[env-trinity] Siskiyou County Petition to FERC, response to Hoopa Valley ...

[FISH1IFR at aol.com]

In a message dated 6/27/2012 1:55:29 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,  
tstokely at att.net writes:

You may  find the attached of interest.  Siskiyou County filed a petition 
to the  Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in response to the Hoopa Valley 
Tribe's  petition for FERC on the issue of relicensing Pacificorps' Klamath  
Dams.
Colleagues...
 
Siskiyou County's supporting a return to FERC just underscores the  fact 
that by far the most likely outcome of the FERC process on its own  (assuming 
the KHSA no longer holds) is RELICENSING, not dam  decommissioning.  People 
forget that this was FERC Staff's strong  recommendation back in 2007.  FERC 
has never ordered a dam down in its  history except pursuant to a 
Settlement like the KHSA.  There  is no special reason they would do so in this one 
case.  This is  an agency of which it is said that it has never seen a dam it 
did not  like!
 
And remember, one of these four dams (J.C. Boyle) is in Oregon,  where the 
water quality laws are much weaker, the environmental  agencies even more 
timid about denying a 401 Certification and facing  massive litigation, and 
the water quality impacts of the Oregon dam are the  least of them all.  J.C. 
Boyle also generates up to 80 MW -- the large  majority of the generation of 
the whole system -- and therefore is by far the  most valuable dam to keep, 
should it come to FERC.  (Iron Gate = only 18  MW)
 
A return to FERC risks at least a partial relicensing, and the loss  of 
this unique opportunity for full river restoration for up to the next 50  
years.  Compared to the KHSA now in hand, which offers four-dam  removal within 
the next 8 years, Parties to the KHSA such as  PCFFA consider this "return to 
FERC and FERC will fix it" strategy to be  very high risk.  Some of my 
esteemed colleagues clearly disagree with me,  particularly the Hoopa Tribe.  
But the fact that Siskiyou County is now  cheering on the Hoopa Tribe's 
Petition to FERC to resume control over the  relicensing process should give one 
great pause about the potential outcomes of  that "return to FERC" strategy.
 
As the great Yogi Berra said, "It is always dangerous to make predictions  
-- especially about the future."
 
 
 
======================================
Glen H. Spain, Northwest  Regional Director
Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations  (PCFFA)
PO Box 11170, Eugene, OR 97440-3370
Office: (541)689-2000 Fax:  (541)689-2500
Web Home Page: _www.pcffa.org_ (http://www.pcffa.org/) 
Email:  fish1ifr at aol.com
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