Re: Response to August 18 Notice of Demand Letter

TO: Mr. Mark Bransom – CEO Klamath River Renwal Corporation (‘KRRC’)

RE: KRRC/RES Failure Leading To the Excruciating Death and Loss of Our  

         Baby Horse – Your Email of Sept. 18th, 2024

Attachments: Your Letter, 2 ea. CDM Smith Studies, Nossaman Letter, Our  

                          Demand Letter

VIA EMAIL ONLY – OPEN LETTER

Dear Mr. Bansom:

Your history (KRRC) with Siskiyou County and it’s citizens is arguably rife with misrepresentations, malfeasance and multiple failures in regard to performing the Klamath Dam removal project in a manner that is consistent with County cooperation, courtesy, your approved EIS and genuine ecological conservation. 

And this behavior extends to your ignoring the legitimate claims for compensation due to losses from your arguable malfeasance and negligence. And because the dam removal project is a public matter, and public funds are involved, it is our belief this failure to reasonably compensate for citizen’s financial losses, as a minimum, is a matter of public concern. 

Your uncooperative attitude and arrogant posturing with Siskiyou County and it’s citizens is what has precipitated the County-wide discontent with what is seen by scores of onlookers as a smash and grab operation that is  a  politically motivated for-profit enterprise that has led to the devastation of the Klamath River with vast far-reaching adverse impacts to our County and its citizens, and many other Americans, our interests included. 

The most recent example of ‘far-reaching’ adverse impacts being the loss-of-use of CalTrans’ star roadside rest area in California, the Collier Rest Area.

https://www.kdrv.com/news/top-stories/caltrans-temporarily-closing-collier-rest-area/article_0d253284-736c-11ef-a05b-2f231243eeee.html

It’s no secret that the plumbing system at Collier has been infiltrated with polluted clay sediments coming from the Klamath River project operations. This is the same sticky clay sediments that have adversely impacted the large-scale irrigation systems of ranchers/farmers upriver, and is now inside all the pipes, valves, toilets, sinks, and underground pipes at Collier that may require excavation and replacement. 

This is yet another fine mess from dumping toxic sediments into the Klamath River that Oregon and California taxpayers will have to fund. Not to mention the grounds at Collier being irrigated from the River may also now contain bioavailable toxins via irrigation using Klamath River water. (See attached CDM Study on sediment screening). As you know, the toxins cited in the second CDM Smith study are all bio-accumulative, which means even in low doses, over time they will build up in the tissues of plants and animals.

As what seems as your standard modus operandi in declining reasonable compensation for the financial losses of citizens impacted by the dam removal project, recently, you also declined to compensate Siskiyou County Latino rancher Dave Vargas for his claim related to damage to his irrigation system and his lands.

KRRC is well-documented as being uncooperative and as a bad neighbor. And the poor leadership and role-modeling by KRRC has provided a sad and unfortunate framework and example for contractors. And that sentiment is echoed throughout the local community. School buses and cars have been run-off the road by your contractors.

In December 2023, the local community morned the loss of two parents and their  4 orphaned children when a Dodge truck hit the family SUV head-on, killing the parents. The driver of the truck was allegedly working as a contractor for the dam removal project, and rumors are, he was drunk.

1) https://www.siskiyou.news/2023/12/30/head-on-crash-results-in-three-fatalities-4-juveniles-survive/

2) https://kobi5.com/news/family-raising-funds-for-four-kids-after-parents-died-in-head-on-collision-220272/

Just curious, how much money has KRRC donated to help the orphans of the family?

Words are just hot air. Ancient wisdom suggests that we should judge the tree by its fruit. I have to say that from my perspective, the fruit of this project is rotten.

Your operations have demonstrated you care very little about the impacts, health safety and welfare, financial losses and emotional impacts being borne by the citizens in Siskiyou County and especially those living on and around the project.

Siskiyou County Supervisor, Ray Haupt, whose district has been adversely impacted by the dam removal project in many ways, has stated on-record in an article by Brad Jones for Epoch Times, and republished at Siskiyou News, that:

“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.”

