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Curmudgeon as Environmental Leftist
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Date Posted: 08:13:50 05/03/07 Thu
In reply to:
De
's message, "Darwin---adapt or die..." on 04:46:22 05/03/07 Thu
>Tribes, Fishermen Sue PacifiCorp over Klamath Dams
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>Tribes, Fishermen Sue PacifiCorp over Klamath Dams
>May 03, 2007 — By Reuters
>
>LOS ANGELES -- Environmentalists, commercial fishermen
>and Native American tribes sued Berkshire Hathaway
>Inc. subsidiary PacifiCorp in San Francisco Wednesday,
>claiming that two of its dams on the Klamath River are
>killing salmon and causing human health hazards.
>
>The lawsuit, led by environmentalist Robert F. Kennedy
>Jr. and the Yurok and Karuk tribes, asks a federal
>court to force PacifiCorp to clean up toxic algae
>blooms in the reservoirs behind the Iron Gate and
>Copco dams in Northern California.
>
>Other plaintiffs include river recreation business
>owners and the Klamath Riverkeeper group.
>
>The annual algae blooms occur because PacifiCorp
>improperly controls the intake and release of water,
>allowing it to stagnate as temperatures in the
>reservoirs rise "well above natural levels," the
>lawsuit said.
>
>The algae generates a deadly liver toxin that
>threatens the fishery and the health of tribal
>medicine men who bathe in the river during rituals,
>said co-counsel Joseph Cotchett of Cotchett Pitre &
>McCarthy.
>
>The dams "are having a devastating impact on the
>economies and cultures of Native Americans and others
>who depend on the Klamath River," Kennedy, an attorney
>for the Natural Resources Defense Council and
>president of the Waterkeeper Alliance, said in a
>statement.
>
>PacifiCorp, owned by a subsidiary of Berkshire
>Hathaway, is pursuing renewals of its licenses to
>operate the dams with the Federal Energy Regulatory
>Commission.
>
>PacifiCorp has been working with 26 interested parties
>to find a solution to issues related to the
>relicensing for at least a couple of years, a company
>spokeswoman said, but added that the company had no
>immediate comment on the lawsuit.
>
>The U.S. Department of the Interior last year
>recommended removing the dams or building "ladders"
>for the spawning fish if PacifiCorp wants to keep
>them.
>
>The Klamath River salmon population, once one of the
>West Coast's most robust, has declined over the past
>two decades as the dams and declining water levels
>from farm irrigation blocked their spawning routes.
>Growers have objected to attempts by environmentalists
>to limit the amount of water they can divert from the
>river for their crops during dry years.
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