Fired federal adviser files whistle-blower complaint over Klamath dam removal

"Professor says information was manipulated to support removal."

"A federal agency's former scientific integrity adviser has filed a whistle-blower complaint saying he was fired from his job after he began questioning top officials about 'spinning' evidence to tout the removal of Klamath River dams."

"'The bottom line is they need to be honest about the science and the decision making,' Paul R. Houser, an associate hydrology professor at George Mason University, told the Record Searchlight on Tuesday, in his first remarks to the media about his whistle-blower complaint."

"He says there have been a number of scientific studies that showed dam removal comes with some risks or wouldn't be nearly as beneficial to threatened coho salmon habitat as Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's staff made it seem."

"In a lengthy whistle-blower report posted on his website, Houser said he was especially concerned because removing the dams and associated environmental work would cost more than $1 billion, 'so a misinformed or premeditated decision could be a gross waste of funds.'"

The rest of the Record Searchlight article is here.