SEND COMMENTS. No dams, no power! Introduce salmon in basin, more ESA, more downsize of agriculture.

4/7/04

The Times-Standard

The Northcoast Environmental Center has begun gathering signatures from voters to press the federal government to force a hydroelectric company to study the options of fish passage and decommissioning dams on the Klamath River.

PacifiCorps did not include either option in its application to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to relicense its six dams for the next 50 years. But conservation and fishing groups and American Indian Tribes say federal law demands that the 150 megawatts the dams produce have to be balanced against their effect on salmon.

The dams block spring run chinook from the upper Klamath River and affect coho and fall run chinook. The National Research Council recommended at least the lowermost Iron Gate Dam be studied for removal, and the California Energy Commission said all the dams should be considered for removal. The energy commission also said the electricity they produce is expendable.

Comments to FERC must be sent by April 27 to John Mudre, FERC Office of Hydropower Licensing, Attention PacifiCorps Project #2082, 888 First Street N.E. Room 51-19, Washington, D.C., 20426.