State, US agree to dismantle 4 dams on Klamath River
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration and California officials are expected to announce a landmark agreement Wednesday to tear down four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River, bypassing Congress to restore a major salmon fishery on the Oregon border.
The dam removals would set in motion the largest river restoration in U.S. history and signal an end to one of the most contentious water fights in years.
Since 2001, the Klamath basin has seen farmer bucket brigades, clashes with American Indian tribes, commercial fishery shutdowns and the largest fish die-off ever on the West Coast.
A high-profile news conference to announce the deal is set for Wednesday at the Yurok Reservation in Klamath (Del Norte County), with Gov. Jerry Brown joining Oregon Gov. Kate Brown; Interior Secretary Sally Jewell; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency Administrator Kathryn Sullivan; and Stefan Bird, chief executive of Pacific Power, a division of PacifiCorp, which owns the dams.
State officials decided to move forward on a 2010 pact among the warring Klamath basin parties.
Pacific Power’s 600,000 affected customers have been paying a dam removal surcharge of up to 2 percent of their electricity bills, Gravely said, with about half the cost, $100 million, now set aside.
Brian Johnson of Trout Unlimited, a sport fishing and environmental group involved in the negotiations, said that the dams have blocked half the watershed of the Klamath and that removing them will “open up close to 500 miles of steelhead habitat and about 420 miles for salmon.”
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission also has to approve the delicensing plan in a public process at which opponents, mainly farming interests and dam removal opponents, are expected to object.
“The essence of the deal is a private dam owner who wants to get rid of these zombie dams that don't provide a lot of hydropower and have huge environmental liabilities, and can be part of a transformative river restoration,” Huffman said.