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<h1><st1:country-region w:st="on"><b><font size=6 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:24.0pt'>U.S.</span></font></b></st1:country-region> Orders
Modification of <st1:place w:st="on">Klamath River</st1:place> Dams<o:p></o:p></h1>
<h2><b><font size=5 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:18.0pt'>Removal
May Prove More Cost-Effective<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h2>
<h2><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-weight:normal'><a
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/30/AR2007013001757.html?nav=hcmodule"><b><span
style='font-weight:bold'>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/30/AR2007013001757.html?nav=hcmodule</span></b></a>
<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h2>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'>By <a
href="http://projects.washingtonpost.com/staff/email/blaine+harden/"
title="Send an e-mail to Blaine Harden">Blaine Harden</a><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><font size=2
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>Washington</span></font></st1:place></st1:State><font
size=2><span style='font-size:10.0pt'> Post Staff Writer<br>
Wednesday, January 31, 2007; Page A03</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>SEATTLE,
Jan. 30 -- In a decision that could trigger the largest dam-removal project in
world history, the federal government said today that four hydroelectric dams
on the troubled Klamath River must undergo costly modifications to allow
passage for salmon.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Since
modifying the aging dams would cost an estimated $300 million, removing them
has suddenly become a much more plausible -- and considerably cheaper -- option
for their owner, PacifiCorp, a company owned by Warren E. Buffett's Berkshire
Hathaway Inc.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-element:frame'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><a
href="javascript:void(popitup('http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/photo/postphotos/orb/asection/2007-01-31/index.html?imgId=PH2007013001869&imgUrl=/photo/2007/01/30/PH2007013001869.html',650,850))"><!--link rel="image_src" href="http://media3.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/photo/2007/01/30/PH2007013001867.jpg"/--><span
style='text-decoration:none'><img border=0 width=103 height=12
id="_x0000_i1025" src="cid:image001.gif@01C74554.FAB39130" align=bottom></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-element:frame'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><img border=0 width=15
height=12 id="_x0000_i1026" src="cid:image002.jpg@01C74554.FAB39130"></span></font><font
size=1 face=Arial><span style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:Arial'><a
href="http://pictopia.com/perl/ptp?provider_id=25&ptp_photo_id=xt-mt-25-title_4731509"><span
style='bottom: 2px'>Buy This Photo</a></span></span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-element:frame'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><br clear=all>
<a
href="javascript:void(popitup('http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/photo/postphotos/orb/asection/2007-01-31/index.html?imgId=PH2007013001869&imgUrl=/photo/2007/01/30/PH2007013001869.html',650,850))"><span
style='text-decoration:none'><img border=0 width=228 height=171
id="_x0000_i1027" src="cid:image003.jpg@01C74554.FAB39130"
alt="The Klamath River in southwestern Oregon and Northern California was once the third most productive salmon fishery on the West Coast."
align=top></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-element:frame'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The Klamath River in
southwestern <st1:State w:st="on">Oregon</st1:State> and <st1:place w:st="on">Northern
California</st1:place> was once the third most productive salmon fishery on
the West Coast.<span id=credit> (By <st1:City w:st="on">Blaine</st1:City>
Harden -- The <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Washington</st1:place></st1:State>
Post) </span><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Removing
the dams would cost $101 million less than modifying them as ordered by federal
agencies, according to a recent report written for the California Energy
Commission.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Although
a number of dams across the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">United
States</st1:place></st1:country-region> and around the world have been
removed or scheduled for removal in recent years, federal officials say they
know of no other river in the world for which the removal of four hydroelectric
dams is under review.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>If the
dams were removed, the Klamath, which straddles the Oregon-California border,
has extraordinary potential to rebound as a major salmon resource, according to
fish biologists and regional officials. They say a revival could dramatically
improve commercial and sport fisheries along the coasts of <st1:State w:st="on">Oregon</st1:State>
and <st1:place w:st="on">Northern California</st1:place>.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The
Klamath once supported the third-largest runs of salmon on the West Coast. But
in the more than eight decades since it was dammed, it has become one of the
most fought-over rivers in the West -- with massive fish kills, blooms of
algae, angry irrigators, litigious environmentalists and Indian tribes whose
diet and culture have been substantially damaged by the disappearance of salmon.
Biologists blame the dams as a contributing factor to the near shutdown last
summer of commercial salmon fishing along 700 miles of the Oregon-California
coastline.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The four
dams produce electricity for about 70,000 customers. The power is worth about
$29 million a year, according to the California Energy Commission.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"The
Klamath is a degraded system, but it is uniquely restorable," said David
Diamond, an analyst with the Interior Department. "These dams are the only
barriers to fish passage from the headwaters to the Pacific. The watershed is
80 percent under federal ownership and it doesn't have major cities or other
development that prevents the return of healthy salmon runs."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>For
years, pressure to remove the four Klamath dams has come from Indian tribes,
conservation groups and commercial fishermen. But in a move that surprised many
environmentalists, the Bush administration -- through the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration's National Marine Fisheries Service -- concluded
last year that dam removal would be best for salmon.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The issue
has been forced on PacifiCorp because federal licenses for the dams, the oldest
of which was completed in 1918, are up for renewal. The <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City
w:st="on">Portland</st1:City>, <st1:State w:st="on">Ore.</st1:State></st1:place>,
power company had proposed that it be allowed to trap and haul salmon around
its dams as a way to revive the river's salmon fishery.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>But the
joint announcement by the Interior Department and NOAA rejects that proposal.
As a necessary condition for obtaining a new federal license, they said that
PacifiCorp must build costly fish ladders and other fish-passage devices at
each of the dams on the Klamath.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"We
are disappointed," said Dave Kvamme, a spokesman for PacifiCorp. "We
are looking for an outcome that best serves our customers. We are going to have
to look at costs and risks."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>In three
other license-renewal cases, PacifiCorp has agreed to remove dams from Western
rivers. The company, too, has participated for more than two years in
confidential negotiations with other <st1:place w:st="on">Klamath River</st1:place>
stakeholders in what to do about reviving the health of the river.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"We
have never ruled out dam removal as one potential outcome," Kvamme said,
while adding that his company urgently needs to create more electricity
generation and regards the dams as "an extremely valuable resource."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Buffett,
whose holdings include PacifiCorp, is a major shareholder in The Washington
Post.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>In the
six Western states where PacifiCorp sells electricity, the company would need
to secure the approval of public utility commissions to raise electricity rates
to recover the cost of demolishing or modifying the Klamath dams.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Because
removing the dams would be cheaper than modifying them, there will be strong
pressure on PacifiCorp from the commissions to get rid of them, said Steve
Rothert, director of the <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">California</st1:place></st1:State>
field office of American Rivers, an environmental group involved in
negotiations over the dams.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"It
is in their ratepayers' interest to remove the dams and replace the
power," Rothert said.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Kvamme
said PacifiCorp has not yet determined whether modifying the dams would be less
expensive in the long run than taking them out.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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