To Whom It May Concern:
The following questions are in addition to ones previously sent and since the Water Assessment meeting held in Klamath Falls on December 19th, 2001
I will break this down as much as possible to the areas I feel the questions relate to:
Preface: So many places in this report, opinions were based on words like, "Suggest", "May Effect", "Estimated", "May have contributed", "Uncertain", "Not well documented", "Presumed", "Left unanswered", "does not ensure", "does not show that this elevation is a threat", "It might be a threat", "The empirical data suggest uncertainty regarding the size of the benefit of higher lake elevations", would it not be reasonable to challenge those figures, statistics, and opinions?
Natural Resources:
1. Q: Why would one want to keep lake levels at the recommended levels of the BO? According to your presentation on 12-19-2001 the levels of ammonia levels were so high they are detrimental to sucker populations in high water years. How can the scientific field support such a position?
2. Water Quality Improvement: Included are several ideas that I failed to find in the
Draft report.
a. Increase the maximum level of Klamath Lake by increasing the elevation of
Link River Dam to a maximum elevation the shoreline would allow.
b. Separate Klamath Lake and Agency Lake with a dike within the straits that
would include many gates (15 to 25) to provide for passages of fish yet
restrict the flow out of the upper lake area to less than the inflow from the
various rivers thus collecting water during the winter and spring months.
This collection would could increase the depth of the upper lake by several
feet providing for improved sucker survival, less algae, increased oxygen
levels, and the faster moving water released during the summer months
should contribute to improved water quality. This would also make additional
water available during the demand period of the farming season and down river
demands.
c. Increase depth of the juvenile sucker habitat by dredging areas along
shorelines to create improved deeper juvenile sucker habitat.
3. Create additional water storage:
a. In the deep canyons of the upper Williamson and the Sprague several
deep reservoirs could be developed and increase the quantity and quality
of the water in the system.
i. Develop dams on the canyons and pump water into the areas during
times of low power rates or route water through "flumes" pipes to fill the
impoundments then during the summer months release the water from
storage generating power to help offset the cost. Also the deeper
impoundments would provide increased oxygenation of the water during
the summer as the water was released through the generators.
4. Lost River Diversion Channel
a. Q During the fall, winter and spring what amount of water was diverted from
Lost River into the Klamath River?
b. Q. During the summer 2001 it was noted that the Lost River Diversion was
full of water most of the summer. What amount of Lost River water
was diverted into the Klamath River? Was the amount of Lost River
water diverted during the fall, winter and spring credited to the Lost River
drainage and returned during the summer?
c. Q. What effect did the diversion of this water have on both the farmers and
the wildlife of both Tulelake Refuge and the Lower Klamath Refuge?
Suckers:
1. Q. What would the estimated population of suckers in Klamath Lake if the
calculations were based on another method of population determination.
a. Example: If the number of tagged fish found during the years of fish kills
compared to the number of untagged fish found during the years of fish kills
were developed into a ratio. Using this ratio to determine the estimated
number of live untagged fish compared to the number of tagged fish known
to have been released since tagging has begun.
Example:
If there are a known 10,000 tagged fish that have been released and
during a fish kill collection 10 tagged fish were found and 2000 untagged
fish were found it could be assumed that the lake would contain 200 times
the untagged fish or approximately TWO MILLION suckers.
2. Q. Would the use of fish traps located in "hundreds" of locations that showed
representative depths, varied habitat and were collected 1 to 2 times per
month every month of the year (obviously weather permitting, lake not frozen)
show a more accurate result than occasional arbitrary (where your think
the suckers are) cast netting.
3. A great deal has been made about the importance of shoreline habitat.
Q. If the grasses and Tule reeds are so critical to juvenile survival could you
explain how the sucker population at Clear Lake is so successful without
similar shoreline habitat.
4. Rainbow trout population:
Q. Could the rainbow trout population be having a major detrimental effect
on the sucker population? If so should the one fish limit now on the sports
fishery be raised to reduce the "predator" of the sucker???
