FERC sides with PacifiCorp, Dams can stay

But it's not over yet, say environmental, tribal groups

By Phil Hayworth

Pioneer Press
Fort Jones , California
November 21, 2007
Page W1, column 1
Phone 530-468-5355
email: pioneerp@sisqtel.net

The federal licensing authority that determines whether the four dams
on the Klamath River will stay or go on Friday sided with PacifiCorp,
the power company that owns the dams, and found that they don't have
to be dismantled to save the salmon.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued its final
Environmental Impact Statement on Friday, and essentially concluded
that Copco I and II, Iron Gate and J.C. Boyle dams can be retrofitted
so that salmon can thrive along the river.

"That's been our view all along, that the dams can be operated
responsibly for fish and customers alike," said Jan Mitchell,
PacifiCorp spokesperson.

FERC's decision came as good news to the Siskiyou County Board of
Supervisors, who have long unanimously supported keeping the dams in
place.

"We get some $1 million into the county in tax revenue each year from
the property taxes on the dams," said Michael N. Kobseff, Siskiyou
supervisor.

The report also showed that fitting the dams with fish ladders and
other technology to mitigate dangerous summertime blooms of
blue-green algae will be expensive - nearly $200 million more than if
they were demolished.

But Kobseff said the Board of Supervisors have always contended that
removing the dams could be just as costly, particularly because no
one knows for sure just what kind of toxic sediment could be left
behind, or allowed to flow downriver.

"And then another EIR would have to be done on the dam removal," he said.

The report came as a shock to environmental and Indian groups who for
months have cited FERC letters and preliminary reports strongly
suggesting that the dams should come down. At the very least, FERC
comment in the past has been that it would be too expensive to
retrofit the dams, and that bringing them up to environmental
standards was risky.

Craig Tucker, spokesman for the Karuk Tribe - one of the groups that
have been for two years now involved in negotiating the removal of
the dams - said the recent report is an example that FERC is
"pandering" to PacifiCorp's bottom line.

He said his tribe and environmental groups still strongly contend
that removing the dams is cheaper for everyone, including
PacifiCorp's ratepayers, and that keeping them could mean
"destruction" of tribal cultures who have long subsisted on the
various salmon species that once thrived in the river.

Steven Weiss of the Northwest Energy Coalition said that it's likely
better for PacifiCorp's bottom line if the dams remain, because their
profits are determined not by how much power they sell, but by how
much money they put into the dams.

Called "cost-plus" bookkeeping, Weiss said that the technique means
the more concrete and steel invested in keeping the dams viable, the
more profit PacifiCorp makes. He said they make little on the selling
of power from the dams. Only a fraction of PacifiCorp's energy
production comes from the four dams, which together supply 170,000
megawatts - or enough to power about 70,000 homes.

Based in Portland , PacifiCorp has some 45,000 customers in California
and another 500,000 in Oregon . It's owned by MidAmerica Energy
Holdings Co of Des Moines , Iowa , but is majority controlled by
billionaire Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway, Inc.

PacifiCorp serves some 1.6 million customers in six western states
and more than 95 percent of the power used to service those customers
comes from sources other than the four hydro dams on the Klamath.

Whatever the case, the debate over whether the dams will stay or go
is far from over.

Regina Chichizola of the environmental group Klamath Riverkeeper said
that FERC's final EIS has "nothing to do" with the settlement talks
that have been underway between numerous entities both vying for and
against dam removal.

She said settlement talks will likely take precedence over FERC's EIR
when FERC makes any final decision about allowing PacifiCorp to
continue operating the dams. PacifiCorp's Mitchell admitted that the
results of the negotiated settlement - which could be made public as
soon as this month - will have a powerful impact on FERC's decision
to re-license the dams. Even Klamath Basin farmers have conceded that
removing the dams would be OK in their opinion, just so long as
energy rates don't skyrocket and that there's still plenty of water
in Upper Klamath Lake to fuel the thousands of farms that make up the
backbone of the Basin's economy.

Proponents of keeping the dams have argued that the dams serve as
flood-control mechanisms along the Klamath River . They've even cited
recent global warming studies to argue that keeping the dams will
help prevent the predicted massive flooding in lowland areas
precipitated by rapid, global warming induced snowmelts. Finally,
proponents of the dams have argued that their removal would mean that
energy to fill the gap would have to come from sources that have a
greater "carbon footprint."

PacifiCorp's Mitchell, however, has said that solar and wind energy
will likely be considered as a replacement for power lost, should the
dams come down. She also said that PacifiCorp is considering
"biomass" power as a replacement. While biomass isn't completely
without carbon discharge, it is considered by both Oregon and
California as acceptable forms of "renewable" energy and would fit
nicely into the company's required "portfolio" of renewable energy
sources required by the law in both states.

She said the power produced from the four hydro plants does not count
toward that renewable portfolio requirement because the plants are
too old. The fight over the dams is sure to continue, and the recent
FERC report will likely heat things up in the continued negotiated
settlement talks.

"We can't continue to let Pacific Power extract the wealth of the
Klamath Basin , leaving our communities behind to suffer the
consequences," said Ron Reed, Cultural Biologist for the Karuk Tribe.

"This is an amazing opportunity to save ratepayers money, restore
salmon and provide economic stability to Klamath Basin and coastal
communities," said Kelly Catlett of Friends of the River. "Since
Pacific Power refuses to act responsibly, we're calling on their
customers to join our struggle. With the help of Pacific Power's
customers, we can ensure that the utility will not get away with
fleecing its own customers while destroying one of America 's greatest
natural resources."

To read the full FERC final report, go to:
http://www.ferc.gov/industries/hydropower/enviro/eis/2007/11-16-07.asp

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