Transcript:
The Inside Story: Undamming The Klamath
What’s at stake in America’s Biggest-Ever River Restoration?
Episode 86 – April 6, 2023
Show Open:
Sequence of unidentified speakers:
More and more just start washing up. These are full grown fish that now have gone belly-up.
Bring the salmon home! Un-dam the Klamath!
We were looking at the extinction of our way of life
We came here for the pursuit of happiness, and now we’re being robbed of that.
These dams are coming down, and it’s about damn time!
The Inside Story:
MATT DIBBLE, VOA Correspondent:
There’s a growing movement to remove dams on rivers in the United States.
This is Glines Canyon in northwest Washington state, and this is the Elwha River.
For one hundred years a series of dams controlled the flow of water on the Elwha to produce electricity. It was an important source of energy for the nearby town.
But the dams blocked salmon from using the river as they had for thousands of years.
In 2014, the last of the dams was removed and the river could flow freely again.
Fish and other wildlife are making a gradual recovery here.
But is it a good idea to remove dams, which can generate clean hydroelectricity, at a time when the world desperately needs more sources of renewable energy?
In the 20th century, the US led the world in dam building. Dams were promoted as a way to harness unruly nature, bring water to deserts, and spin turbines to generate electricity for a rapidly growing population.
The largest of them were celebrated as marvels of engineering.
To the builders, the flooding of canyons to create artificial lakes was seen as progress with little downside.
But to communities of Native Americans who had fished, hunted and otherwise used rivers for generations, the dams changed everything.
As these structures age, and as awareness about the environmental harm they’ve caused grows, more dams are being considered for removal.
In the past century, over 2000 dams have been removed in the US according to the advocacy group American Rivers
I travelled to the Klamath River region on the border between California and Oregon states to learn how dams there have nearly wiped out the fish population.
This is where many of the problems affecting the river ecosystem originate.
Dams like this one, built in 1962 to generate electricity, not only block fish passage but warm the water, promoting the growth of deadly algae and parasites, and having a devastating impact on communities downriver.
This is the 58th annual Salmon Festival, hosted by members of the Yurok Tribe, who live along the Klamath River near California’s northern border. There are traditional games and a chance to eat salmon fresh from the river, cooked in the customary way.
But in recent years, there has not always been enough salmon to serve.
Frankie Myers, Yurok Tribe Vice Chairman:
We've had some rough years that I remember having discussions with the Yurok Tribal Council, you know, deciding whether we were going to serve barbecue chicken at the Salmon Festival.
MATT DIBBLE:
For the Yurok people, whose tribal land begins at the Pacific Ocean and extends 64 kilometers along the Klamath, salmon is both a primary food source and an integral part of their culture.
Frankie Myers, Yurok Tribe Vice Chairman:
The median income for the upper Yurok Reservation is $11,000. The protein that we gather and harvest from salmon isn't a sport. Right. We don't do it for fun necessarily, we do it for our subsistence. It's how we survive.”
MATT DIBBLE:
The river that sustained the Klamath tribes for thousands of years has changed in just a century, due to the logging, mining and dam construction introduced by white settlers to the region.
The tribe monitors fishing in the river and limits what can be taken and when, in order to protect the declining population. Fewer salmon are returning to the Klamath each year.
Hunter Mattz, Yurok Fisheries Lead Technician:
The water in the mouth itself can average around 70 degrees and that’s about what you’d see at a public swimming pool or something like that. When they try and come in they get that front of warm water and they think, ‘oh wait the river’s not ready for us.’
Barry McCovey Jr., Yurok Tribe Fisheries Director:
Salmon runs have collapsed. They're probably 10 percent of their former selves you know. Different numbers for different runs of fish but, you know, the best estimates are that 90 percent of the fish no longer migrate into the Klamath River, migrate upstream.
MATT DIBBLE:
The life cycle of salmon is one of natures’ miracles.
They are born in shallow fresh water, often in small river tributaries, and eventually make their way to the ocean where they grow large on rich marine nutrients. After two to five years, they return upriver to their exact birthplace to spawn and begin the cycle again.
Because salmon bring nutrients from the ocean to ecosystems far inland, they are a keystone
species, supporting everything from insects to giant redwood trees.
The introduction of dams on the Klamath, blocked salmon from reaching much of their ancestral spawning grounds.
Barry McCovey Jr., Yurok Tribe Fisheries Director:
You have this huge disconnect now in a system that was connected for millions and millions of years from the beginning of time as far as we would see it as tribal people, and when you do something like that bad things happen.
