Klamath River Returned to Historic Path, Locals Say Dam Removal Impacting Fish

This image provided by Matthew John Mais shows crews working at the Iron Gate cofferdam site along the Klamath River in Siskiyou County, Calif., on Aug. 28, 2024. Matthew John Mais via AP

For the first time in more than a century, after decades of controversy surrounding the largest dam removal project in U.S. history, salmon are swimming freely through the Klamath River in California.

Environmental nonprofit groups and Native American tribes have long blamed the four obsolete hydroelectric dams for damaging the river’s ecology and blocking upstream spawning habitat, causing a decline in salmon populations.

On Aug. 28, the river flow was restored as two cofferdams were broken, hailed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom for opening up a new 400-mile stretch of river for native fish habitats.

But some residents near the dam removal sites in Siskiyou County say the dam removal itself is harming the river and the fish, as massive volumes of sediment are stirred up and sent downstream.

The Klamath River Renewal Corp. (KRRC), whose board majority was appointed by the California and Oregon governors, is responsible for the demolition of four hydroelectric dams.

The breaching of two cofferdams at the Iron Gate and Copco No. 1 sites means native fish species such as steelhead, coho and Chinook salmon now have access to more than 400 miles of newly opened spawning and rearing habitat, according to Newsom.

 “This moment is decades in the making—and reflects California’s commitment to righting the wrongs of the past. Today, fish are swimming freely in the Klamath for the first time in more than a century, thanks to the incredible work of our tribal, local and federal partners,” he said.

The Klamath River was once the third-largest salmon-producing river on the West Coast before the construction of the dams in the early 1900s, which blocked migratory salmon and steelhead from reaching “critical” habitat upstream, Newsom said.

The dam removal project, which began in September 2023, will provide consistent sources of cool water in warm months, he said.

The 263-mile Klamath River drains a basin spanning about 12,000 square miles and traverses the California–Oregon border from its headwaters in Oregon through the Cascade Mountains to the Pacific Ocean south of Crescent City, California.

Since 1912, more than 2,100 dams have been removed in the United States, including more than 180 in California, according to American Rivers, an environmental group that tracks dam removal trends and maintains a national dam removal database.

Last year was a “major milestone year for dam removal in the U.S,” affecting 79 other dams aside from those on the Klamath River, according to American Rivers.

“I am excited to move into the restoration phase of the Klamath River,” Karuk Tribe Chairman Russell ‘Buster’ Attebery said in a statement posted on Facebook. “Restoring hundreds of miles of spawning grounds and improving water quality will help support the return of our salmon, a healthy, sustainable food source for several Tribal Nations.” 

Yurok Tribe Vice Chairman Frankie Myers said in a statement, “Another wall fell today. The dams that have divided the basin are now gone and the river is free. Our sacred duty to our children, our ancestors, and for ourselves, is to take care of the river, and today’s events represent a fulfillment of that obligation.”

“While there is still work to be done, today we are celebrating,” said Mark Bransom, CEO of the KRC, the nonprofit entity tasked with the removal of the dams. “Watching the Klamath River return to its historic path in the reservoirs and now through the dam sites has been incredible, and I feel honored to take this project over the finish line for our Tribal partners, and river communities.”

While proponents of the dam removals are celebrating victory after their decades-long battle to restore the free-flowing river, some residents and property owners near the former manmade Iron Gate and Copco lakes say the demolition of the dams is crippling tourism and recreation activities such as camping, water skiing, sport fishing, and boating, hurting wildlife, increasing wildfire risks and raising concerns about flood control and irrigation for ranching and farming.

The free-flowing Klamath River meanders through the footprint of the Copco Lake reservoir on May 9, 2024. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

County Shut Out

The Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors received an email from Bransom on April 4, essentially stating that the corporation was curtailing communications with the county, according to Supervisor Ray Haupt.

“They actually sent an email to us back in June and said they were done with us. They weren’t going to communicate with us anymore,” Haupt told The Epoch Times.

The county responded by sending its own letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which referred to Bransom’s email and included it as an attachment.

Bransom wrote in the email that the KRRC would no longer attend the county’s biweekly public information meetings, claiming that they resulted in the spread of misinformation about the project.

