Officials sign Klamath agreement

Officials from two states and more than 30 stakeholder organizations converged in Salem yesterday, including Gov. Ted Kulongoski and U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, to sign the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement and the Klamath Basin Hydroelectric Agreement.

The settlements represent a historic effort at solving an environmental and economic problem that left farmers setting up a symbolic bucket brigade to water their crops and resulted in the death of hundreds of fish.

The meat of the restoration agreement, in addition to the potential removal of up to four hydroelectric dams by 2020, includes increased reliability of water supplies for agriculture and water flows for fisheries, along with the settlement of all water-related litigation and the integration of renewable energy options to keep electricity rates affordable

James Honey, program director at Sustainable Northwest, the nonprofit organization that helped convene the decision makers needed to reach an agreement in the Klamath Basin, said the fact that the plan involves the potential removal by PacifiCorp of Klamath Basin dams, is nabbing all the headlines but the structure that underlies the agreement is something every business can learn from.

“Dam removal is sexy, it’s interesting,” Honey said. “But this is really a lesson in how to move through complex problems.”

The key to bringing a diverse group of stakeholders together, Honey said is that they collectively worked toward the sustainability of the community as a whole, as opposed to the group’s individual prosperity.

Businesses, including PacifiCorp, ultimately chose the certainty of the plan — and the dam-removal costs that would be shouldered by ratepayers — over the uncertainty of the cost of future litigation and water-quality measures.

“Nobody got everything they wanted,” Honey said. “But the integrated economic, social and environmental needs of the region were met and that’s something that can be exported to other regions.”

Trey Senn, director of the Klamath County Economic Development Association (KCEDA) said in a statement that the economic benefits of the settlement agreement should not be under estimated adding, “it will bring economic stability to our ranchers and farmers and the supporting businesses.”