| Cows And Clean Water: Queer Klamath Cocktail |
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The downstream waters of the Klamath Rivers are composed of snowmelt from Mount Shasta, flows from Crater Lake and the Trinity Alps—and urine and excrement from more than 80,000 cattle.
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November 2003
And so ranchers and the Oregon Department of Agriculture have teamed up to draft an agricultural water-quality management plan meant to first define and then reduce the total maximum daily loads (TMDLs) of identified pollutants upriver.
Comments are due by November 17.
Critics say the plan for the upper Klamath basin doesn’t address TMDL allocations or propose actions that would help to achieve water-quality standards required by the federal Clean Water Act.
Instead it proposes “best management practices” in lieu of actual numerical targets for the headwaters of the river, which is considered “water quality impaired.”
In addition, opportunities to restore riparian vegetation—depleted both by cattle and by draining of marshes to make pasture—are left open to voluntary interpretation.
The draft plan also fails to mention objectives, scope, methods or reporting specifications in the monitoring necessary for compliance with the clean-up plan.
Whatever rules are adopted, they won’t go into effect until January, 2007. To review the short draft report, go to oda.state.or.us/nrd/water_quality/areapr.html
Your comments may be sent to ODA, Attn: Klamath Headwaters Public Comment, Natural Resources Division, 635 Capitol St. NE, Salem, OR 97301-2532 where they will be considered before final recommendations go the the Oregon Board of Agriculture. |
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Updated Wednesday, November 05, 2003 |
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