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<font face="Garamond" size=4>'Bless the NY Times for advocating
restoration of salmon habitat on the Klamath and Columbia<br><br>
But one tiny correction:<br><br>
The Edwards Dam on the Kennebec was <u>not</u> torn down, as the
Times claims, "against the owner's wishes"<br><br>
As those involved in the KBRA and Klamath Hydroelectric Project AIP have
admonished those of us impatient for dam decommissioning on the Klamath,
FERC has never ordered a license forfeited nor a dam decommissioned
against the owner's wishes so far as anyone has been able to
determine<br><br>
The Edwards Dam decommissioning was part of a multi-part negotiation
involving U.S EPA and other litigants and a Superfund site needing
attention, for which Bath Iron Works was responsible<br><br>
The agreement to decommission Edwards Dam, among other things, postponed
Bath's deadline for cleaning up the site --a deal, not a seizure<br><br>
We thought when both OR and CA made clear to PacifiCorp six years ago
that the states could not issue CWA Sect 401 certs to complete the KHP's
relicensing that it was a gotcha. 'Turns out PG&E is operating at
least one project in the Sierra sans 401 cert, on a year-to-year basis,
now 19 years out from the original license expiration<br><br>
We thought when the federal administrative law judge ruled for the
responsible fishery agencies (Sept, '07?) that PacifiCorp would have to
ladder its dams that that was a gotcha -- the trashy old dams would have
to come down. <br><br>
Turns out, as utilities regulation experts like Guy Phillips have tried
to explain to us all along, that's a <u>good</u> thing for PacifiCorp --
they'll get their publicly-guaranteed return-on-investment for every cent
of such fish ladder costs<br><br>
Where that leaves us isn't altogether clear - but it certainly isn't a
happy place from a salmon conservation perspective<br><br>
With decision-making at this pt squarely in the hands of the bureaucrats
we're reminded that these are the same people who have fondled the Battle
Creek salmon and steelhead restoration project nearly to death, haven't
turned a spadeful in the ten years since the essential planning and
negotiating were completed in 1999.<br><br>
There is simply no incentive for an agency like the Bureau of Reclamation
to expedite a river restoration project.<br><br>
And if you think for one minute that USBR and USFWS are a sisters act
check out the independent science review
<a href="http://www.cvpiaindependentreview.com/FisheriesReport12_12_08.pdf" eudora="autourl">
http://www.cvpiaindependentreview.com/FisheriesReport12_12_08.pdf</a><u>
</u>of CALFED's Anadromous Fishery Restoration Program. The reviewers
found that BurRec has alpha-dogged FWS at every critical juncture.
<br><br>
The Recovery Act notwithstanding, new project opportunities simply don't
come the Bureau's way all that often<br><br>
Bill Kier<br><br>
</font>At 10:36 AM 7/4/2009, Byron Leydecker wrote:<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/">
<img src="cid:.0" width=152 height=23 alt="New York Times"></a><br>
<div align="center"><b>
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/pages/opinion/index.html">Opinion</a>
<br>
</b></div>
<a name="articleBodyLink"></a>Editorial<br>
10 Years, 430 Dams <br>
Published: July 3, 2009 <br>
Ten years have gone by since a modest but important moment in American
environmental history: the dismantling of the 917-foot-wide Edwards Dam
on Maine’s Kennebec River. <br>
The Edwards Dam was the first privately owned hydroelectric dam torn down
for environmental reasons (and against the owner’s wishes) by the Federal
Energy Regulatory Commission. Bruce Babbitt, the interior secretary at
the time, showed up at the demolition ceremony to promote what had become
a personal crusade against obsolete dams. The publicity generated a
national discussion about dams and the potential environmental benefits
to water quality and fish species of removing them.<br>
It certainly helped the Kennebec and its fish, and dams have been falling
ever since. According to American Rivers, an advocacy group and a major
player in the Edwards Dam campaign, about 430 outdated dams (some of them
small hydropower dams like Edwards) have been removed with both public
and private funding. In one case, the removal of a small, 50-foot dam on
Oregon’s Sandy River was paid for entirely by the electric utility that
owned it in order to improve salmon runs.<br>
More lies ahead. Three dams that have severely damaged salmon runs in
Washington State are scheduled to come down in 2011. A tentative
agreement has been reached among farmers, native tribes and a power
company to remove dams on California’s Klamath River, the site of a huge
fish kill several years ago attributed mainly to low water flows caused
by dams. <br>
Maine, where this all began, will be the site of a spectacular
restoration project. Under an agreement involving the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration, a coalition called the Penobscot River
Restoration Trust and PPL, a power company, two dams will be removed and
a fish ladder built at a third to open up 1,000 miles of the Penobscot
River and its tributaries so that fish can return to their traditional
spawning grounds. <br>
A half-dozen species should benefit, including endangered Atlantic
salmon. The federal government has now imposed “critical habitat”
protections in nine Maine rivers where the salmon return to spawn.<br>
NOAA’s heightened interest in Atlantic salmon has raised hopes that it
may now take aggressive if politically risky steps to protect salmon
on the West Coast by ordering the removal of four big dams on the Lower
Snake River. This page has recommended such a move, which two previous
administrations have ducked. It seems now within the realm of
possibility. <br>
<b> <br>
<br>
</b><i>Byron Leydecker, JcT<br>
Chair, Friends of Trinity River<br>
PO Box 2327<br>
Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327<br>
415 383 4810 land<br>
415 519 4810 cell<br>
<b><a href="mailto:bwl3@comcast.net">bwl3@comcast.net</a><br>
<a href="mailto:bleydecker@stanfordalumni.org">
bleydecker@stanfordalumni.org</a> </b>(secondary)<br>
<b><a href="http://fotr.org/">http://www.fotr.org</a> <br>
</i></b> <br>
<br>
<br><br>
<br>
_______________________________________________<br>
env-trinity mailing list<br>
env-trinity@velocipede.dcn.davis.ca.us<br>
<a href="http://www2.dcn.org/mailman/listinfo/env-trinity" eudora="autourl">
http://www2.dcn.org/mailman/listinfo/env-trinity</a></blockquote>
<x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
<font face="Garamond" size=4>Kier Associates, <i>Fisheries and Watershed
Professionals<br>
</i>P.O. Box 915<br>
Blue Lake, CA 95525<br>
707.668.1822 <br>
mobile: 498.7847 <br>
<a href="http://www.kierassociates.net/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.kierassociates.net<br>
</a>GSA Advantage Contractor GS-10F-0124U<br>
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