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The Federal
Energy Regulatory Commission’s final environmental impact
statement issued Friday for the relicensing of PacifiCorp’s
Klamath River
dams stated the best alternative
was to leave the controversial dams in place.
Although it does reference key mandatory measures from federal
fisheries managers for more fish-friendy ladders and other water
quality-improving prescriptions that it states “may need to be
included in a new license for this project,” the FERC staff
report stops short of actually requiring them as part of its
recommendations.
Located on the
Klamath River
in
Oregon
and
California
, Oregon-based PacifiCorp’s J.C.
Boyle, Copco No. 1, Copco No. 2 and
Iron Gate
hydroelectric dams generate
716,820 megawatt-hours of electricity annually.
FERC’s staff’s recommendation for relicensing the four
increasingly unpopular dams for the next 50 years incorporates
most of PacifiCorp’s proposed environmental measures, including
measures to truck migrating salmon around dams in lieu of costly
fish ladders.
The staff alternative does add 25 environmental measures on top of
PacifiCorp’s proposal, including the implementation of an
integrated fish passage and disease management program and
adaptive spawning program, according to the report.
West Coast fishermen groups hit hard by declining fish stocks and
Klamath River-area American Indian tribes dependent on the
river’s once-thriving salmon runs are critical of the report.
“The FERC’s environmental impact statement (eminently) fails
to address key measures identified by tribal, state and federal
biologists to bring back dwindling Klamath salmon runs,” said
Yurok Tribal Chairperson Maria Tripp in a statement Friday
afternoon. “Removal of the dams is the only option that will
insure the health of the river, which is the heart of Yurok
culture and something the tribe will continue to fight for.”
Proponents of the dams’ removal, including Glen Spain,
northwestern director of the Pacific Coast Federation of
Fishermen’s Associations, cite FERC’s own EIS report they say
shows removing the dams would be significantly cheaper for
PacifiCorp’s customers in the long run.
PacifiCorp’s original relicensing proposal would allow slightly
more than $17 million in annual power benefits.
According to the EIS document, FERC’s preferred alternative
would provide the company with approximately $2 million in annual
power benefits, but after implementing all the environmental
measures required by National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration Fisheries and other federal agencies, it would cost
the company more than $20 million in annual losses.
PacifiCorp spokesperson Jan Mitchell said in a telephone interview
from
Portland
Friday that the company had only
just received the document and it hadn’t been reviewed in
detail.
“On its face, it does seem to confirm that the Klamath Project
can be operated responsibly for the fish and our customers,”
Mitchell said. “That has been our view all along.”
Mitchell said the company will continue to review and factor in
FERC’s findings as the relicensing process — started four
years ago — moves forward.
She said the report’s findings will also be taken into
consideration by the company with regard to the ongoing settlement
negotiations between
California
and
Oregon
’s government representatives,
tribes, farmers, fishermen and other stakeholders, who are
wrangling over a deal for the dams’ removal.
Mitchell said the company continues to believe the settlement
negotiations will allow the best outcome for everyone.
However, Mitchell said any agreement must protect the company’s
approximately 70,000 customers who are served by the hydroelectric
dams, including 44,000
California
customers.
Craig Tucker, Klamath coordinator for the Karuk Tribe, said FERC
staff is cherry-picking regulatory prescriptions and omitting
other mandatory directives in the recommended alternative that
won’t hold any legal water.
“If at the end of the day they don’t include those
prescriptions, they will get sued by a number of agencies and
groups,” Tucker said.
Tucker is hopeful that a negotiated settlement among the many
groups can be a substitute for what the federal agencies’
recommendations are lacking.
He said the parties are nearing an agreement for dam removal, as
well as a water-sharing pact with
Upper
Klamath
Basin
irrigators that will restore
salmon stock and end what has been groups at odds with each other
for years.
“If we can get rid of PacifiCorp, we can bury the hatchet with
the farmers,” Tucker said.
FERC hydroelectric spokesperson Celeste Miller did not return
phone calls for this article.
The entire EIS document can be viewed or downloaded at www.ferc.gov/industries/hydropower/enviro/eis/2007/11-16-07.asp.
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