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<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:black'>Utility
agrees to terms removing Klamath dams<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";
color:black'>By JEFF BARNARD AP Environmental Writer<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";
color:#000088'>Posted: 09/30/2009 04:08:17 AM PDT<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";
color:#000088'>Updated: 09/30/2009 06:19:18 AM PDT<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><br>
<br>
</span><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";
color:black'>MEDFORD, Ore.—The utility that owns four hydroelectric dams
on the Klamath River has agreed to terms for their removal, a key milestone in
efforts to restore what was once the third biggest salmon run on the West Coast
and end decades of battles over scarce water. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
style='font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:black'>PacifiCorp, the states
of California and Oregon, American Indian tribes, federal agencies, irrigators
and conservation groups announced the draft agreement Wednesday. Signing is
expected by the end of the year. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
style='font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:black'>Actual removal is not
scheduled to start until 2020, and depends on full funding of the removal, a
determination by the U.S. Secretary of Interior that it will actually help
salmon and is in the public interest, and authorization from Congress. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
style='font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:black'>"This agreement
marks the beginning of a new chapter for the Klamath River and for the
communities whose health and way of life depend on it," Interior Secretary
Ken Salazar said in a statement. "Hats off to all the stakeholders who
have worked so hard to find common ground on one of the most challenging water
issues of our time." <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
style='font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:black'>PacifiCorp will not bear
the estimated $450 million cost of removing the dams. Oregon has approved $180
million in surcharges on state ratepayers. Another $250 million depends on
California approving general obligation bonds. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
style='font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:black'>"If the federal
government and the states of California and Oregon sign onto this negotiated
final settlement, then we will join with them and all the other stakeholder
groups that may choose to sign the agreement," PacifiCorp Chairman and CEO
Greg Abel said in a statement. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
style='font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:black'>The utility serves 1.6
million customers in Oregon, California, Washington, Idaho, Utah and Wyoming,
and is owned by MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co., a unit of Warren Buffett's
Omaha, Neb.-based Berkshire Hathaway Inc. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
style='font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:black'>"When the Klamath
dams come down, it will be the biggest dam removal project the world has ever
seen," Steve Rothert, California director for the conservation groups
American Rivers, said in a statement. "We will be able to watch on a grand
scale as a river comes back to life." <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
style='font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:black'>Water wars have long
simmered in the Klamath Basin, where the first of the dams and a federal
irrigation project built in the early 20th century turned the natural water
distribution upside down, draining marshes and lakes and tapping rivers for
electricity to put water on dry farmland that grows potatoes, horseradish,
grain, alfalfa and cattle. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
style='font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:black'>A drought in 2001 forced
a shutoff of irrigation water to sustain threatened and endangered fish. When
the irrigation was restored the next year, tens of thousands of salmon died
trying to spawn in the Klamath River, which was too low and too warm to sustain
them. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
style='font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:black'>Besides blocking salmon
from the upper basin, the dams raise water temperatures to levels unhealthy for
fish. Their reservoirs produce toxic algae. The fish are beset by parasites. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
style='font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:black'>The four
dams—Copco J.P. Doyle, Copco 1, Copco 2, and Iron Gate—together
produce enough electricity for 70,000 customers. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
style='font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:black'>Pressure has been
building since PacifiCorp applied for a new 50-year federal operating license
in 2004 and made no provision for fish passage, which stops at Iron Gate near
the Oregon-California border. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
style='font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:black'>California and Oregon's
governors pressed for dam removal after West Coast commercial salmon fisheries
collapsed in 2006 because of declines in Klamath River returns, triggering a
disaster declaration. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
style='font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:black'>Federal biologists
mandated that fish ladders and other improvements costing $300 million be added
to the dams before a federal operating license could be renewed. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
style='font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:black'>California water
authorities have been taking a hard look at the dams' role in toxic algae
plaguing the river, and river advocates have sued PacifiCorp to fix the algae
problem. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
style='font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:black'>Final approval of the
dam removal agreement is key to authorization of a separate agreement to spend
$1 billion over the next decade on environmental restoration in the Klamath
Basin. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
style='font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:black'>Some conservation groups
were not happy that dam removal continues to be linked to letting farming
continue on the Lower Klamath and Tule Lake national wildlife refuges,
preventing restoration of wetlands that would contribute to better water
quality, and guaranteed irrigation levels for farmers in the upper basin. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
style='font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:black'>"It's fantastic
that we have attention on the Klamath Basin and might get a shot at dam
removal," said Steve Pedery, conservation director of Oregon Wild in
Portland. "But we really can't afford to allow dam removal be linked to
making other environmental problems in the basin worse." <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
style='font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:black'>Some details remain
unresolved. It is not certain, for example, whether the federal government or
some other entity will take possession of the dams to remove them.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>Byron
Leydecker, JcT</span></i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>Chair, Friends
of Trinity River</span></i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>PO Box 2327</span></i><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>Mill Valley, CA
94942-2327</span></i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>415 383 4810
land</span></i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>415 519 4810
cell</span></i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'><a
href="mailto:bwl3@comcast.net"><span style='color:blue'>bwl3@comcast.net</span></a></span></i></b><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'><a
href="mailto:bleydecker@stanfordalumni.org"><span style='color:blue'>bleydecker@stanfordalumni.org</span></a>
</span></i></b><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>(secondary)</span></i><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'><a
href="http://fotr.org/"><span style='color:blue'>http://www.fotr.org</span></a>
</span></i></b><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
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