WASHINGTON, Jan. 5 (UPI) -- Opponents of an Environmental Protection Agency plan to reduce nitrogen and phosphorus in the Klamath River in Oregon and California say they may sue the EPA.
Under the plan, farmers, timber companies and utilities would all have to make changes in the way they operate, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Wednesday. PacifiCorps, which operates four hydroelectric dams on the river, has threatened to sue the EPA, with a spokesman calling the plan "inappropriate and unachievable."
The 263-mile Klamath runs through southwest Oregon and northern California. It has a 15,000-square-mile watershed and has been called a "river upside down" because its upriver area in Oregon is more heavily developed than its lower reaches.
The Klamath is one of the most important salmon rivers south of the Columbia.
Under the EPA plan, phosphorus would have to be cut 57 percent and nitrogen 32 percent. Both are present in agricultural runoff.
The plan won praise from environmentalists, American-Indian groups and fishermen.
