from now (when the fish mature)."

E-mail the writer at glenmartin@sfchronicle.com