“It does not behoove any of us to dedicate time to these meetings on a regular basis, when the outcome is the perpetuation of inaccurate information about the project,” Bransom wrote.

Haupt said the KRRC has been “putting out constant propaganda” about the success of the dam removal project “to beat back any scrutiny” despite widespread concerns from the county and local residents about the project’s impacts, including the condition of the river and its negative effects on fish and other wildlife.

“It’s just this constant mantra about how great it is. Their overarching strategy was to do this here in a big way, so American Rivers can take down dams across the country,” he said.

Politically, there is a lot at stake for the governor and KRRC, he said.

“They can’t politically afford for this thing to be a failure or even scrutinized. There is much more afoot here than just the Klamath,” Haupt said.

These celebrations are “made-for-TV photo ops” to promote more dam removal projects across the nation, including the Columbia and Snake Rivers in Washington state and Oregon, he said.

Neither KRRC spokeswoman Ren Brownell nor Bransom responded to a request for comment by the time of publishing.

Eastern Washington Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers, in September 2023, called out the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) for its “months-long mediation process over the future of the Columbia-Snake River System” which, she said “was supposed to be open and transparent, has instead consisted of an undisclosed number of backdoor meetings between a select group of organizations and individuals who believe breaching the four Lower Snake River dams is the only way to recover endangered salmon populations.”

Rodgers made the comments at a Sept. 20, 2023, House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on unleashing American hydropower.

William Simpson at his ranch near the former Iron Gate Dam on May 9, 2024. Simpson says  "horrible" thick clay was released downstream of the former Iron Gate Dam on Aug. 28, 2024. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

Residents Concerned

Richard Marshall, president of the Siskiyou Water Users Association which opposed the project told The Epoch Times that massive volumes of sediment that have flowed downstream since the dam removals began have killed not only native and non-native fish species but other wildlife.

“They killed some of the very hard-to-kill things like the crustaceans that were along the river—the little freshwater crawdads, which are pretty hardy,” Marshall said. “And let’s not forget the deer that got caught in the mud and died and other animals up and down the river.”

The association also has photographs of an eagle that “got caught up in the mud trying to catch a fish that was flopping around,” he said.

The KRRC’s decision to curtail dialogue with county officials who represent residents impacted by the dam removals is alarming, Marshall said.

The governor’s “drumbeat about what a success this is,” is premature—ahead of the “the real story” which will be told when winter rains “wash down the sides of those muddy canyon walls,” Marshall said.

William Simpson, a ranch owner near the former Iron Gate Dam, filmed the conditions of the river on Aug. 28, after an excavator shovel dug into the clay core of the dam at what he called a “dam-breaking ceremony” held in a parking lot downstream along the river.

“They took out a scoop and made a big press release out of that,” he said.  “They had a big salmon feed.”

And, when everybody left the celebration, “they really breached it,” releasing “this horrible material” and thick clay downstream,” he said. “The viscosity was like motor oil—very clumpy and nasty … and the stench was horrendous.”

The Klamath River downstream from the Iron Gate Dam site on Aug. 28 after the cofferdams were breached. Courtesy of William E. Simpson II

Simpson, who filmed and photographed the river’s condition the day the cofferdams were breached, said that some of the clay particles were so small that they formed a film on the water’s surface.

“You can see these big blotches. It looks like an oil spill with black clay,” he said.

“We already killed the river back in January, all the way to the beach. All the aquatic life was dead right down to the mollusks and the snails. The invertebrates, the native fish to trout, the salmon, the suckers, the sturgeon—everything got dead. The crabs in the ocean in front of the Klamath River were dead,” he said. “And now, they just let down the worst of the worst.”

Simpson said there is now a scarcity of otters, beavers, and migratory birds.

“The cormorants, California pelicans, geese—nothing showed up this year,” he said. “We don’t have eagles anymore. We don’t have osprey.”

“There’s nothing for them to eat. They all left.

“It couldn’t be worse. The animals can’t even drink this water. My horses can’t drink it. The cows can’t drink it. The deer can’t drink it.”

The fish the governor is talking about are returning salmon, according to Simpson.

“Those baby fish went down the river to the ocean, got big, and came back. So these are fish from four years ago when the river was horrible, according to them,” he said. “They’re celebrating a return of salmon from when the dams were here.”