Reclamation releases surface flushing flow
Shortly after sunrise on April 19, employees of PacifiCorp and the Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) opened all six outlet gates along with nine of the spillway bays on Link River Dam, initiating this year’s “surface flushing flow” for the Klamath River. … The surface flushing flow is based on 2017 “guidance document” prepared by scientists and policy advisors from the Yurok, Karuk, and Hoopa Valley tribes. Reclamation formally adopted the surface flushing flow as part of Klamath Project operations in 2019, after being required by a federal court to implement these flows in 2017 and 2018. The purpose of the flushing flow is to disturb river sediment and thereby dislodge the colonies of microscopic worms that act as an intermediate host for Ceratanova shasta, a parasite that infects salmonids.
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