The federal government issued its final mandatory terms and conditions this week that Klamath River dam owner PacifiCorp must meet in order for the company to re-license its four dams.

Despite its proposed alternatives, such as using trucks to “trap and haul” migrating fish around the dams, the Department of the Interior determined that PaciCorp must install fish ladders and other fish-friendly measures instead.

While the news wasn’t favorable to PacifiCorp, American Indian tribes from the Klamath River Basin indicated they were pleased.

“We applaud the Departments of Commerce and Interior for fulfilling their obligation to protect and restore the Klamath River,” said Leaf Hillman, vice chairman of the Karuk Tribe in a news release. “Now it’s time for PacifiCorp President Bill Fehrman to make good on his commitment to protect his ratepayers from higher costs and simply remove these fish killing dams.”

PacifiCorp spokesman Dave Kvamme said Tuesday that the company is disappointed, but not surprised by the order, which he said doesn’t advance the dialogue or looks at the real costs and risks.

Instead of looking at the PacifiCorp’s alternative proposal for how the company would deal with migrating anadromous fish, Kvamme said the FERC simply dismissed the alternatives on legal grounds.

Installing fish ladders just won’t work for two of the dams, Kvamme said, but added that the company’s proposed measures would have.

“In some respects, they would have been better,” Kvamme said.

While he said fish ladders either work or they don’t, Kvamme said once they are built the money is lost if ladders turn out not to be effective and the “trap and haul” method would allow for other adaptive management options if it turned out not to work.

While the next step in the re-licensing process is the completion of the final environmental impact report, Kvamme said accepting the Department of Interior’s terms and conditions is only one potential outcome.

“We believe that real compromise is the best outcome and really only possible in the settlement process,” Kvamme said. “We think we can come up with a positive outcome for all parties.”

In response to the federal mandates, California Department of Fish and Game Director Ryan Broddrick indicated Tuesday that the fish ladders would help to facilitate fish passage for Coho and Steelhead and would create better habitat and conservation values.

“Clearly we prefer the four lower dams be removed and we hope that PacifiCorp will eventually make that decision voluntarily,” Broddrick said. “In the meantime, we expect that they will implement these critical fish passage and flow prescriptions immediately.”

The PacifiCorp dams have blocked all anadromous fish passage to more than 350 miles of historic habitat since the first dam was built in 1918, according to CDFG information.

A consultant’s report commissioned by the California Energy Commission and Department of the Interior found that PacifiCorp’s ratepayers and shareholders would be better served with the removal of the four antiquated dams then in having to absorb the cost of the prescriptions proposed by the federal agencies.

Craig Tucker, the re-licensing coordinator for the Karuk Tribe called the action “a big deal.”

Even though he said the cost of installing ladders exceeds the cost of dam removal, Tucker said PacifiCorp may attempt to bill ratepayers for the added cost and try and earn a rate of return for investors at the same time.

The Oregon and California’s Public Utility Commissions would have to approve such a move.

“It might be hard to convince the PUC to pass along the costs of the ladders to ratepayers,” Tucker said.

If PacifiCorp tries, Tucker said the tribe will testify that dam removal is the cheaper way to go.

But PacifiCorp officials disagree with the assertion that removing the dams is a less costly alternative and Kvamme said there is a lot of “wishful thinking” with regard to the dam removal costs.

“I don’t think anyone knows the real costs for removing the dams,” Kvamme said.

However, Kvamme cited a study done by the California Coastal Commission that estimates the costs for removing the dam between $1.5 and $4.5 billion, which is based on the assumption that there is 20 million cubic yards of sediment trapped behind the dams.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, along with his Oregon counterpart, are scheduled to host a Dam Removal Summit in March to discuss how the dam removal factors in a basin wide agreement to address the concerns of tribes, fishermen and farmers.