Klamath Basin Tribal Water Quality Work Group
Dam Relicensing |  Tribal Water Quality Plans  |  TMDL|  Fish Health  |  How to Comment |  Links  |  Home 

Welcome to the Klamath Basin Tribal Water Quality Work Group (Work Group) website, which is aimed at informing the public about water quality problems in the Klamath River and how to solve them. The Work Group, made up of leaders of five Tribal water quality or environmental departments, collaborates on larger basin-scale water quality issues such as Klamath Hydroelectric Project Relicensing and Clean Water Act enforcement (TMDL). The public is encouraged to comment on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (FERC) Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on KHP relicensing by December 1 , 2006.

The Work Group was formed in 2003 and created its website the next year. Since that time the Tribes have tackled several complex scientific investigations concerning the Klamath River impaired water quality. This website captures what has been learned. Areas of discovery include the role of Klamath Hydroelectric Project (KHP) reservoirs in Klamath River water pollution, how nutrient cycling (or spiraling) in various river reaches affects water quality, and the toxic blue-green algae species Microcystis aeruginosa (see New Documents).
   
About the Work Group Click on images to enlarge them.

The Work Group is comprised of the heads of environmental departments of the Yurok, Hoopa Valley, and Karuk Tribes, the Quartz Valley Indian Community, and the Resighini Rancheria. The group was formed in 2003, following a massive adult salmon kill in September 2002. The Work Group's stated purpose is "to prevent future disasters through sound scientific research, data analysis, and thorough planning." While the Work Group collaborates on research and shares information, it takes no collective positions, but defers to individual Tribes to offer policy statements. Each Tribe exercises authority over Reservation waters (see Tribal WQ Authority). Some Tribes also acquire designated authority as co-managers of water quality from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

 

fish_refugia_juvies.jpg (57535 bytes)

 

 

 

Hundreds of juvenile salmon crowd into the mouth of Bluff Creek during lethal Klamath River conditions in July 2000. Photo by Yurok Fisheries Dept. Weitchpec, CA. [57 Kb]
   
About Klamath Basin Tribes  
The indigenous people of the Klamath River Basin have lived in harmony with the river and the adjoining lands for thousands of years. They Klamath River Tribes owed their prosperity, in large part, to the river's abundant runs of salmon and other fish species.

The Tribes in California below the KHP maintain active fisheries today which are often a mainstay of Tribal subsistence and also an important economic factor. Good fishing years or bad, the Tribes all depend upon a healthy river to support a broad range of cultural and ceremonial activities, many of which are not yet recognized or protected by State and federal environmental protection policies.

Klamath Basin Tribal Water Quality Work Group member Tribes are listed below with links to websites, if available:

 
Hoopa Valley Tribe Karuk Tribe
Yurok Tribe Resighini Rancheria
Quartz Valley Indian Community

The Klamath Tribes of Oregon are not Work Group members but cooperate with Lower Klamath Basin tribes on many water quality related issues.

indian_fisherman.jpg (58679 bytes)

Yurok fisherman on Lower Klamath River checking a gill net. [58 Kb]
Klamath River Dam Relicensing

The preliminary findings of Work Group and Tribal water quality specialists are that the nutrients produced in the chain of KHP reservoirs create deadly conditions for salmon and steelhead in portions of the

Klamath River - more than 100 miles downstream of the dams. Algae blooms, triggered by nutrients pouring out of Iron Gate Reservoir, create highly stressful or even lethal conditions for salmon. The member Tribes of the Work Group believe that KHP dams should be removed they are poisoning the river and blocking fish passage.

The FERC released its Draft Environmental Impact Statement (9/26/06) regarding PacifiCorp's request for a new 50-year federal license. FERC invites public comment until December 1, 2006.

 

 

ig_reservoir_bloom.jpg (140717 bytes)
Iron Gate Reservoir algae bloom in late summer of 1994. [138 Kb

 
Cleaning Up Water Pollution  
The federal Clean Water Act contains clear provisions requiring the identification, listing, and cleanup of the nation's polluted water bodies. Although dozens of northwestern California rivers, including the Klamath River and its tributaries, have been listed as impaired for more than a decade, little action has been taken to improve their water quality. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the California State Water Resources Control Board were ordered to take action by a Ninth Circuit Court judge after a lawsuit brought by fishing and conservation groups.

A program of water quality improvement has begun on northern California rivers, under the Clean Water Act mandate, through the development of technical assessments and the allocation of cleanup responsibility among identified pollution-contributing land and water users. Known as the Total Maximum Daily Load, or "TMDL" process, this program is underway in the Klamath River basin, including the Trinity, Shasta, Scott, Salmon, and Lost rivers, and the mainstem Klamath River.

 

Web site last updated on 11/16/06


Irrigation canal in the Lost River Basin within the Klamath Irrigation Project. Pollution from the Lost River can enter the Klamath River through the Straits Drain, which is covered in the Lower Lost River TMDL. [203 Kb]