[env-trinity] SJ Mercury-Salazar: Klamath dam removal will cost far less

[Tom Stokely]

http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_18929674

 

Salazar: Klamath dam

removal will cost far less

 

By MARCUS WOHLSEN Associated Press

 

Posted: 09/19/2011 12:37:46 PM PDT

 

Updated: 09/19/2011 04:01:30 PM PDT

 

SAN FRANCISCO—The cost of removing four dams

on the Klamath River in California and Oregon will

be far less than first believed, Interior Secretary Ken

Salazar said Monday as he worked to rally support

for several massive federal water projects.

 

An environmental report to be released Thursday

will show that the proposed removal project will

cost about $290 million, not $450 million as

initially estimated, Salazar told an audience at the

Commonwealth Club in San Francisco.

 

"We today have real hope for a healthier basin and

stronger economy on the Klamath," Salazar said.

 

The dam removal proposed for 2020 is part of an

agreement to restore historic salmon runs while

maintaining irrigation for the region's farmers by

dismantling the hydroelectric dams. Three of the

dams are in Northern California and the fourth in

Southern Oregon.

 

More than 550,000 Oregon customers of Portland-

based dam owner PacifiCorp are paying an extra 2

percent per month on their electric bills to cover the

cost of dam removal. The utility's 40,000 California

customers will soon start to see the same surcharge.

 

The drastically lower cost will not mean lower utility

bills for those customers, since PacifiCorp is on the

hook for the first $200 million the removal will cost

under the terms of the removal agreement, said Bob

Gravely, a company spokesman.

 

The state of California has agreed to cover any costs

above the first $200 million.

 

The dams generate

 

enough electricity to power about 70,000 homes.

PacifiCorp was confident alternate sources to make

up for the loss power could be found by 2020,

Gravely said.

 

The draft environmental impact statement will show

that removing the dams will cost about 50 jobs, all

tied to generating electricity at the dams, Salazar

said. Removing the dams would create about 4,600

jobs, including about 1,400 for the dam removal

itself and between 70 and 695 farm jobs owing to a

more reliable water supply, he said.

 

An advocacy group for the region's farmers said

they believed the number of farm jobs created by the

dam removal would be even higher.

 

"We believe that the draft EIS numbers underestimate

the jobs and gross income that farming and

ranching provides to the (Klamath) Basin," said

farmer Steve Kandra in a statement issued by the

group, Partnership to Restore Stability and

Prosperity to the Region.

 

The report will show that Coho salmon will reclaim

nearly 70 miles of historical habitat and steelhead

420 miles, Salazar said.

 

The secretary said he planned to make a final

decision by March 2012 on how to proceed with the

dam removal plan.
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