Siskiyou

A Blast From The Past… an Open Letter to County Officials and Legislators dated 2014… 

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Proposed Klamath River Dams removal and the usurping of the American democratic system.. 

And where are we today (Sept. 2021)?
Here is where we are: 

https://www.earthtimesobserver.com/article/546897224-klamath-river-dams-krrc-s-proposed-dam-removal-project-minority-consensus-for-environmental-and-ecological-disaster

And where were we 7-years ago? 2014 to be exact…

As seen at Klamath Basin In Crisis: 

http://www.klamathbasincrisis.org/settlement/2014letters/whatswronginSiskiyouCo112014.htm

What’s wrong in Siskiyou County?

By Capt. William E. Simpson II 11/20/14 – [An Open Letter to the Siskiyou County Commissioners and Doug LaMalfa, U.S. House of Representatives for CA District 1]. 

It was about 7:00 a.m. when I went outside to watch the sun rise over the majestic snow-capped mountains to the east of our home above Iron Gate Lake. As I surveyed the picturesque tree-covered mountains and valleys that unfold around our little place in paradise, a small herd of deer grazed nearby as an array of colorful birds were drinking from a puddle of water formed by the overnight rains. The distant calls of water-fowl on the lake below that is formed by the Iron Gate dam resonated off the canyon walls. It was indeed another day in paradise. 

But there was a very dark cloud on the proverbial horizon; a handful of greedy special-interest groups, mostly from outside Siskiyou Country are seeking to remove several dams that are critical to the safety and welfare of the citizens of Siskiyou County, including the Iron Gate dam, which like the other dams in the County, forms a spectacularly beautiful and functional lake. 

As the sun rose in the east, its rays cast the hues of a sunset across the shimmering lake below, and I wondered if the days of this treasure were truly numbered. How could anyone for any reason want to dispose of such an amazing resource? The list of logical reasons for the removal of the dams in Siskiyou Country is non-existent. However, the logic and reason that supported the time and money spent for the design, construction and continual updating of these dams is undeniably pragmatic and critical to the ongoing safety and welfare of the citizens of Siskiyou County. And the reasons for the indefinite retention of these dams as well as the construction of additional dams are compelling and numerous. 

Siskiyou Country may very-well be a paradise on earth as are several of the neighboring Northern California counties. Nonetheless, these counties are barely scraping-by financially, which is almost inconceivable when you consider that these counties are very rich in natural resources, not to mention a skilled workforce that is suffering from 18-20% unemployment. But how is this possible? 

As with the case in point (removal of the dams in Siskiyou County) where we have powerful special-interest forces outside of our County trying to control the resources that are rightfully under the jurisdiction of the County, we have other special-interest groups who for profit and political motives, want to control all of the resources that are intrinsic to Siskiyou County. These resources should rightfully only be managed by the local government as directed by the citizens and taxpayers of the County. And the effects of ill-conceived agendas sponsored by these special interest groups are far reaching into the local economies of Siskiyou County and her neighboring counties. 

During our own property search within Northern California, it was apparent that there are many thousands of acres of prime residentially zoned lands on and around various lakes. This property, which amounts to many thousands of acres, is suitable for small ranches and homesteads, yet is sitting vacant even though they are listed and offered for sale. And through my inquiries, I learned that these many thousand acres of land have been sitting vacant for a long time, even though they are priced very cheaply. Naturally my curiosity was peaked; what was wrong? Was the land the problem? 

As I dug deeper into the lands in and around the lakes, I learned that the dams that formed the lakes near these hundreds of properties were under threat of being removed. And that few buyers (if any) wanted to buy a property that would front an emptied lake filled with silt and mud. Even the values of the hundreds of properties not fronting the lakes were being adversely affected by the potential loss of the recreational value of the lakes and water reserves of the lakes. 

Siskiyou County and her neighboring counties are all incredibly well endowed with natural resources that include among other things, minerals and timber. However, through the mismanagement and oversight of these resources by powerful entities from outside Siskiyou County, many of these resources are not correctly utilized, or are wasted in wholesale fashion, such as our forests and timber reserves, which through obtuse management concepts are now burning to the dirt faster than they can be re-grown, presenting a net-loss of forest and timber annually. Of course even a child knows that this is not sustainable for very long. 

With an overview of all of these existing maladies, a logical person could almost deduct that there is a concerted effort to marginalize the property values and livability within Siskiyou County to a point where some entity (or a composite of entities) could swoop-in and buy or control lands rich in resources for pennies on the dollar. After-all, if you connect all the dots, they seem to create and indicate such probability. 

From my chair, I think that Siskiyou County, as well as her neighboring counties are facing a crucial crossroads in their futures at this exact point in time. 

One of the fastest ways to stimulate a local economy is to stimulate land sales and draw more interested stake holders into the County. The incremental revenues from the subsequent land sales and development of lands being sold for residential development are significant with revenues that span across all business sectors in the County. 

I believe that by ending the threats of dam removal in the County, once and for all, Siskiyou County could see a revival in its economy. And growth from there is possible if the County can to some extent unbridle itself from the outside interests and agencies who are dictating the ridiculous management and use of the County’s and private-sector resources. 

We just lost nearly two-hundred thousand acres of timber to fires stemming from mismanagement of the forests and timber resources. These trees, which are now ashes that are mixed with silt and mud flowing into the spawning beds of salmon and steelhead, could have instead fueled the local economy with timber related industry and jobs! 

