Daily Astorian Editorial: It's the perfect time to undo a mistake

Removing Klamath River dams received a major boost last week when the U.S. Interior Department and NOAA Fisheries decided to require PacifiCorp to install modern fish ladders to aid salmon migration.

Zealous efforts on behalf of salmon haven't been part of the Bush administration's likely historical legacy, so this decision is both surprising and doubly welcome.

From once being the West Coast's third-best salmon river, the Klamath has been degraded to the point where the dismal size of its runs brought near closure of commercial salmon fishing off Oregon and California last summer. From once producing from 650,000 to more than 1 million salmon and steelhead per year, the river now supports a Chinook run averaging 145,000 in recent years.

Klamath dams provide a modest $29 million in annual electricity at the enormous cost of choking off millions of acres of salmon habitat. In contrast, the economic benefits of a free-flowing Klamath have been estimated at $104 million in Siskiyou County alone.

Weigh the estimated $300 million cost of modifying the dams against the $101 million cost to remove them and the decision becomes clear: This is a chance to restore the natural functionality of a huge watershed at a cost that makes good sense for society and fish. Expensive fish ladders are no good substitute for a free-flowing river.

The case for dam removal is further strengthened the fact that utility regulators in six states would have to agree before PacifiCorp could spend ratepayers' money in slapping a fix on the dams. Far cheaper to decommission them.

This is an opportunity for Warren E. Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, Inc., new owners of PacifiCorp, to establish a fresh track with regard to habitat issues of crucial importance to people on the Pacific Coast. These are dams that would never be approved if they were proposed today.

It is time undo the mistake of building them by restoring a great salmon river to its natural state.