And finally

I can assure you, and any judge in a court of law, my nonprofit in conjunction with my partner and I, own the horses on the north side of Iron Gate Lake/Klamath River.Over the past 10-years we’ve spent over $200,000.00 caring for the herd (2014-2023). And since the inception of our nonprofit’s partnership in the ownership of the herd, in FY-2022 and FY-2023, we’ve spent nearly $100,000.00 on caring for the herd. And for FY-2024, we’re trending towards $100,000.00 just for one year due to our costs related to our voluntary efforts, pumping and providing 1,000 gallons of water in multiple troughs on our ranch daily, and using diversionary feeding of tons of alfalfa weekly to attempt to minimize our horses from consuming the toxic plants in the sediments on their way to the river for water.Unfortunately we cannot provide the ‘alternative water sources’ that KRRC and RES is responsible for along the 20+ miles of shoreline of the former lakes. And the result of that failure by KRRC  & RES has caused the death and injuries of hundreds of animals (wildlife), including our baby horse, when they attempt to reach the Klamath River for water. 

We are the ‘recognized owners’ of the herd by Siskiyou County via official Letter, and as such, under law and Siskiyou County Open Range grazing policy, our horses are jurisdictionally ‘livestock’ legally grazing on any Open Range, including your unfenced lands, just as much as the cattle that have been also grazing on the lakebed sediments. 

On a side note: You claim you are the legal owners of the lands on and around the lakebed sediments, so I am wondering if you’ve recorded that deed and if you are paying your fair share of taxes? Your project has devastated Copco Road from mile post 5 to mile post 20, now looking like a bombed-out road from the Ukraine. When will that be fixed?

Your failure to fence the hazards and provide alternative water sources for wildlife and livestock per your EIS have led to the loss of one our privately owned horse, and for that, KRRC owes us compensation. 

Your illusions related to your failed planting exercise is also well-documented, and that failure, like others, was partly a function of your (and RES’s) failure to timely  fence-off the shoreline on the lakebeds and provide alternative water sources, as per your EIS and as cited in the Letter from Nossaman to FERC, incorporated herein by reference. 

In case you missed it, Siskiyou News published a review of your so-called ‘revegetation’ effort of the toxic polluted clay sediments, containing bio-accumulative toxins and heavy metals, which are taken-up in plants and introduced into the rest of the ecosystem via bio-amplification. I wonder how the game animals will be impacted with toxin uptake in the vegetation that will be surely consumed by game animals? How will hunters in the area determine the amounts of bio-amplified toxins in the meat of deer, elk, rabbits that they may consume? https://www.siskiyou.news/2024/08/26/cattle-grazing-on-former-klamath-river-lakebed-raises-environmental-concerns/

There were clear indications by CDM Smith early-on that the best ecological path for Klamath River Restoration was to REMOVE the toxic sediments, and then proceed with draining the lakes and dam removal. 

In February 2011, CDM Smith published a detailed study titled: ‘Klamath Settlement Process Sediment Management in the Reservoirs’, where right off the bat (See Paragraph 3 in the image below) it makes that point, as does the balance of the study in greater detail. 

Instead, a more profitable path was chosen, sending a third of the total toxic clay sediments down the Klamath River, killing billions of life-forms in the process, including NATIVE SPECIES creatures and fish. These facts are also well documented and seriously conflict with your false statement on public record that no native species were killed. You cannot obfuscate the truth and get away with it. 

And you must be from another planet to even think that some grass and brush plantings will hold back the estimated 15-million cubic yards of toxic clay sediments remaining in the lakebeds during flood waters, which locals know can move boulders and wash-away planted farmlands like nothing else.

It’s never too late to start being a gentlemen and treating the people of this County and it’s elected officials properly and with respect, and stop the obstruction and denial of reasonable claims for the financial losses of citizens adversely impacted by your so-called project, including our legitimate claim for our lost horse.

Short of your change of heart, we will be seeing you in Small Claims court, where lawyer representation is barred. And we feel confident there will be justice to be had in our local court.

Regards, William

4 Docs Attached: CDM SMITH Studies (2-studies) of Sediments and Toxins in the Sediments, Nossaman Letter, KRRC Letter Declining Compensation