Klamath leave dams alone 021807

Our Klamath Basin Water Crisis
Upholding rural Americans' rights to grow food,
own property, and caretake our wildlife and natural resources.

http://www.heraldandnews.com/articles/2007/02/09/viewpoints/letters/letters.txt
Leave dams alone

February 9, 2007 Letter to the editor, Herald and News by Bruce Wirth, Klamath Falls

Somehow it would be nice if some people would be a little more logical. I am speaking about water and the Klamath River dams and, in fact, hydropower on the Columbia and other rivers as well.

The environmentalists and fish conservationists are always carping about the use of dams for power generation. Puh-lease! They don't want coal- or oil-fired generating plants and they won't consider generation by atomic power.

Winds are very unpredictable and sunshine, to produce power in bulk, is, so far, not practical.

Hydropower is non-polluting, steady, and does very little harm to anything but salmon runs.

Let's fact it, salmon are not in short supply. Hatcheries produce fish that, other than the clipped fins, are indistinguishable from the so-called “natural fish.” They go on out to the ocean and live their lives until it is time to lay their eggs and die.

So, please, leave the dams alone and don't try to make them financially impossible to operate.

Bruce Wirth
Klamath Fall