Workers breach key Klamath dams, allowing salmon to swim freely for the first time in a century (2024)

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Workers breach key Klamath dams, allowing salmon to swim freely for the first time in a century? ›

KLAMATH, Calif. — Workers breached the final dams on a key section of the Klamath River on Wednesday, clearing the way for salmon to swim freely through a major watershed near the California-Oregon border for the first time in more than a century as the largest dam removal project in U.S. history nears completion.

Water rights have long been an issue in the Klamath Basin. Agricultural interests need water for irrigation, while tribal and commercial fishing interests need water levels in the river to remain high enough to support healthy fish populations and provide spawning ground for fish such as salmon.

Klamath dam removal is happening right now! The smallest of the four dams, Copco #2, was removed during the summer of 2023, and reservoir drawdown behind the remaining three dams concluded in February 2024. By the end of 2024, all four dams will be removed, and restoration work will continue well beyond 2024.

The river has been home to indigenous people for thousands of years and tribes including the Yurok, Karuk, Hoopa, Shasta, and Klamath rely on, and care for, the river today. Klamath River salmon runs were once the third-largest in the nation, but have fallen to just eight percent of their historic numbers.

The mouth of the Klamath River is at Requa, in an area shared by the Yurok Reservation and Redwood National Park.

But when hydropower dams were built on the Klamath, which wends from southern Oregon into far northwest California, the river's ecosystem was upended and salmon were cut off from 420 miles of cooler tributaries and streams where they had once laid their eggs.

The construction of PacifiCorp's hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River contributed in part to the decline in salmon and steelhead abundance, fishing opportunity, and water quality throughout the Klamath Basin.

The dams total over 350 vertical feet and have prevented fish passage along the Klamath for the past century. Their associated reservoirs once covered an area of approximately 1,300 acres, which, after removal, will be revegetated and restored to provide critical riparian habitat for wildlife in the Klamath basin.

Oregon State Senator Dennis Linthicum (R)—who says he holds water rights and is a ranch-land owner—and another plaintiff—a resident of Siskiyou County, Calif. —sued the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Oregon, and California to stop the removal of four hydroelectric dams on the river in both states.

The Colorado River is the most dammed river in the United States. In fact, it no longer flows into the sea anymore - it simply peters out in a desert plain in Northern Mexico, except in very wet years, when it does reach the Gulf of California.

What is the Klamath Crater Lake myth? ›

Klamath Indians Legend

The Klamath Indians describe the catastropic eruption of Mount Mazama and the creation of Crater Lake in one of their legends. Their legend of a raging war between two great volcanoes, Mount Mazama and Mount Shasta, parallels the geological history of Crater Lake.

The Klamath River supports a genetically unique population of rainbow trout able to survive the naturally high temperatures and acidity of the river. The Klamath one of only three rivers in the region and six in the state managed as a wild rainbow trout fishery, significant in a state known for its fishing.

But as Doremus and Tarlock correctly point out, the Klamath conflict also pitted the interests of farmers and ranchers against those of commercial fishermen on the coast more than 200 miles away. It was about the conflicting cultural values of whites and Native Americans.

In 2002, a bacterial outbreak caused by low water and warm temperatures killed more than 34,000 fish, mostly Chinook salmon. That jumpstarted decades of advocacy from tribes and environmental groups, culminating in 2022 when federal regulators approved a plan to remove the dams.

Water tests in the mainstream Klamath River indicate temporary increases in heavy metal that accumulated behind the four dams that were removed “have now been resolved,” and that the water is safe for recreation, agricultural uses and some public drinking.

Muddier in the short-term, healthier in the long-term

Sediment has built up behind these dams since they were built, starting in the beginning of the 20^th century. The Klamath dams impounded millions of tons of sediment over nearly 100 years.

For decades, the Klamath, Yurok and Karuk tribes have been fighting to maintain sufficient water for fish in the basin — sometimes different fish with competing needs. At the same time, farmers in the region's upper reaches have wanted more water to grow potatoes, alfalfa, wheat and onions.

Rivers erode more sediment than they used to, sending excessive amounts of phosphorus directly into Upper Klamath Lake and fueling the domination of toxic cyanobacteria in the water. Thanks to this external loading, researchers now consider Upper Klamath Lake “hypereutrophic.”

The Klamath Dams block 420 miles of habitat and create terrible water quality problems, such as toxic algae and high temperatures. They also prevent high flows needed to flush out algae that spread the fish disease--namely C. shasta, which kills the majority of juvenile salmon during low water years.

The Klamath River is making the most of recent precipitation to rapidly reshape itself by removing decades worth of sediment accumulated behind dams now slated for removal. With the reservoirs behind the dams now empty, the river is transporting the sediment downstream while it is still wet and mobile.