Governors hail Klamath water pact, but not all agree

By Dylan Darling

Redding Record Searchlight

February 19, 2010

As those behind an agreement to remove dams along the Klamath River celebrated a ceremonial signing Thursday in Oregon's Capitol, Siskiyou County's elected leaders continue to oppose tearing out the dams.

"They haven't considered the true ramifications of this," said Grace Bennett, a Siskiyou County supervisor.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his Oregonian counterpart, Gov. Ted Kulongoski, led Thursday's event under Oregon's Capitol rotunda in Salem.

They hailed the agreement as a signal that a century-old fight over water from Oregon's Klamath Basin is nearing an end.

After five years of negotiations, a group of stakeholders in the basin signed a pair of agreements that would lead to the removal of a string of power dams along the Klamath River in southern Oregon and far northern Siskiyou County.

But the dams can't be removed until funding is secured and Congress must approve legislation and more agreements must be forged.

Schwarzenegger praised the parties Thursday for forgetting their differences in the interests of a better future, then invoked his movie roles as The Terminator, saying, "Hasta la vista" to the dams, and adding, "I can see already the salmon fish are screaming, 'I'll be back.' "

Bennett said Siskiyou County leaders simply want to see the science behind a decision to remove the dams and make way for a return of the salmon.

"Through this whole process, we've asked for very specific studies," she said.

Those include studies of how much sediment will be released downstream if the dams are removed and what the river's water quality will be like without the dams.

Water conflict in the basin stretches back to the early 1900s, when the federal government turned the hydrology of the upper Klamath Basin upside down, drawing water from lakes and rivers to irrigate crops on dry uplands.

Veterans of World War I homesteaded the Klamath Reclamation Project straddling the Oregon-California border near Klamath Falls, where potatoes, alfalfa, horseradish and cattle are still grown.

The issues came to a head in 2001 when the federal government cut off agricultural water at the start of growing season, sparking a summer of protests. The next year, water supplies were fully restored, but then about 30,000 salmon died in warm, low flows on the Klamath River before they could spawn.

In recent years, the focus for improving the basin became the Klamath Power dams and their potential removal.

In all, the removal will cost $450 million. Californians will vote this November on a $250 million bond for the removal, with Pacific Power ratepayers putting in the other $200 million.

Before the removal, studies should truly show it is the best thing to do for the river, said Micheal Kobseff, another Siskiyou County supervisor.

"Once we pull the plug on those things, they aren't coming back," he said.

The lowest of the dams, Iron Gate dam near Interstate 5 north of Yreka, begins the series of blockades preventing salmon from swimming to historical spawning beds up the Klamath River.

Both Bennett and Kobseff said they are leery of a federal push to change environmental policy to benefit an animal after having seen the county's timber industry nearly obliterated by protections for the spotted owl. They also said the dams support the county's agricultural base.

"If we lose our agriculture like we lost our timber industry, there isn't much else to keep us alive up here," Bennett said.

Reporter Dylan Darling can be reached at 225-8266 or ddarling@redding.com.

AP Reporter Jeff Barnard contributed to this report.