Klamath dam removal project kills 830,000 juvenile salmon

Over eight hundred thousand juvenile Chinook salmon died recently after passing through a tunnel beneath a doomed dam, as crews carry out a $450 million ratepayer and taxpayer-funded project to demolish four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River in Oregon and California, which had previously provided enough inexpensive, carbon-free electricity to power 70,000 homes.

Backers have long promised the Klamath River Restoration Project, the largest dam removal project in U.S. history, would allow salmon to swim farther inland and do something other than die.

The little Chinook were the first released from a brand new $35 million ratepayer and taxpayer-funded fish hatchery on Fall Creek, a tributary of the Klamath River located upstream from Iron Gate Dam, the last of the Klamath dams slated to be removed. In preparation for its removal, the Klamath River Restoration Corporation, the nonprofit corporation that is responsible for dam removal, diverted the river through a tunnel under Iron Gate Dam. California Department of Fish and Wildlife officials believe the baby salmon contracted gas bubble disease from dramatic water pressure changes experienced as they passed through the diversion tunnel.

via oregonroundup.substack.com

WTH is this?