5. Spring temperatures:
Q Have temperature records of all springs been kept since the sucker
populations were high? If so what are the findings? The only note I
could find re: temperatures we around Bare Island.
6. Winter Kill
Q. What % of the suckers killed were killed because of winter kill and
attributed to overall fish kill not related to water levels etc.?
7. Surface area of Lake
Q. Where lakeshore spawning normally takes place in the areas of springs
what has been done to improve the "surface area" of the springs and
the depth of water found near productive springs?
Salmon
1. Q. What consideration has been given to the effects of uncontrolled "Factory
boat" offshore fishing on the population of salmon? I'm quite sure those
fishing industries do not release "Wild Fish"? If there is such a fish?
2. Quality of Science?
Q. In reading your report it was mentioned that the surviving smolt population
was considerably reduced. Was the projected smolt survival population
based on a normal year? If so was it taken into consideration that most if
not all of the major spawning tributaries were not providing the normal
smolt populations? Could it be that the only smolts were produced in the
mainstream of Klamath River and were products from the unnatural flow
provided by the increased releases from Klamath Lake and Iron Gate?
3. Hatchery Fish
Q. It appears to be a fact that due to all the different demands on dams,
most dams will not be removed, especially hydro-electric dams. This
being the case would it not make sense to use every tool to make
good use of the hatchery fish planting program and count them in the
overall count the same method used on the east coast of the United
States?
Alternative Approaches to water management:
1. a. Larger and deeper canyons off the Williamson, and Sprague. Develop
dams on the canyons and pump water into the areas during times of low
power rates or route water through "flumes" pipes to fill the impoundments
then during the summer months release the water from storage generating
power to help offset the cost. Also the deeper impoundments would provide
increased oxygenation of the water during the summer as the water was
released through the generators.
2.Water Quality Improvement: Included are several ideas that I failed to find in the
Draft report.
a. Increase the maximum level of Klamath Lake by increasing the elevation of
Link River Dam to a maximum elevation the shoreline would allow.
b. Separate Klamath Lake and Agency Lake with a dike within the straits that
would include many gates (15 to 25) to provide for passages of fish yet
restrict the flow out of the upper lake area to less than the inflow from the
various rivers thus collecting water during the winter and spring months.
This collection would could increase the depth of the upper lake by several
feet providing for improved sucker survival, less algae, increased oxygen
levels, and the faster moving water released during the summer months
should contribute to improved water quality. This would also make additional
water available during the demand period of the farming season and down river
demands.
c. Increase depth of the juvenile sucker habitat by dredging areas along
shorelines to create improved deeper juvenile sucker habitat.
3. Water Allocation:
a. Determine early what each species, Fish and Farmers etc. can survive on,
maybe not 100% of the desired amount but a survival amount.
i. With the farmers if they were to know the amount of water early
and the water was equally allocated to all farmers in the entire project
(based on a per acre foot per acre of irrigated land owned) farmers could
plan that years production accordingly. This would automatically address
the efficient us of water. Those using water more efficiently would have
water for more of their farming season. This could include
water transfers between individual farm enterprises and also between
different farmers. This was successfully done in 1992 & 1994 when full
allocations were not made.
4. Trinity to California project.
a. It would seem reasonable that where the entire Trinity river once flowed into
the Klamath River the Trinity to California project should be suspended during
drought years.
5. Land Retirement.
a. Q. Would it make sense to retire refuge land and exclude it from agriculture
production before the retirement of tax paying private land?
6. Water efficiency of the water delivery system
a. Q. Wouldn't it make sense to improve the efficiency of the delivery system?
In Central California the water delivery system is a system of concrete
lined canals and pipelines. This system reduces water lost through
percolation. Also water flows much more efficiently through lined canals
and the muskrat problem would be greatly reduced.