MATT DIBBLE:
Though salmon had been steadily declining in the river for decades, a devastating event in 2002 spurred the Klamath tribes to take action.
Georgiana Gensaw, Yurok Tribe:
We just never could have imagined in our worst nightmare what was to come.
MATT DIBBLE:
Tens of thousands of adult salmon died, along with other species, in the worst-ever fish die-off in the western United States.
Beginning 300 kilometers upriver, a series of four dams were affecting the level and quality of the water in the lower Klamath.
The dams were owned by PacifiCorp, a private company, which used them to generate electricity for the regional grid.
A U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service study determined that low water levels and warm water temperatures created conditions that accelerated the spread of a deadly parasite.
Georgiana Gensaw, Yurok Tribe:
To find out what the real culprit was and what caused it and what could cause it again, you know, then you had a lot of really mad and outraged Indians.
Unidentified protestors:
Un-dam the Klamath!
MATT DIBBLE:
Fearing that the future of their food source and way of life was threatened, the Yurok people joined with Karuk and Hoopa Valley tribal members to call for removal of the dams.
At meetings of dam owners and decision-makers over the past 20 years, the tribes have carried on a tenacious lobbying campaign.
Frankie Myers, Yurok Tribe Vice Chairman:
Went to Scotland several times. England, Omaha, Nebraska several times. Sacramento, California; Portland, Oregon; Utah; Colorado. We went everywhere that there was someone who had control of our lives.
MATT DIBBLE:
The Klamath area is officially a ‘food desert,’ meaning that it lacks access to fresh, healthy food. There is a gas station convenience store, but the closest supermarket is 80 kilometers away. The river once provided what the tribes needed.
Georgiana Gensaw, Yurok Tribe:
When those things, traditional foods, became harder to get, it's not a mystery of why diabetes rates are killing Native Americans at an unbelievably fast rate.
Brook Thompson, Yurok Tribe Restoration Engineer:
When I was a kid fishing was my entire summer, I would be right here on this land camping all summer long.
MATT DIBBLE:
At age 7, Brook Thompson witnessed the 2002 fish kill.
Brook Thompson, Yurok Tribe Restoration Engineer:
I specifically went into engineering because of the tragedy I saw here on the Klamath River. And that really gave me a passion to figure out what was going wrong.
And so having a lack of temperature tolerance is one of the things that has led to some of the fish kills.
MATT DIBBLE:
In a first for her family, Thompson earned a master’s degree at Stanford University, and is currently a Ph.D. student at the University of California, Santa Cruz, studying environmental engineering and political science.
Brook Thompson, Yurok Tribe Restoration Engineer:
At Stanford, I specifically had classes on dams and got to learn why we use them, and the pros and cons of dams. For me that was really big in having me be able to have a voice with legislators.
There's hope because there can't be anything else but hope, I don't want to see what this river is like without salmon.
MATT DIBBLE:
In the years since the Klamath dams were built, environmental regulations have evolved. A turning point came when the dams came up for re-licensing.
To continue operating, Federal law required the addition of fish ladders and other environmental improvements to the dams. PacifiCorp projected the upgrades would cost over $400 million.
Bob Gravely, PacifiCorp Regional Business Manager:
These dams don't produce very much power. They don't really serve other purposes other than producing electricity for our customers. So it was clear that it was the choice was going to be to either relicense the dams with significant modifications to the dams to comply with all the modern fish passage requirements and standards or pursue another option.
MATT DIBBLE:
The opposition from tribes and conservationists, combined with the cost of upgrades ultimately pushed the company to look for a way to divest from the dams completely.
In 2020, after a decade of negotiations, an agreement was drafted in which PacifiCorp, along with the states of California and Oregon, would pay for the removal of the dams and restoration of the river.
Gavin Newsom, Governor of California:
We're finally one step closer at this remarkable moment so close to the finish line, but sober in the recognition we still have to go through FERC. We still have to go through our own Public Utilities Commission here in the state of California. We still have so much work to do.
MATT DIBBLE:
The deal, which would be the largest dam removal ever attempted in the US, would first need approval by FERC, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
Not everyone in the Klamath basin was in favor of the plan.
About 320 kilometers from the town of Klamath sits Copco Lake, an oasis nestled among the parched hills of high desert country.
Ray Austin, Copco Lake Resident:
I couldn't ask for a better place in the world to retire than here. It gives us mental, moral, physical, psychological support.
MATT DIBBLE:
The lake is actually a reservoir, created in 1922 when the Klamath was dammed to build Copco Dam Number 1.
Today around 100 homes dot the perimeter, with residents attracted by rural life and a chance to live on the water.
