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<FONT size=2><A
href="http://www.times-standard.com/local/ci_7658502">http://www.times-standard.com/local/ci_7658502</A></FONT>
<DIV class=articleTitle>Klamath dams produce hazardous waste, $1
billion lawsuit claims</DIV><!--subtitle--><!--byline-->
<DIV class=articleByline>Jeff Bernard AP Environmental Writer</DIV><!--date-->
<DIV class=articleDate>Article Launched: 12/07/2007 01:15:13 AM
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<P>GRANTS PASS, Ore. -- A $1 billion lawsuit filed Thursday claims
that PacifiCorp hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River produce
hazardous waste in the form of toxic algae that harms salmon as well
as people.
<P>The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco by
Klamath Riverkeeper, elders of the Yurok and Karuk tribes, and the
owner of rental cabins along the river.
<P>”PacifiCorp is both creating and releasing this algae, and they
are refusing to take responsibility for the pollution their dams are
creating,” said Regina Chichizola of Klamath Riverkeeper, a
nonprofit river conservation group.
<P>PacifiCorp spokeswoman Jan Mitchell said the utility does not
comment on pending litigation.
<P>The lawsuit is the fourth filed by Klamath Riverkeeper against
PacifiCorp in a campaign to remove four dams that block hundreds of
miles of salmon habitat.
<P>This one seeks $1 billion in damages under the Resource
Conservation Recovery Act, which governs hazardous waste disposal,
and a court order for PacifiCorp to stop producing the algae, which
could require removing the dams.
<P>The argument is that the Iron Gate and Copco dams south of the
Oregon border in Northern California create the perfect conditions
for the toxic algae Microcystis aeruginosa by slowing and warming
the Klamath River in reservoirs, where the water absorbs
agricultural runoff that help the algae grow. </P>
<P>”No one has brought this kind of case pertaining to solid waste,
but we think the facts fit the law,” said attorney Daniel Cooper of
the San Francisco group Lawyers for Clean Water.
<P>”There are areas with algae problems around the state and the
country,” he said. “The unique factor about the Klamath is there has
been extensive sampling demonstrating that highly toxic levels
accumulate in the reservoirs and are discharging in the river. And
they sampled upstream reservoirs and found no detectable levels of
the (algae).”
<P>Flowing out of southern Oregon through Northern California, the
Klamath was once the third-largest salmon producer on the West
Coast, but has suffered from dwindling returns due to a long history
of habitat lost to logging, mining, agriculture, dams, poor water
quality and overfishing.
<P>Studies by the Karuk tribe led to toxic algae warnings posted by
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the North Coast
Regional Water Quality Control Board on the Copco and Iron Gate
reservoirs in 2005. Last fall, similar warnings were posted along
100 miles of the Klamath River downstream from Iron Gate.
<P>No one has died from contact with the algae, which produces a
toxin that harms the liver and produces tumors, but some of the
plaintiffs have suffered symptoms consistent with contact with the
toxin after being in the river, Cooper said.
<P>Earlier lawsuits claim waste discharges from the Iron Gate fish
hatchery violate the Clean Water Act, the algae is a public
nuisance, and EPA has failed to take steps to clean up the river.
<P>PacifiCorp is seeking a new federal license to produce
electricity from the dams. The algae is likely to be an issue in
meeting clean water standards for the license.
<P>The utility is owned by MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co., based in
Des Moines, Iowa, and controlled by billionaire Warren Buffett.
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