Klamath River Basin Dispute

Water is a very valuable resource. It has been said by many people that the third world war could be over water. The Klamath River Basin serves as an example of an over-allocation of a limited resource, water, dispute within the United States. The Klamath River Basin is a "dwindling system of lakes and rivers in Southern Oregon and California that provides water to thousands of farmers and supports six National Wildlife Refuges and many species of fish." The water management challenge of this issue deals with three main parties: Native Americans, environment, and agriculture.

The environmental integrity of the Klamath River Basin is being threatened by decreased water flow due to declining spring snowpacks; presence of hydropower dams; and poor water quality in and below reservoirs. Poor water quality is due to industrial pollution, mining, road building and poor forestry. Today Pacificorp owns and operates a series of dams that have diverted water fluctuating water levels and affecting the temperature of the water. Many fish have sensitive thresholds to water temperatures. The increase in water temperature has had adverse affects on the fish populations in the Klamath River basin. In 2002 the Upper Klamath Lake decided to retain most of the water for irrigation decreasing the flow of water downstream. The decrease in water levels and the increase in water temperature killed approximately 40,000 to 50,000 salmon in a 40 mile span. This is one of the largest fish die-offs in U.S. history.

The Klamath River was once the third most important river for salmon spawning on the Pacific Coast after the Sacramento and Columbia Rivers. Over a million salmon would return to spawn each year. In addition the river and its tributaries supported the highest diversity of anadromous fishes of any river in California. These dams have also decimated salmon runs by preventing salmon from getting upstream to mate. The Klamath River is a very important salmon river for the Native American tribes and commercial fishermen. The Native American tribes have cultures that are deeply intertwined to the land. These tribes include the Klamath, Karuk (upriver), Yurok (downriver), and Hoopa tribes in the Klamath Basin. These tribes are suffering from the loss of land and fisheries. Some of their traditions are deeply rooted in the salmon runs. The commercial fishermen also feel the impacts due to the decreasing fish populations.

This issue clearly deals with many of the themes from this course. I think this is a very difficult and complex issue because there are so many stakeholders involved. In my opinion there are more environmentally friendly forms of creating energy to contest Pacificorp’s argument. Even though we all know that every solution still has some sort of consequence I believe solar power and wind power are less harmful. In this case the dam is located in such a high biodiversity basin that I do not believe the energy generated from it outweighs the damage to the ecosystem and other stakeholders in the situation.