[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 29 (Wednesday, February 14, 2024)]
[House]
[Pages H621-H622]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       AN ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTER

  (Mr. LaMALFA asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, I am speaking out today about an issue that 
has been going on in the northern part of my district in northern 
California. They are touting it, of course, as one of the biggest dam 
removal projects in American history, but it also is turning out to be 
one of the biggest environmental disasters in American history.
  You can see right here the plume. This is the Klamath River, and this 
is one of the tributaries that feeds into it. This dark muck that is 
coming down is a result of what they have done to tear down dams or cut 
loose the material at the bottom of them under the drain.
  This is a tributary coming in with winter water on that. It is kind 
of greenish and such. So you see, it is two different diverging bodies 
of water that is turning into muck, and it is an unbelievable mess 
there. It is killing wildlife, killing fish.
  The Klamath River project used to make 70,000 households' worth of 
clean electricity. Good-paying jobs are very important to Siskiyou 
County. Now, the project, indeed, is an assault on the people who live 
there in the basin that are opposed to this, but outsiders are coming 
in to tear this out.

[[Page H622]]

  At a time when the U.S. is trying to electrify everything--
automobiles, stoves, leaf blowers, and everything else--they are taking 
out clean, hydroelectric power.
  The chromium levels in this material, the pollutants in there, is 
unbelievable. There is a lot more to this story. Keep watching to see 
what is going on with this Klamath River system and the disaster that 
it is becoming.

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