I have suggested one course of action in a prior commentary that involves the application of the process of ‘Eminent Domain’, whereby Siskiyou County would seek to gain ownership and control over all of the dams within its jurisdiction to the benefit of the public. The dams in Siskiyou County are crucial to the welfare and safety of the County’s citizens as well as serving the recreational needs and supporting property values, and as such, the benchmarks for undertaking such a process are certain met. 

The time for action is now! 
2018:   As seen in the Gem State Patriot: https://gemstatepatriot.com/blog/shut-down-oregon-dams/

Klamath River Dam Removals Challenge The Will Of The People And Congress

Can politicians from just two states and a greedy uncaring corporation execute a deal to undermine an Act of Congress and the will of the people by crafting a work-around? And if so, who will be next to execute a similar workaround designed to usurp the power of Congress and the will of the people?


Berkshire Hathaway Energy a Warren Buffet company ostensibly decided they could make more money by going into the gas-powered turbine energy generation business. But this would require decommissioning four perfectly good hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River to prevent lowering the price of energy by adding more energy to the existing market supply.

The four dams and the fresh water stores behind them were created in 1957 by the Klamath River Basin Compact, which was essentially a treaty between the states of California and Oregon that was ratified by an Act of Congress.

This Compact, which arguably is still the controlling authority, provided many much-needed benefits to the people of this important area of the Pacific Northwest. Water storage for both domestic and agricultural uses was of paramount import in the considerations of the Compact. But flood control and green low-cost electric power generation were not far behind. And these state of the art dams have been and continue to provide green hydroelectric power to nearly 80,000 households and businesses in Jackson County Oregon and Siskiyou County California.

However, since the dams and the lakes behind them came into existence, they have evolved to provide many unforeseen yet extremely important benefits to the area over the past 60 years.

Extremely rare and valuable among all ecosystems on the planet, the freshwater shoreline ecosystems formed by the four lakes behind the dams support a myriad of life forms that have carved out niches formed by the unique habitats in this rare environment. These shoreline ecosystems support numerous other interdependent ecosystems, all of which provide habitat for a vibrant array of birds (including migratory species), reptiles, amphibians, mammals and a host of aquatic life including species of fish that provide recreational fishing for hundreds of people. The lakes themselves host numerous recreational activities including boating, camping, and hunting, which in turn bring revenue into the local economy. All of this on a river that has a long pre-dam history of running warm and nearly dry during the late summer and fall months of most years, creating conditions unsuited to any fish on the upper reach of the Klamath basin east of the Interstate 5.  And in contrast to the pre-dam summers, during the pre-dam winter and spring runoff season, rushing waters and catastrophic floods caused death and destruction without the critical water control afforded by the thoughtful placement of the dams.

These dams also sequester the naturally occurring nitrogen (bird feces) and phosphorus that render the water in the Klamath Lakes unsuited to virtually all fish except the sucker fish, as well as the limited anthropogenic pollution stemming from intense agricultural enterprises at the upper end of the Klamath River basin in Oregon.  The algae that uniquely live in the lakes formed behind the dams are able to metabolize these pollutants that are otherwise harmful to most species of fish, generally rendering them harmless to the environment. The proof in this is empirical, and regardless of the current and past agricultural tempo there has never been a large-scale fish die-off in the lakes behind the dams or in the Klamath River.

Still, other concentrations of these same pollutants are sequestered into the layers of nearly impervious clay-mud deposits on the bottoms of the lakes where anaerobic organisms act upon them breaking them down further. These combined processes naturally and cost-effectively resolve an otherwise major and costly problem for the agricultural enterprises in Oregon. Thus mitigating a major portion of the anthropogenic agricultural pollution coming into California from Oregon. In the end, the lakes behind the dams create cleaner and cooler water, which exits the final dam in the string of dams on the Klamath River; the Iron Gate Dam.

Now a few wrong-headed people blinded by money, ego and even personal hobbies, want to destroy all of these wonderfully valuable assets of the people and the environment by removing the dams and in the process devastating the environment and depriving the people of the low-cost green energy they depend upon.

PacificCorp has made a deal with what is virtually no more than a shell-company with a fancy website called the Klamath River Renewal Corporation (KRRC) to transfer their ownership of their operations at the dams to KRRC and have them destroy the dams since PacificCorp was unable to accomplish the ugly task themselves. This even after charging rate-payers hundreds of millions of dollars over the past many years ostensibly to remove the dams.

A spokesman for the KRRC, a Mr. Dave Meurer even suggested the “possibility” of using dynamite to remove the dams, this in an environmentally sensitive area of California. The fact that they would even mention such a draconian methodology (explosives) on a wild and scenic river shows how clueless these people truly are.

And all this against the will of Congress who would not act on PacificCorp’s request to all them to remove the Klamath River dams.Adding further insult to the American political process, PacificCorp thumbed their noses at the citizens of Siskiyou County California where three of the four dams and lakes are located, who via a 79% super-majority voted against any dam removal in a 2010 referendum. And the public sentiment in this regard has not changed since then.

The American citizens of Siskiyou County are once again on the move and a new initiative to create a citizen-owned public utility district (PUD) to take-over and operate the dams locally is now underway. Please consider the merits of this citizens-based effort here: https://www.gofundme.com/citizens-PUD

Author: adminDisclaimer: the views expressed by guest writers are strictly those of the author and may not reflect the views of Siskiyou "dot" News, its publisher/editor, or its editorial board.

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