U.S. Department of the Interior

Secretary Norton Announces Water Releases in Klamath River

Interior Secretary Gale Norton today announced that the Bureau of Reclamation will increase Upper Klamath Lake water releases at midnight tonight, ramping up from 760 cubic feet per second (cfs) to 1,300 cfs into the Klamath River for 14 days to meet a request from the National Marine Fisheries Service for pulse flows into the lower river.

Scientists hope that these additional flows will provide some relief for the recent unprecedented salmon mortality near the river's mouth in northern California.

"The water will be released beginning today to meet Tribal Trust responsibilities to support the migrating salmon during this emergency," Norton said. "This is an abnormal situation and we want to help these fish while meeting our Endangered Species Act responsibilities and delivering water to irrigated agriculture in the Klamath Basin."

"We are doing our best to respond to this situation," Norton added. "Although scientists are still struggling to understand why this problem has arisen, we want to do what we can now to respond."

The fish die-off is located about 190 miles downstream from Upper Klamath Lake. Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner John Keys said, "It will take about three days for the water to make it from Iron Gate Dam to the mouth of the river. We're hoping that this water will help move the fish up-river and relieve the jam near the river's mouth."

As of September 26, reclamation was augmenting the natural river flow by more than 450 cfs. Combined releases from Reclamation projects upstream totaled more than 1,200 cfs, or about 56 percent of the total Klamath River flow at its mouth. Current inflow to Trinity Lake averages 100 cfs, with releases of 450 cfs, and current inflow to Upper Klamath Lake is 650 cfs, with releases (prior to today's increase) of 760 cfs.

Federal, State, and Tribal scientists have been studying the situation since it began to determine exactly why the fish were dying.

"No one is certain exactly what effect the water will have on the fish, but we all are determined to do something quickly to address the situation," said Steve Williams, Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Reclamation manages Klamath Lake and the river flows under the direction of two Biological Opinions, one for the endangered Coho salmon downstream and the other for endangered suckers in the lake above.

The National Marine Fisheries Service is responsible for the salmon in the river, while the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has responsibility for the suckers in the lake. Although the fall Chinook salmon, which is taking the brunt of the disaster, is not an endangered fish, it is an important resource to the downstream Tribes.

-DOI-