Three weeks after citizens stood up at a public meeting in Siskiyou County, California, and raised concerns about heavy metals in the Klamath River, the situation is about as clear as the river.

And the river’s pretty muddy.

The breaching of the Iron Gate, Copco 1 and JC Boyle hydroelectric dams in January was done to draw down the reservoirs behind the dams as a prelude to dam removal later this year. But the drawdown released vast amounts of sediment that had been backed up behind the dams. And some of those sediments contain metals.

As a result of the drawdown, which won’t be complete until after spring runoff washes downriver, an estimated 5.5 million cubic yards or more of silt, clay and sand will have been released. According to an environmental impact report on the project, 36% to 57% of the sediment behind the dams is expected to be eroded. That comes to 5.5 to 8.6 million cubic yards of sediment weighing 1.2 to 2.3 million tons.

About 85% of the sediment is fine silt and clay and expected to be washed out to the Pacific Ocean “shortly after” being eroded, according to the report. Coarse material might take longer and might settle in some locations.

Tests conducted in October and reported to regulators by the Klamath River Renewal Corporation, the company removing the dams, shows that sediment upstream of the dams contained arsenic, lead, copper, nickel, iron, aluminum and mercury. However, KRRC currently tests the water downstream of the dams for only two of the metals — aluminum and mercury, plus other substances — as required by the California State Water Resources Control Board.

Only after a year from when drawdown is complete will the company test for more metals, as directed by the state, according to KRRC and the water board. That testing will look for lead, copper, nickel, iron, aluminum and mercury, in addition to arsenic, cyanide, dioxins, benzenes, xylenes and pesticides, including DDT. Results of water tests are reported to state, federal and tribal governments.

Ailene Voisin, an information officer for the water board, said water quality monitoring will target substances that were found previously in relatively high amounts in sediment at the bottom of the lakes.

“In general, the water quality monitoring focuses on constituents that were observed in higher concentrations in sediments collected from the reservoirs, and is focused on the period after drawdown is complete — since elevated sediment concentrations are expected during the initial drawdown and subsequent flushing of the system,” Voisin wrote in reply to questions from the Rogue Valley Times.

In the wake of the dam breachings, Siskiyou County conducted water quality tests at six downstream locations, according to Rick Dean, county development director, but test results due to be posted to the county website last week have not been released.

The dams, ironically, are being removed in an effort to improve water quality and to increase fish populations, including threatened coho salmon. Iron Gate and Copco 1 are in California about 25 miles southeast of Ashland, while JC Boyle is in Oregon about 15 miles southwest of Klamath Falls. A fourth dam, Copco 2, was removed last year.

The removal of the dams and completion of related work is being paid for with $200 million contributed by PacifiCorp, the former owner of the dams, plus $250 million contributed by the state of California. PacifiCorp agreed to relinquish the dams rather than seek to relicense them and pay for expensive fish passage.

Concerns raised at community meeting

Concerns about heavy metals in the river water were brought up during an hours-long special meeting on Feb. 13 called by the Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors, after the river downstream of the breached dams became choked with sediment. At one point, there was no dissolved oxygen in the water, a condition lethal to fish.

The meeting took place at a community center near what is now the former Copco Lake, which was created when Copco 1 dam was built in 1922. Dozens of people came to the microphone, including William Simpson II, a Hornbrook rancher and outspoken critic of dam removal.

“We’re talking about serious pollution,” Simpson told the board. “This is a Superfund problem.” Superfund is a reference to a cleanup program administered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Simpson was particularly concerned with chromium levels, although it turned out that the number he used was off by a multiplier of 10 and was based on applying a drinking water test to a sample of river water. Simpson said that levels of other metals were high, too, and repeated his message the next day to talk show host Bill Meyer on KMED radio in Medford and wrote an article that was published online by Siskiyou News.

“These numbers are gigantic,” Simpson said.

At the meeting, Mark Bransom, CEO of KRRC, declined to provide water quality test results on water samples taken from downstream of the breached dams, saying that the results should first be reported to regulators.

Ren Brownell, a spokeswoman for KRRC, said after the meeting that the state doesn’t require the company to test for chromium because testing conducted before drawdown showed chromium levels were actually higher downstream of the dams than upstream of them.

“In the attached report, you will see that we do not sample for chromium,” Brownell wrote in an emailed response to questions. “Regulators informed me this is because baseline sampling conducted in the reservoirs and river downstream of the dams prior to drawdown found higher levels of chromium in the sediment downriver than in the reservoir sediment.”

Drawdown complete, for now

Two days after the meeting, KRRC issued a statement announcing that drawdown of the lakes was complete for now and that reseeding was underway on some of the 2,200 muddy acres left behind where the reservoirs once were. Spring runoff might partly refill the lakes, but drawdown is expected to be done by summer. Dam deconstruction will then follow.

