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<p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:19.5pt;
font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black'>Utility agrees to removal of 4
Klamath River dams<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:19.5pt;
font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black'>It won't happen until after 2020,
but is seen as vital to restoring California's dwindling salmon stocks. The
decommissioning would be the nation's largest and most complex dam removal
project.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'><img
width=341 height=510 id="Picture_x0020_1"
src="cid:image001.jpg@01CA41B0.B753EA60" alt="Klamath River dam"></span><span
style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:4.5pt'><span style='font-size:8.5pt;
font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>The Copco No. 1 dam near Hornbrook, Calif.,
and three others on the Klamath River could be removed. (Jeff Barnard /
Associated Press)</span><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-right:7.5pt;
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</span></span></span><![endif]><b><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:
"Georgia","serif";color:black;display:none'>Related <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-right:7.5pt;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:0in;text-indent:-.25in;line-height:11.25pt;
mso-list:l1 level1 lfo1;background:white'><![if !supportLists]><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Symbol;color:black'><span style='mso-list:
Ignore'>·<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
</span></span></span><![endif]><a
href="http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-093009-me-klamath-g,0,2700693.graphic"><span
style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black;text-decoration:
none'><img border=0 width=80 height=44 id="Picture_x0020_2"
src="cid:image004.jpg@01CA41B0.BD94B710" alt=Map></span></a><span
style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black'><a
href="http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-093009-me-klamath-g,0,2700693.graphic"><span
style='color:black;text-decoration:none'>Map</span></a> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:10.5pt;
font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black'>By Bettina Boxall <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:2.25pt;background:white'><i><span
style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#930000'>September
30, 2009</span></i><i><span style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";
color:white;letter-spacing:-.75pt'> | </span></i><i><span style='font-size:
8.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#930000'>6:06 a.m.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:10.5pt;
font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black'>In a major boost for California's
dwindling salmon stocks, a utility company has agreed to the removal of four
hydroelectric dams that for decades have blocked fish migrations on one of the
West Coast's most important salmon rivers.<br>
<br>
The dam decommissioning is vital to restoring the Klamath River, which for
years has been the subject of bitter feuding among farmers, fishermen and
tribal interests.<br>
<br>
It would open historic salmon spawning and rearing grounds on the upper reaches
of the river, which winds from southern Oregon through the Cascades and Coast
Ranges to California's Pacific Coast.<br>
<br>
"We can't restore the river solely by removing the dams, but we can't restore
the Klamath without removing the dams," said Steve Rothert of the
environmental group American Rivers, one of 29 parties negotiating the dam
settlement.<br>
<br>
Backers say the decommissioning -- which still must be approved by the federal
government -- would be the nation's largest and most complex dam removal
project.<br>
<br>
"We're about to make changes to the Klamath Basin that will be observable
from space," said Craig Tucker of the Karuk tribe, which traditionally
fished for salmon.<br>
<br>
For PacifiCorp, the Portland, Ore., utility that owns the dams, consenting to
the end of the J.C. Boyle, Copco No. 1 and 2 and Iron Gate dams ultimately was
a business decision.<br>
<br>
The utility, a subsidiary of billionaire Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway
empire, faced litigation and expensive relicensing requirements for the dams,
the oldest of which dates to 1918.<br>
<br>
"As a utility, we don't typically take dams out," said Dean
Brockbank, PacifiCorp's lead negotiator. "We have achieved an agreement
that is in the best interest of our customers -- the lowest cost and risk
compared to the alternative."<br>
<br>
Under the draft settlement, which the parties hope to sign by the end of the
year, PacifiCorp would continue to operate the dams until 2020. Then they would
transfer the hydropower facilities to another entity, likely the federal
government, for dismantling.<br>
<br>
The Interior Department has to make a determination that the dams' removal will
be in the public interest, a sign-off that Brockbank said is not guaranteed but
that the company expects to get.<br>
<br>
"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.<br>
<br>
The settlement terms call for PacifiCorp ratepayers in Oregon and California to
pay a surcharge to finance a company contribution of up to $200 million for dam
removal and river restoration. California also would provide as much as $250
million in bond money.<br>
<br>
"We're hopeful this will result in dam removal, but a number of things
have to occur before that can happen," said Kirk Miller, deputy secretary
of the California Natural Resources Agency. "It is a complicated
matter."<br>
<br>
The dams, which range in height from 33 feet to 173 feet and are spread across
65 miles of the Klamath, haven't just kept chinook and coho salmon out of the
upper river and its tributaries. They also have hurt water quality.<br>
<br>
In the summer, stagnant pools of warm water behind the dams become a breeding
ground for toxic algae.<br>
<br>
The Klamath Basin made national headlines early this decade when federal water
managers cut irrigation deliveries to preserve fish flows, sparking protests
from irate farmers. The following year, when more water was released to
agriculture, tens of thousands of salmon died, floating in the river's shallow
waters and washing up on its banks.<br>
<br>
"We are redefining what restoration and collaboration means in a place
that has historically been the West's most notorious watershed for lawsuits,
civil strife, guns in public," said Chuck Bonham of Trout Unlimited, an
environmental group that works to preserve fish habitat.<br>
<br>
Along with the Columbia and the Sacramento rivers, the Klamath has
traditionally been one of the country's most productive salmon rivers. But the
West Coast salmon stocks have been in such poor shape that for the last three
years, California has canceled its commercial salmon fishing season.<br>
<br>
The Klamath has "been dammed and polluted nearly to death," said Glen
Spain, northwest regional director of the Pacific Coast Federation of
Fishermen's Assns.<br>
<br>
The dam settlement follows an earlier restoration agreement that also is due to
be signed by the end of the year.<br>
<br>
The restoration proposal has come under fire from some environmental groups
that complain it preserves irrigation deliveries for Klamath Basin farms at the
expense of fish and also allows continued farming in wildlife refuges with
critical wetlands.<br>
<br>
"Dam removal is still tied to this albatross," said Steve Pedery of
Oregon Wild.<br>
<br>
Jeffrey Mount, founding director of the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences
and a member of the American Rivers board, warned that tearing down the dams
would not solve all of the Klamath's water quality problems.<br>
<br>
"There is this assumption that a miracle will occur when the dams come
down," he said. "Removal of the dams does not address the broader
problems of the basin."<br>
<br>
He described Upper Klamath Lake, which feeds the river, as a "big, warm,
green pile of goo" that could make things worse for the fish once the dams
are gone.<br>
<br>
Still, he added, "This is incredibly exciting."<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
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</span></i></b><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>(secondary)</span></i><b><span
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