November 17, 2006
Crowd pushes feds to rip out Klamath River
dams
Hundreds of people turned out Thursday night in a
passionate display before federal regulators to tell them that the
dams on the Klamath River should be torn down.
Staff with the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission -- charged with issuing another license for four
hydropower dams owned by Pacificorp -- heard speaker after speaker
demand the agency consider removing the dams instead of letting them
continue to operate. The health of the regional economy, of people
and of fish runs is more important than the pittance of power the
dams generate, they were told.
”I plead with you,” said conservationist
Claire Courtney, “use no other option -- take the four dams
down.”
So many showed up that about 200 people packed the
hallway outside the hearing room at the Red Lion Inn. Frustrated
people were turned away as the 350 people in the room was the
maximum allowable according to fire codes.
FERC's John Mudre, assessing the situation in the
hall, blamed local biologist Pat Higgins and the media for getting
too many people to turn out to a public meeting.
”You guys caused the problem,” Mudre said.
FERC booked the same room -- with similar results
-- in June 2004.
The commission has the authority to issue another
license to Pacificorp.
During the hearing, Mudre said that the term of
the license could be 30 or 50 years. The agency recently released
its draft Environmental Impact Statement, which outlined its intent
to leave the Iron Gate, Copco I, Copco II and J.C. Boyle dams in
place.
But an administrative law judge's ruling last
month made it clear that Pacificorp would likely have to build fish
ladders to allow salmon to reach hundreds of miles of spawning
grounds cut off by the dams. Pacificorp has proposed to trap fish
and truck them above and below the dams.
”The salmon need to go home,” Yurok Tribal
Chairman Howard McConnell said. “Their home is the Upper Klamath
Basin. The time is now.”
Repeatedly FERC staff was admonished for not
analyzing removal of the four dams, and were called on to heed a
recent California Coastal Conservancy study that holds that
decommissioning the structures is not nearly as expensive as
building fish ladders. They were also told that the federal document
fails to address the cultural costs of the dams to American Indian
tribes like the Yurok, Hoopa and Karuk, or economic costs to
fishermen.
State Sen. Wes Chesbro said FERC's current tack
would be about “as effective as putting lipstick on a pig.”
He told the representatives that removing the four
dams should be the centerpiece of FERC's proposal, and said that up
to $525 million through Proposition 84, passed this month by voters,
could be used toward taking out the dams.
Agencies like the National Marine Fisheries
Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service must finalize
conditions for fish passage and other issues by January 30, and
FERC's final environmental document is due in April. Then, both
California and Oregon must consider issuing water quality
certifications before a federal license can be granted.
Comments on FERC's draft Environmental Impact
Statement are due by December 1. The document can be viewed at
www.ferc.gov. Search for Klamath.