Native News Network

Columbia Forest Products' plywood plant has been illegally polluting the Klamath for decades. A strong 'TMDL' pollution clean-up plan will stop these guys in their tracks,and it needs your support. Photo by KRK and Lighthawk

Dear Supporter,

Wow! The Klamath is lucky to have supporters like you, people who care enough to take action week after week, to speak up on the issues that matter most to the Klamath. Our hats are off to you, the real grassroots, because you are what's turning the tide for this river.

This week we have yet another vital issue that could use a strong grassroots push. Oregon has just released its first ever pollution clean up plan for the Klamath River. Just like we did for California's share of this Clean Water Act process, we need to support Oregon in setting, implementing and enforcing the strongest possible "TMDL" pollution limits for the Klamath and Lost Rivers.

Send a letter to Oregon's DEQ supporting the strongest possible Klamath TMDL, and please, tell your friends.

Sincerely,
Malena Marvin
Outreach & Science Director

Rough Water: Klamath in Earth Island Journal

When the agreement was announced, Becky Hyde said, "I think part of what this does is to set up governance for this whole river basin that's never been here, kind of what John Wesley Powell wanted to do a long time ago - set up a governance structure based on watersheds rather than other boundaries. "The more profound thing is the relationships across the basin among parties who traditionally have not had the opportunity to get together. It's the start of a new way of being in a place, and I think ultimately for fish and for communities, it's just the right thing to do. I hope twenty or thirty years from now there will be young people in this basin who have really no idea what happened here - they just live in a place that's so much healthier. They don't live in a fight; they live in communities that are getting along and taking care of the place."

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Siskiyou Daily covers Shasta extinction

A new CDFG report warns that if poor habitat conditions for threatened coho on the Shasta River are not improved quickly, Shasta coho may face extinction. (Coho are currently the only salmon species in the Klamath Watershed protected under the Endangered Species Act.) The report released last month on juvenile coho considers two out of the Shasta's three year-classes of coho to be "functionally extinct," meaning coho will now only migrate to the Shasta to spawn one out of every three years. The last remaining year-class, expected to return to the Shasta for spawning next fall, is also on a trajectory toward extinction.Siskiyou Daily News 3/1/10

Take action! Ask agencies to save coho salmon on the Shasta River

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New pollution rules for Upper Klamath

The issue: Water quality in the Klamath River is out of compliance with the federal Clean Water Act, officials said. To meet federal regulatory guidelines for water quality, the DEQ evaluates the pollutants, determines maximum levels allowable under the Clean Water Act, and then divides those allocations between pollutant sources. These allocations are known at total maximum daily loads.

Take action! Support strong pollution rules for the Klamath in Oregon - and tell your friends.

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Klamath faces 'historic' drought this summer

Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden begged the federal government Tuesday for ``immediate and coordinated'' assistance to help Klamath Basin farmers and the environment cope with a drought of ``historic magnitude.''The plea came in a joint letter to three cabinet secretaries whose agencies have direct involvement in the devastated region - Gary Locke at the Commerce Department, Tom Vilsack at  the Agriculture Department and the Interior Department's Ken Salazar.'`Put simply, the Klamath Lake that supplies water to the farmers and the river is at its lowest level since measurements began in the 1970s,'' the letter said. `` Its current level is significantly below where it was in 1992 - the worst drought year ever in the Klamath Basin.

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Rulings restrict Clean Water Act

Thousands of the nation's largest water polluters are outside the Clean Water Act's reach because the Supreme Court has left uncertain which waterways are protected by that law, according to interviews with regulators. As a result, some businesses are declaring that the law no longer applies to them. And pollution rates are rising.

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Salmon season to undergo scrutiny