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 Klamath River Activists Carry Message to Water Board; Again, call on Officials To Keep Water Clean, Negotiators Honest

February 18, 2009 -- The long running fight to remove four dams on the Klamath River begins still another chapter as the California State Water Resources Control Board considers their role in the evolving controversy in a meeting at 10 a.m. on Tuesday at the CalEPA building.

River residents, represented by local tribal members and by Klamath Riverkeeper, will be at the session to continue their battle against the dams, the toxic pollution they cause and their devastating effects on native fish populations.

At the same time, residents will remind officials and negotiators that any final agreement to take dams out must be consistent with clean water laws and regulations.

 The framework for dam removal mapped out by dam owner PacifiCorp. the states of Oregon and California and the federal government late last year proposes to remove the dams in 2020 at the earliest, and prescribes a number of measures aimed at improving water quality until then.

However, the framework, commonly referred to as the Agreement in Principle or AIP, gives parties too many rights of withdrawal, including one for PacifiCorp if the company is forced to pay for clean water permits. The AIP also fails to specify what agency would be empowered to implement or enforce the interim measures. And the AIP wrongly proposes to seek funds for Klamath dam removal from California voters via a water bond this November.

The Klamath Justice Coalition is also calling for a number of other changes to the agreement, which can be found below, or at http://www.klamathriver.org.

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Additional information online at:
http://klamathriver.org/Documents/KRK-letter-021709.pdf
http://klamathriver.org/Documents/Dam-Deal-Changes.pdf

Contacts: Erica Terence, Klamath Riverkeeper  (530)340‐5415
erica [at] klamathriver.org

Georgiana Myers, Klamath Riverkeeper Community Organizer (707)599‐0877
georgiana [at] klamatheriver.org