[env-trinity] Supes sign Klamath River dam removal pact;

[Tom Stokely]

http://www.times-standard.com/general-news/20160531/supes-sign-klamath-river-dam-removal-pact-airbnb-taxation-agreement-approved&template=printart
Supes sign Klamath River dam removal pact; AirBnb taxation agreement approved

AirBnb agrees to collect taxes from local operators
By Will Houston, Eureka Times-StandardTuesday, May 31, 2016The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously today to once again show its support for the removal of four hydroelectric dams from the Klamath River by 2020.Unlike the previous version of the dam-removing Klamath Hydroelectric Settlement Agreement (KHSA) that was signed by the board and nearly 40 other entities in 2010, the new agreement currently does not include solutions for water rights disputes between Klamath River Basin tribes and farmers.“For our sake, signing on to the KHSA carries a general obligation to support implementation of this agreement and to support working towards those other issues in the future,” 3rd District Supervisor and board chairman Mark Lovelace said.As part of its consent agenda, the board also approved a agreement with the online lodging company AirBnb that requires the company to begin collect lodging taxes from its local property owners.The board also put its $14 million juvenile hall building replacement project out to bid.
Klamath agreement
If implemented, the Klamath Hydroelectric Settlement Agreement would become the largest dam removal project in U.S. history by removing four aging hydroelectric dams on the 236-mile Klamath River by 2020. Signed by federal agencies, state, environmental, tribal and county officials as well as the dam-owning company PacifiCorp in 2010, the agreement and its companion agreements — the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement and Upper Klamath Basin Comprehensive Agreement — sought to end decades of water rights disputes and restore habitat to threatened and endangered fish species in the basin. The agreements took nearly a decade to form, but required Congress to enact them. However, the three agreements were unable to pass the House Natural Resources Committee, which included members of Congress such as 1st District California Congressman Doug LaMalfa, who openly opposed dam removal.The bills stalled in the committee until the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement expired on Dec. 31, 2015, seemingly killing all three agreements.However, many of the signatories quickly came together to draft a newly amended version of the Klamath Hydroelectric Settlement, which was signed by top state, federal, and tribal officials in April. The new version of the agreement will no longer require congressional approval, but will instead seek to decommission the dams through the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which was authorized by Congress to decommission and license dams. The agreement is set to go before the commission in July.Fourth District Humboldt County Supervisor Virginia Bass said today that this new agreement takes a better approach to the issue and allows the signatories to have more control over the parameters of the agreement.The dam removal is expected to cost about $450 million, with $250 million being paid for by PacifiCorp ratepayers and the other $200 million paid through California’s Proposition 1 water bond. Three of the four dams are located in Siskiyou County; the fourth is in Southern Oregon.LaMalfa, who represents Siskiyou, was critical of the state paying to removing dams owned by American businessman Warren Buffet. PacifiCorp is a subsidiary of Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway Energy.The new agreement still does not address water rights and that some signatories, especially Klamath Basin irrigators, say have been “left on the sideline,” Lovelace said.A new agreement known as the Klamath Power Facilities Agreement, also signed in April, calls for new regulations to be drafted to aid Klamath Basin irrigators and ranchers when salmon and other Klamath River fish are reintroduced into the Upper Klamath River Basin. Whatever regulations are drafted are still expected to require congressional approval.
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