A lot of good conservatives don't understand that the Klamath for centuries before the evil white guys came into N. Kali, had very minimal flows in the summer and the early fall. Nature protected the salmon by creating a bar at the mouth of the river that prevented the salmon from going upstream too early and being killed by low water that was too warm for salmon survival.
There is minimal if any rain in that area after Memorial Day until the fall rains begin in late September or up to late October. When these heavy fall rains come down, the water flows down the Trinity and the Klamath and out into the ocean and breaks up the bar. Then the salmon can swim upstream with plenty of water and colder water.
I think that Sierra Wasp's favorite Green thugs on our rivers the white water guys got an extra flow down the Trinity for their rafting, canoes and kayak rentals the weekend before the kill.
That extra water flowed from the Trinity into the Klamath and went into the ocean breaking up the normal summer/fall bar at the mouth of the river. That enabled the fish to swim up stream. They thought that the rainy season had started. So they went in the mouth and up the River in a few days.
Then the water flow for the White Water Rats was stopped and the fish were trapped. Low water does absorb oxygen as it is unable to rush over rocks and rapids which enables rushing water to capture the oxygen needed.
Plus the dope makers dumped their by products into the Klamath. Guides who were on the river commented about the odor that comes from these by products.
So you have fish upstream in warm warm and unoxygenated water with toxic chemicals dumped into the water by the drug makers. So the fish died.
The enviral whackos, their card carrying buddies in Fish and Game and of course Mike Thompson, buddy of his cash cow uncle Soddomite, cried that GW caused this problem by daring to allow the farmers of the Klamath to have water for their crops and livestock.
Don't bite on this story. It's propaganda. The good guys are winning the argument and they, the bad guys know by throwing the dastardly drug issue into the mix they can muddy up the argument.
For years and years and years salmonoids returned to rivers in Washington and had to swim through bodies of water so polluted you could almost walk on it.
The inland river system in America until recently was used as sewer and other industrial waste dumps, yet fish survived and prospered. I do not beleive for a minute, the clandestine drug dump is the culprit.