7. Minimum Lake Elevations:
a. Q. If there were no dam at the Link River site how much of the resource would
be lost downstream due to flood condition overflows in the winter and
seepage through the reef in the summer and naturally lowering the lake
due to both seepage and evaporation? Wouldn't this level be much lower
than the level of the Biological Opinion?
Community and Economy
1. Q. Who or what agency should be responsible for the destroyed retirements
and the bankruptcy many of the producers of the Klamath Basin Project
have suffered? This is one area the 20,000,000 failed to address.
2. The government is already talking about possibly bailing out the Enron
retirement funds.
3. "A benefit of the doubt instruction"
a. Q. Wouldn't it seem like this is one area that the scientist should be
strongly questioning? When I was in college my science instructors
would never have accepted a report that I turned in and said give
me the benefit of the doubt.
b. Q. Would it be possible for the written instructions from Congress "to provide
'benefit of the doubt'" to be published and posted on the website?
Bald Eagles
1. Q. What was the total effect on the Bald Eagle population due to the reduced
water being sent to Tulelake and Lower Klamath Refuges?
2. Q. Could it be assumed that the Eagles would translocate to the many areas
that still had water such as Upper Klamath, Clear Lake, Gerber, Medicine
Lake, this list goes on and on?
To: Members of the Water Assessment panel
From: Curtis D. Newkirk
Vocational Agriculture and Natural Resources Instructor: Retired
Farmer Malin area: forced into retirement
Ambulance Medic in area for 32 years
First let me thank each scientist for realization that the common person may be able to present ideas that reflect local knowledge.
Sucker Review:
1. Page 2: Managers acknowledge that lake elevation alone .....
a. One idea that may improve the areas of water quantity and water quality and would provide protection of larval and juvenile sucker populations would be to select primary habitat areas of the lake and develop separate units that could be held higher entering spring through the use of gates and channels. By holding additional water in the Agency Lake area in the spring to provide additional depth through the early part of summer while holding maximum water in the Lower Klamath Lake up to irrigation season would provide both increased stored water, greater shore line depth in both areas and by allowing greater flow from the upper lake area into the lower lake area the increased movement of water would have a positive effect on water quality.
2. Page 3: Suckers spawn either in lakeshore springs or the Williamson and
Sprague rivers and seldom mix between these spawning sites.
a. Several suggestions would include.
1. Improvement of spring spawning sites, i.e.: gravel introduction in areas
around the springs to improve area where spawning can take place.
2. Immediate removal of Chiloquin Dam or immediate development of
passage channels that can be used successfully by adult spawning
suckers.
3. Page 5 & page 9: A majority of the first paragraph page 5. The paragraph beginning with A fish's vulnerability page 9. In Upper Klamath Lake, lake elevation is highly
auto-correlated and cross-correlated with other variables of interest......Those unusual observations do not negate the pattern, but do suggest that factors other than lake elevation are important.
Q. Would it be reasonable for the biologist to identify the sample sites and
the dates sucker samples are taken. I would think that sample sites would
need to include all depths including the deep channels of the lake including
the eagle ridge channel, and would also think that samples that include all
months of the year would be necessary to determine a true and accurate
picture of the migration and usage patterns of the species.
4. Page 6: In 1984 and 1985, Bienz and Ziller........
Q. Did this study also include the number of individual fisherman hours used to
harvest 1,262 and 687 fish compared to 1966 and the 12,500 fish?
5. Page 7: Upper portion of the page relating to spawning
Q. Has hatchery rearing and planting both species of suckers been done? With
this idea in mind has planting juvenile suckers been tried to see if they exhibit
the same tendency to return to areas where they are released to spawn as
adults?
6. Page 7: Fish kills during 1995 - 1997
Q. Of the number of dead suckers collected how many were tagged and how
many were untagged? It would appear that this ratio would also give biologist
a more accurate idea of how many suckers may be in the lake.
