Klamath River Restoration Alliance (‘KRRA’) is organized as a citizen action group to lobby for the removal of the polluted sediments from the drained Klamath River lakes.
Testimony from the Siskiyou County Agricultural Commission suggests that planting the polluted sediments in an effort to stabilize them will likely fail.
Empirical experience with the kill-off of millions of Native Fish in the mainstem of the Klamath River during the release of approx. 5-million cubic yards of polluted lake bottom sediments on January 23, 2024 is undeniable evidence of the unintended devastating effect that these lake bottom sediments had on aquatic life.
There is no doubt that the approximate 15-million cubic yards of polluted sediments (78% clay) will be subjected to erosion by wind and rain. Wind erosion of these sediments, which contain both organic toxins and heavy metals, will create a very serious health hazard for both humans and wildlife.
Erosion by rains or worse, a catastrophic flood, will scour the 15-M cubic yards of sediments remaining in the lake bottom canyons sending those massive amounts of polluted sediments into the Klamath River, repeating the devastation seen in the days following the Jan. 23rd sediment release, only much worse given the massive volume.
“Biomagnification refers to the condition where the chemical concentration in an organism exceeds the concentration of its food when the major exposure route occurs from the organism’s diet. The term food web biomagnification is used to describe trophic enrichment of contaminants within food webs and refers to the progressive increase in chemical concentrations with increasing animal trophic status.
Biomagnification and bioaccumulation of heavy metals in the human food chains.
Biomagnification of heavy metals (HMs) in environmental compartments contributes key role in distribution of heavy metals (HMs) at various tropic levels. Biomagnification is referred as rise in the levels of pollutants in along with food chain and leading to increased accumulation in successive tropic level. In environment soil to plant allocation of HMs is the most important routes of entry to organisms via food (Cai et al., 2015; Singh et al., 2010). Water supplied to agricultural fields through irrigation consists of wastewater causes significant accumulation of metals in soil and sediment which further lead to accumulation in crops, vegetables also in milk.”
Citizens interested in joining the private Facebook page can make a request at:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/945117153589907
