[env-trinity] Hoopa Valley Tribe Asks For Hearing On Klamath Dams!

[Daniel Bacher]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Aug. 31, 2005

Media Contacts:
Clifford Lyle Marshall  (530) 625-42ll
Mike Orcutt  (530) 625-4367 ext. 13
Tod Bedrosian  (916)421-5121


HOOPA VALLEY TRIBE ASKS CALIFORNIA PUBLIC UTILITY COMMISSION TO DENY REQUEST 
TO ELIMINATE PUBLIC HEARING ON SALE OF KLAMATH RIVER HYDROPOWER DAMS

Hoopa, Calif.  The Hoopa Valley Tribe of northern California has asked the 
California Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to deny a request from 
PacifiCorp and MidAmerican Energy to eliminate a public hearing on a $9.4 
billion deal to transfer ownership of hydropower dams on the Klamath River. 
The tribe is at the forefront of a growing community of Native American and 
environmental groups concerned MidAmerican Energy may not have the 
inclination or sufficient resources to make fish restoration improvements at 
the aging dams.

"The Hoopa Valley Tribe is not opposed to the sale per se," said Hoopa 
Tribal Chairman Clifford Lyle Marshall. "We just want to make sure that an 
opportunity is not lost for Californians to ensure that salmon passage 
around these dams is established and maintained to accommodate the needs of 
the Klamath River."

In an Aug. 17, formal protest to Judge Timothy Kenney the tribe's counsel, 
Tom Schlosser, noted, "The Klamath Hydroelectric Project blocks 300 miles of 
historic anadromous fish habitat and its operations have a significant 
adverse effect on resident fish both within and downstream of the project." 
Hoopa tribal leaders are concerned because the Klamath River crosses the 
Hoopa Valley Reservation. The reservation is also bisected by the Trinity 
River, the largest tributary to the Klamath River.

"The power companies' request to not have a public hearing on this transfer 
of ownership
is a denial of the public's the right to comment on many complex issues," 
said Marshall. "The law has changed significantly since the Klamath Project 
was built in l917 and licensed in l956. During these years the dams have 
diminished the salmon populations. There should be a public hearing to learn 
how future owners will protect the river's habitat and the salmon because 
decisions made today will affect the Klamath River for decades, and 
generations of Indian people."

"PacifiCorp (a subsidiary to Scottish Power) and MidAmerican Energy Holding 
Company asked the PUC for a blanket exemption from the PUC approval 
provisions of California Public Utilities Commission Section 854(a) for a 
major pending utility sale," Schlosser noted, "This exemption is neither 
appropriate, not does it serve any public interest to actually prevent 
public scrutiny of this public sale, which will affect ratepayers in six 
states, including California.? He said the utilities contended the impact on 
California was minimal. These inefficient and aging dams may only provide a 
small portion of California's energy grid, but the environmental impact on 
the rivers is huge. To allow this sale without giving Californians a chance 
to comment is unconscionable."

PacifiCorp's 50-year-old license, due to expire in February of 2006, is also 
being reviewed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The 
renewal issue has become an environmental hotspot because of historic 
endangered salmon mortalities on the Klamath and Trinity rivers.

Native American delegations comprised of Hoopa, Yurok and Karuk Indians have 
traveled twice to Scotland recently to ask Scottish Power executives to tear 
down at least three of the Klamath dams.