7. Page 8: Winter kill and dissolved oxygen....
Q. When studies are done is it the dissolved oxygen concentration or the
volume of dissolved oxygen in the lake that is equated to sucker mortality?
It would seem that just more water would not necessarily provide sufficient
oxygen concentration to maintain a healthy population.
8. Page 9: Shore-line spawning
Q. What percentage of the springs along the east side are at a depth of
greater than 2 feet. There must be more than Sucker Springs and Ouxy Spring.
9. Page 13: Failure to implement specific recommendations...
Q. Why couldn't water be obtained from several screened diversion channels in
the Sprague River area as the dam really doesn't store that much water?
10 Page 14: The third factor....."Increased imperilment is not well documented....
Q. If spawning runs vary from year to year is this any kind of data to use for
documentation to use to base a biological opinion.
11. Page 14: Bottom paragraph. Left unanswered.......
Q. Is biology a scientific discipline? If so guess work should not enter into
any decision. Also as I remember from college for something to be declared
anything more that a hypothesis other independent scientist must be able
to duplicate the study with the same results.
Coho Instream Flows:
1. Page 1: Most of the page
Q. Is it reasonable to question greater releases of water downstream during the
summer than the total inflow of water into Klamath Lake? Would it be
reasonable to expect dryer stream flows the entire length of the Klamath
river in drought years because all feeder streams are flowing at a reduced
level? Would it seem reasonable that salmon would recognize reduced
flows and remain at sea growing stronger for natural increased river flows?
2. Page 2: Top of page... As a result, coho salmon ....
Q. Shouldn't this read "Wild" coho salmon have been listed as threatened
or shouldn't all coho be declared threatened?
3. Page 2: Many wild populations....
Q. If wild and hatchery fish have identical DNA, and assuming fish without
clipped fins that return to spawn could be offspring of hatchery fish, how
can the biologist accurately determine what is a wild fish and what is a
returning nonclipped hatchery fish?
4. Page 4: Fish habitat and instream flows....
Q. Is it not true that on streams and tributaries that have no dams, during
drought years that those streams have reduced or no flow? Is it also true
that on those streams salmon have enough sense provided by nature not to
try to run up stream and spawn? Doesn't it make sense that natures way of
providing for salmon runs worked for thousands of years and possibly
science ought to learn from this and not try to create artificial stream flows
with water quality less than what nature would provide?
5. Page 10: Because fish sampling....
Q. This paragraph say's it all. Shouldn't scientific review be based on accurate
data not excuses? It definitely would be possible for biologist to obtain
complete and accurate data before offering an opinion.
6. Page 11: Fish-counting weir data.....
Q. Would it not seem that traps should be set not only by an arbitrary date
"trapping started and ended at equivalent times" but set to include all phases of
the spawning run. Having been a sports fisherman for more than 55 years I
know fish runs are dictated by many factors not just by dates.
7. Page 11: Smolt data
Q. How do you tell a wild salmon smolt from a hatchery smolt that was
spawned in the wild?
8. Page 16: The lower Klamath River....
Q. Could the reason the water-quality is impaired is that decisions require
the release of water most of which comes from impoundments that do not
have sufficient inflow of water from cool spring and tributaries during drought
years to provide the lower river with demanded water flows, thus increased
water temperature and elevated nutrient concentrations result. Quite simply
in a drought year the only water flowing down the mainstream would be water
derived from springs and cooler aerated tributaries.
Alternative approaches:
! Development of greater water storage
A. Raise the maximum level of Klamath Lake Storage.
B. Develop off stream storage:
1. Suggested areas
a. Larger and deeper canyons off the Williamson, and Sprague. Develop
dams on the canyons and pump water into the areas during times of low
power rates or route water through "flumes" pipes to fill the impoundments
then during the summer months release the water from storage generating
power to help offset the cost. Also the deeper impoundments would provide
increased oxygenation of the water during the summer as the water was
released through the generators.
