Sunday, August 20, 2006

Klamath River chemical spill misery

This is getting ridiculous, the poor Klamath River can't catch a break. On Friday, 500-1000 gallons of a toxic asphalt emulsion spilled into the river near Hamburg, creating an 8 mile plume.

Officials advised that nobody should use the river, not for swimming boating or fishing. Damage to fish has not been assessed, but presumably they shouldn't use the river either.

It's as though some higher power has decreed that the Klamath River is the designated place where bad things happen. Here's a link to President Bush's statement on the Klamath River basin.

Blogfish may have to adopt the Klamath River and start digging deeper. So far it looks like a mess, wrapped in misfortune, and shrouded in obfuscation. Whattya think loyal readers?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The Klamath has been a political pinata for so long now that it's hard to see a bright future.

Still, it's in the Trout Underground's back yard and I *have* spoken to people who feel that most of the groups fighting over its water are softening just a teensy bit.

Adopt the river! The Underground - headquartered on the Upper Sacramento, which was large sterilized by a chemical spill in 1991 - are right behind you!

I've fished the Klamath on several ocassions, and while the world at large has been treating it like a baby treats a diaper, I believe there's still hope...