Chrissie Reynolds, Copco Lake Resident:
My family bought some of the first properties up here back in the early 60s. The big thing for us was to be able to take the aluminum boat out and come down to the store and get an ice cream and fish out here and catch perch all day.
MATT DIBBLE:
That idyllic picture will be disrupted by the plan to draw down the reservoir as part of removing the four Klamath River Dams.
Removal of the dams will release an estimated 45 billion gallons of water, leaving dry land and a free-flowing Klamath to restore a healthy habitat for salmon and other species.
But not everyone believes that is a good idea. In a 2010 nonbinding referendum in Siskiyou County, where three of the dams are located, 80 percent of people voted against their removal. And anger over the issue persists.
Richard Marshall, Siskiyou County Water Users Association:
Here we are, situation of drought, and forecasted more drought ahead of us, and yet we’re eliminating water sources, doesn’t make any sense.
MATT DIBBLE:
Richard Marshall leads the nonprofit group that put the measure on the ballot.
He argues that other causes like overfishing in the ocean and at the mouth of the Klamath may be causing the decline of salmon and he holds the controversial view that natural barriers once kept salmon from ever traveling this far up the Klamath.
Richard Marshall, Siskiyou County Water Users Association:
We're a small group of people trying to overcome massive amounts of money that are being spent in order to remove the dams.
MATT DIBBLE:
The unhealthy conditions on the lake are easy to spot. Each summer as the water heats up, toxic algae blooms. These conditions are among the factors biologists say are killing fish in the river. Health officials warn that the water is dangerous for humans too.
Still, opposition to the dams' removal is strong here at the lake, where residents fear what they may lose.
Barbara Austin, Copco Lake Resident:
It's a special place that you can't replace. We came here for the pursuit of happiness, and now we're being robbed of that.
MATT DIBBLE:
Volunteer fire chief Frances Gill says the lake has stopped the progress of wildfires.
Frances Gill, Copco Lake Fire Chief:
We've had several wildfires up here since I've lived here, one that burned all the way down to the edge of the lake.
MATT DIBBLE:
Lake water has also been used for aerial firefighting.
Gill recently purchased the community’s only store with his partner and says that whether lake or river, Copco is still where he wants to be.
Frances Gill, Copco Lake Fire Chief:
I can see that if the lake is gone, you know, it might take 20 or 30 years for this place to kind of fill in and grow in and become beautiful.
MATT DIBBLE:
For a glimpse at what the future may hold for Copco Lake and the greater Klamath region, I travelled to Washington State’s Olympic Peninsula, the site of the last largest dam removal in the US.
In early 20th century Port Angeles, Washington, the timber industry needed power and the nearby Elwha River was dammed in two places to generate electricity. But the dams blocked the passage of fish and salmon virtually disappeared here.
After nearly a century, and bolstered by changing environmental regulations, the local tribe and conservationists won a long battle to remove the dams and by 2014 the river was able to flow freely again.
The Elwha and its former reservoirs became a unique laboratory in which to study river behavior and the regeneration of species.
One big question: would salmon, known for returning to their birthplace, venture into the newly available, but unfamiliar, river habitat?
Jeff Duda, USGS Research Ecologist:
In the case of Chinook salmon, it was literally within days of the final blast, the first fish were observed upstream within a matter of days.
MATT DIBBLE:
For the intrepid fish, what they found was not always ideal habitat. A century of dams and logging had degraded river conditions.
Mike McHenry manages fish habitat for the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe. He and his team are adding logs to tributaries to improve conditions for fish.
Mike McHenry, Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe Habitat Director:
These structures have been really effective at slowing the river down. When you do that, you start to form habitat features that salmon need, like pools for rearing. Sure enough, the fish are utilizing the gravels to make their nests.
MATT DIBBLE:
Though all Pacific salmon species have made it above the former dam sites, the tribe is keeping its fishing moratorium in place for now.
Mike McHenry, Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe Habitat Director:
We're early in the rebuilding still for a lot of species. So, we've got metrics that we need to surpass before we start to fish.
MATT DIBBLE:
Another concern before dam removal was the estimated 21 million cubic meters of sediment that had built up in the reservoirs over a century.
Though reservoir water was released gradually, the finer silt clouded the river and caused some loss of fish in the first years.
But over time the river transported most of the sediment to its mouth, creating 120 acres of new estuary habitat.
Jeff Duda, USGS Research Ecologist:
All that landform that you see in front of us here used to be sediment contained in the reservoirs. What it has done is revitalize this coastal area in quite an amazing way and created a lot of new habitat and a lot of biological activity. You see all the gulls, the shorebirds, there are seals that come in here.
