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Salmon apparently
will get hundreds of miles more habitat in upper reaches of the Klamath Basin.
But the draft decision, part of relicensing hydroelectric dams, created
controversy within hours after it was made public Sept. 25.
Upstream migration of salmon has been blocked since the first Klamath dam was
completed in 1918 on a far Northern California reach of the river upstream
from where Interstate 5 now crosses the river. This year, with wild fall
salmon runs below threshold numbers biologists say are needed for sustaining a
fish population, there's been a massive federal and state closure of offshore
fishing that might snag a returning Klamath salmon.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission staff kicked up the fuss, releasing a
draft document suggesting Klamath River dams ought to remain in place.
Trapping and hauling fish around the dams is the staff's favored alternative
for continued operation of the investor-owned system. It generates 161
megawatts of electricity a year, but output would drop to about 150 mw if two
older hydro plants are closed as proposed.
The draft environmental impact statement for the four-dam Klamath
hydroelectric project came out Sept. 25, three days before an administrative
law judge promised a ruling on challenges to the facts government agencies
used in reasoning that either fish ladders or dam removal is best for fish.
The FERC staff said it also wants more fish production from Irongate Hatchery,
a facility operated by California Department of Fish and Game, and a fix to
fish passage facilities at the J.C. Boyle diversion dam in Oregon.
PacifiCorp, holder of the hydro license that expired this spring, took a
wait-and-see attitude. In May it proposed trap-and-haul as an alternative to
either constructing fish ladders or taking out the dams.
"It's a draft," spokesman Dave Kvamme said. "The agency will be
taking comment on it, and it is likely to change. And when they (staff) are
done, the commission will weigh in on it."
Downriver American Indian tribes and a coalition of environmental groups were
quick to rip into the key finding. It is contained in a 13-page summary of a
huge publication dealing with all sorts of anticipated environmental impacts.
Conditions under which the PacifiCorp project operates are also critical to
upper basin farmers who use irrigation water diverted by facilities operated
as part of the electric power generation system.
Leaf Hillman, vice chairman of the downriver Karuk Tribe, in a press release
accused FERC of "attempting to land the death blow to Klamath
salmon."
"FERC unduly defers to PacifiCorp's wishes and recommends measures that
will do little to mitigate the impacts of the dams or restore damaged West
Coast salmon fisheries," said Glen Spain, of the Pacific Coast Federation
of Fishermen's Associations.
The existing hydro system includes seven generation sites and a regulating
dam. PacifiCorp wants to drop two plants near the main irrigation diversion at
Klamath Falls, Ore., and drop responsibility for a regulating dam near the
town of Keno.
While parties to the relicensing traded comments in press releases this week,
behind the scenes they continued talks with PacifiCorp that could lead to a
set of license conditions far different from those suggested by the FERC
staff. In a separate policy statement, the energy regulatory commission said
it favors negotiated settlements, but only if they assure that river resources
are enhanced, not degraded.
Tam Moore is based in Medford, Ore. His e-mail is tmoore@capitalpress.com.