“With the reservoirs emptied, the Klamath River now winds its way through the former reservoir footprints, cutting through a century of accumulated sediment and finding its historical path,” the company statement said. “Extensive testing of the sediment that had accumulated behind the dams revealed that it is predominantly dead algae and is not a concern for human health.”

The dams block fish passage, but their removal will open 360 miles of river habitat to migrating fish. Upstream of the dams, in the reservoirs, non-native fish populations exist, but many died in the drawdown.

“As predicted in state and federal environmental reviews, there was significant fish mortality in the reservoirs due to the extreme turbidity that accompanied drawdown,” the company said in its statement. “That is why this time of year was chosen. Adult salmon are out to sea, and juvenile salmon generally overwinter in the tributaries and not the main stem of the river.”

Prior to the drawdowns, Resource Environmental Solutions, a contractor for KRRC, worked with the Karuk Tribe to capture and relocate almost 250 coho salmon to off-channel rearing ponds constructed by the tribe.

Water quality impacts from the sediment flow are expected to last up to two years, according to a project environmental impact report. Voisin, of the water board, said the report, drafted by the state, devoted more than 170 pages to water quality impacts.

“While an interim transition period with highly-elevated sediment flushing was anticipated, natural processes and other restoration efforts would eventually result in natural conditions and natural sediment movement,” she wrote in a response made in cooperation with water rights staff members.

Voisin said KRRC must ensure that safe drinking water supplies get to water users downstream of the dams, upon request, and that the company is working with four users who divert water from the river. Diversions typically supply water to irrigate crops.

About that water quality sample

Simpson, the rancher, said in a telephone interview on Friday that he was concerned about contaminants settling on the bottom of the river downstream and leaching into drinking water wells.

Asked about his numbers for heavy metals in the river, Simpson said he obtained them from a private party that had taken a sample of river water at Klamathon Bridge and had it analyzed by the Nielson Research Corporation of Medford. He declined to name the private party.

The day before the board meeting, an article authored by Simpson appeared on the Siskiyou News website, headlined “Klamath Dam Removal Project Creates Super-Fund Site?” Accompanying the article was a 7-page Nielson report and a table headed “Toxic minerals/metals in Klamath River after dam openings and lake drainage.”

The table, Simpson said, was created by the private party collecting the sample, but because it misplaced a decimal point, it mistakenly stated chromium levels were 178 times, rather than 17.8 times, over “permissible limits.”

“That 178 times is a typo and it should be 17.8 times,” he said.

Still, that would seem high, if accurate. The table also listed other metals as being at high levels.

Voisin, the water board representative, was sent a copy of the article.

“We are aware of reports of locally collected water samples with data for some metals, including chromium, stating that the levels are above drinking water standards,” she wrote in reply. “So far, we have not been able to verify the accuracy or reliability of those reports.

“Based on the information we have seen, the reports appear to erroneously characterize the data by conflating a laboratory’s analytical detection limit with a water quality regulatory standard.”

The Nielson report found arsenic, barium, cadmium, chromium and lead in the sample. Alarming enough, but how levels compare with previous levels is a question.

Kyle Grogan, lab director for Nielson, was asked to comment on Simpson’s article and attachments.

“You wouldn’t compare drinking water limits with river water,” he said. “Somebody’s not going to go to a river flowing with heavy sediment and drink from it without some sort of heavy treatment.”

He added: “Sediment naturally has trace minerals in it.”

Simpson’s article received more than 6,200 views, according to the website.

Some mourn, others rejoice

Other people at the meeting in the community center expressed concerns about a range of issues, including the loss of the lakes for recreation and aesthetic purposes.

“We are all watching our beautiful river and the recreation that drew us to retire here go to hell,” said Ann Noel, director of the Klamath River County Homeowners’ Association. “We now live in the unknown regarding fires, floods, returning wildlife and, yes, even fish. We won’t know until it happens. I sincerely hope the science is correct, though most of us will not live long enough to even see it.”

The association, which has a campground below Iron Gate Dam, contracted to have an electrical panel there raised 4 feet to protect against flood, at a cost of $26,952, which KRRC offered to pay, according to Noel.

“But, money will never satisfy the loss we feel,” she said. “There is not enough money that KRRC can throw at us to give us our peace and tranquility back.”

With the dams removed, the river is expected to run colder, contain less algae and improve conditions for coho salmon, Chinook salmon, steelhead, trout and lamprey as well as other aquatic species.

Shane Anderson, principal director and producer for Swiftwater Films, has been chronicling the dam removal project in photographs and videos. He recently posted aerial photos taken by photographer Whitney Hassett on Feb. 16 showing clear water from tributaries flowing into a muddy Klamath River.

“Some mourn the loss of a reservoir, others rejoice in the return of a river,” Anderson wrote. “The river is purging a lot of sediment, and there’s no doubt restoration is messy.”

To view the work of Anderson’s company, visit swiftwaterfilms.com. To view the project’s environmental impact report and related documents, visit bit.ly/3wFEb1R.