MATT DIBBLE:
And where the reservoirs once were, restoration teams have started young forests growing.
Mike McHenry, Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe Habitat Director:
Over four hundred thousand native woody trees were planted and thousands of pounds of native grass seeds, and we also got natural revegetation.
MATT DIBBLE:
Wildlife is returning also.
Kim Sager-Fradkin, Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe Wildlife Program Manager:
Pretty much the entire suite of wildlife around here, we are documenting using the former lake beds.
MATT DIBBLE:
Kim Sager-Fradkin, the tribe’s wildlife manager, is studying how the ecosystem–from tiny birds to massive trees–is healthier now because of salmon.
Kim Sager-Fradkin, Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe Wildlife Program Manager:
When salmon pick up the carbon and nitrogen that is from a marine source in their tissues and then these salmon swim back up their natal stream, all these animals will come in, eat salmon, distribute the nutrients into the forest either by directly carrying them into the forest or going and defecating in the forest.
There's a really nice interaction between wildlife and salmon that is beneficial to the surrounding forest and beneficial to the wildlife itself.
MATT DIBBLE:
Eight years into recovery, there are many positive signs of nature’s ability to renew itself.
Kate Brown, Governor of Oregon:
Today we are making possible the most significant dam removal and river restoration project in our nation’s history. These dams are coming down, and it’s about damn time.
MATT DIBBLE:
In early December of 2022, Oregon governor Kate Brown joined with California’s governor and the US Secretary of the Interior to celebrate the agreement to remove the four dams on the Klamath River.
The federal government has approved the plan to transfer ownership of the dams to a nonprofit group that will oversee their destruction.
There is at least a year’s work just to prepare the dams for removal, says nonprofit leader Mark Bransom.
Mark Bransom, Klamath River Renewal Corporation:
We have to do modifications to the dams to facilitate the evacuation of the water and the sediment that has accumulated behind the dams over the last 50 to 100 years.
MATT DIBBLE:
The release of millions of tons of sediment is one of the most challenging aspects of the project. As with the removal of the two dams on the Elwha River, most of that sediment is expected to be carried out to sea. Timing the releases will be critical, so as not to harm fish.
Mark Bransom, Klamath River Renewal Corporation:
So, we really want to perform that work when there are fewer species present in the main stem and there is plenty of tributary access.
Barry McCovey Jr., Yurok Tribe Fisheries Director:
By removing dams, we're going to open up close to 400 miles of spawning habitat
that fish previously used for millions of years.
MATT DIBBLE:
But that habitat has been degraded by over a century of logging and mining.
Brook Thompson, Yurok Tribe Restoration Engineer:
A lot of the tailings or the excess rock material from the mountains came into the rivers and filled in the stream beds and made it so streams that were running all year long are now only running seasonally.
MATT DIBBLE:
As a restoration engineer for the Yurok Tribe, Brook Thompson is helping to recreate the habitat that salmon need.
Brook Thompson, Yurok Tribe Restoration Engineer:
Re-forming the streams and working to prepare that salmon have good spawning grounds by doing restoration work, by adding logs back into the streams, by adding large rocks and turbulence so they have a place that will help their young survive.
Brook Thompson, Yurok Tribe Restoration Engineer:
We’re all focused on finding solutions to bringing our salmon back home and creating a healthy life for them. Because creating a healthy life for salmon means creating a healthy life for us as people.
MATT DIBBLE:
And in preparation for re-planting the nearly 900 hectares of land that will be uncovered when reservoirs are drawn down, tribal members are collecting native seed species and growing them in nurseries.
Onna Joseph, Yurok Tribe Native Seed Crew:
I’ve been doing this for four years now. We do a lot of hiking on the trails and a lot of hiking off the trails. We have over 97 different varieties, different species. We all grew up gathering berries, and a lot of us have families that make baskets. So, it just kind of comes natural to us.
MATT DIBBLE:
The goal is to collect and plant over 27,000 kilograms of seeds. Those involved expect the restoration of the Klamath watershed to take decades.
Barry McCovey Jr., Yurok Tribe Fisheries Director:
Hopefully we see large runs of salmon start to return over the years.
But everything else is going to benefit, everything that's ever associated with the river.
With climate change descending upon us and then all the things that are happening in the world, we need some positive momentum and we need to show people that these huge massive projects can be completed that are moving the dial in the right direction.
The impacts of this project are far-reaching.
MATT DIBBLE:
Preliminary work is already under way and the dams are expected to be removed by the end of next year.
Matt Dibble for VOA News, Klamath, California.
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