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County to request Klamath legislation for public review
By David Smith
Siskiyou Daily News
February 11, 2010
Yreka, Calif. - At Tuesday’s Siskiyou County
Board of Supervisors meeting, County Counsel Thomas Guarino
gave the board an update on the Klamath Basin Restoration
Agreement (KBRA) and Klamath Hydroelectric Settlement
Agreement (KHSA) processes, stating then that the date and
location of the signing of the agreements had not yet been
made available.
Guarino stated that the county had requested that the signing take place in Yreka “in front of the people whose fates it will determine.”
Guarino also stated that currently, legislation is being drafted as part of the requirements in the KHSA and the KBRA, stating that the board can request that the legislative work be made available to the public.
Guarino claimed that the federal government, one of the
parties to the agreements, is waiting for the legislation to
exempt the agreement process from the National Environmental
Policy Act and the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA)
before signing the documents, which he said is of
questionable legality. Natural Resource Policy Specialist
Ric Costales, who attended the recent Klamath Basin Science
Conference in Medford, Ore., stated that when other
conference attendees asked him to explain the county’s
stance on KHSA and KBRA, he told them that the county feels
it is being forced to sign documents it is not sure are
completely legal.
District 1 Supervisor Jim Cook, who also attended the conference, stated that Walt Duffy of the United States Geological Survey had requested that the county give him a list of the studies it would like to see included in the cost/benefit analysis of whether or not four dams along the Klamath River will be removed. The board voted to have a list compiled and sent to Duffy as requested.
The board also voted to send letters to Senator Dianne Fienstein, Congressman Wally Herger and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar requesting that the current legislation on the KBRA and KHSA be released before the county’s deliberations on those agreements.
A final motion, which was also approved, was to send letters to Feinstein and Herger to ask whether or not the KBRA will be exempt from CEQA. The vote also included a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder requesting his opinion on that matter.
Wednesday, Guarino reported that signing of the KBRA and KHSA will take place in a ceremony Feb. 18 in Salem, Ore., and he said that Salazar may be present at that event.
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