Removing dams 'preferred path'

Supporters of restoring free flows on one of the West Coast’s biggest salmon rivers are cheered by the prospect of finally seeing the dams demolished. But Klamath Basin farmers say they’re worried they will be left behind without any of the water guarantees included in the federal legislation.

That legislation collapsed last month in large part because of Republican opposition to language that would have helped speed removal of the four PacifiCorp dams, three in California and one in Oregon.

Impact of failed legislation

But, ironically, it may be that a move toward dam removal is the first major result to come out the failure of of the legislation.

Bob Gravely, a PacifiCorp spokesman, said removing the dams is “still our preferred path.”

The utility is talking with officials from Oregon, California and the federal government on modifications to one of the key pacts — the Klamath Hydropower Settlement Agreement — aimed at ending the pitched fights over the river’s future.

Gravely said the utility wants to quickly reach a deal to access some $250 million from a California water bond approved by voters that could help pay for dam removal. The utility is also facing pressure from California’s decision to restart action on a new water quality permit for the dams, something that PacifiCorp could be hard-pressed to win.

“If we’re going to move forward” with a new version of the hydropower settlement agreement, Gravely said, “we think it has to happen quickly … I think months.”

Pressure to remove dams

Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., whose coastal district includes the mouth of the Klamath River, said he’s optimistic that the congressional failure of the agreement puts new pressure on PacifiCorp to move toward removing the dams.

“Frankly, I’m more encouraged than I’ve been in a while,” Huffman said in an interview with OPB. “I see more possibilities for dam removal and restoration, without this paralysis that, frankly, this agreement had brought us to. Everything was hanging on a congressional action that wasn’t going to happen.”

Richard Whitman, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown’s natural resources adviser, said the states and U.S.Department of Interior officials are close to reaching an agreement with PacifiCorp on how to move forward with dam removal. Ultimately, it could take the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission four years to issue an order allowing the demolition of the dams.

PacifiCorps has been particularly concerned with ensuring that it receives liability protection against lawsuits stemming from damage caused by dam removal, such as problems caused by sediment that has built up behind the dams.

Dam removal, water quality

Gravely, the PacifiCorps spokesman, said that if the utility can’t get agreement on a plan for dam removal, it will seek a new license allowing it to continue operating the dams. Critics of the dams, however, say they doubt the utility can meet new environmental standards — including improved fish passage — that have been put in place since the dams last received a license in 1956.

Thomas Schlosser, a Seattle attorney representing the Hoopa Valley Tribe in in legal action aimed at speeding dam removal, said he thought the utility was fine with the long congressional inaction over ratifying the Klamath Basin agreements because it could continue to operate the dams under the old license.

Now, said Schlosser, there’s an opportunity to get moving on the hydropower settlement.

“Dam removal is really key” to restoring the river, he said, “and we’re finally close to it.”