Water and Dams

Herald and News

October 2, 2011 

   The Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement and related Klamath Hydroelectric Settlement Agreement aim to improve fish populations through a number of habitat restoration projects.

   Chiefly, the KHSA requires PacifiCorp to contribute $510,000 annually to the Coho Enhancement Fund, a trust administered by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation for enhancing the survival and recovery of coho salmon.

   PacifiCorp owns and operates four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River proposed for removal in the KHSA. It has already contributed $1.53 million to the Coho     Enhancement Fund and will make annual contributions until three dams in California are removed.

   Coho restoration projects already have been identified on Klamath River tributaries, including the Scott and Shasta rivers.

   Proponents of the water agreements say dam removal will help increase anadromous fish populations by restoring natural river flows and eliminating reservoirs that increase water temperatures. Dam removal, they say, also would give salmon access to an additional 300 miles of the Klamath River system.

   The agreements have created a better working relationship among stakeholders who depend on the Klamath River, said Craig Tucker, spokesman for California’s Karuk Tribe.

   “If it looks like there is going to be a water shortage or a (fish) disease outbreak, there is better collaboration to solve these problems before they become catastrophic,” he said.

   Tom Mallams, president of the KBRA-opposed Off-Project Water Users Association, doesn’t agree.  

   Mallams says previous studies showed the agreements would result in only a 10 percent increase in salmon populations.

   “That’s insanity, to go through billions of dollars worth of stuff for maybe a 10 percent increase in one species,” he said.

   But a recently released draft environmental impact study on dam removal found that restoring river flows would likely increase the annual production of adult Chinook salmon by 81 percent.

   In the Upper Klamath Basin, the KBRA calls for restoration projects to improve habitat for endangered sucker and other fish, said Larry Dunsmoor, senior aquatics biologist with the Klamath Tribes. Restoration projects would restore about 200,000 acre-feet of water storage and thousands of acres of marshland in Upper Klamath Lake, and help restore the Sprague, Williamson and Wood rivers above the lake to their natural flows.

   “There is an extreme need for these things and we would not have pursued (the KBRA) if not for our firm belief that these activities would be effective,” he said.