<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><h1>Scientists find holes in Klamath River dam removal plan</h1>
<h2><font size="2"><a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-klamath-20110625,0,938010.story">http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-klamath-20110625,0,938010.story</a><br>
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<h2><font size="2">$1.4-billion project — dismantling four
hydroelectric dams to restore Chinook salmon runs in the upper Klamath
River — amounts to an experiment with no guarantee of success,
independent report says.</font></h2><div class="thumbnail" style="width: 300px;"><div class="holder"><table cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td><br></td></tr></tbody></table></div></div>
<span class="toolSet" style="width: 300px;"><div class="byline"><span class="byline"></span><p class="date"><span class="dateString">June 25, 2011</span></p>
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A $1.4-billion project to remove <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2009/sep/30/local/me-klamath30">four hydroelectric dams</a>
and restore habitat to return Chinook salmon to the upper reaches of
the Klamath River amounts to an experiment with no guarantee of success,
an independent science review has concluded.<br>
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A panel of experts evaluating the proposal expressed "strong
reservations" that the effort could overcome the many environmental
pressures that have driven the dramatic decline of what was one of the
richest salmon rivers in the nation.
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Even after the decommission of dams that have for decades blocked
migrating salmon, the panel said, biologists would probably have to
truck the fish around a stretch of the river plagued by low oxygen
levels.<br>
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"I think there's no way in hell they're going to solve" the basin's
water-quality problems, said Wim Kimmerer, an environmental research
professor at San Francisco State, one of six experts who reviewed the
plan. "It doesn't seem to me like they've thought about the big picture
very much."<br>
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Over the last century, the Klamath's waters have been diverted for
irrigation, polluted by runoff and dammed for hydropower. The number of
fall-run Chinook that swim up the river and its tributaries to spawn
has in some years amounted to fewer than 20,000, compared to historic
populations of half a million.<br>
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The plummeting levels of native fish have pitted farmers against
environmentalists and tribes whose traditional cultures and diets
revolved around salmon fishing.<br>
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Many of the warring parties last year signed two agreements intended to
bring peace to the river, which winds from southern Oregon through the
Cascade and Coast ranges to California's Pacific Coast.<br>
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One of the pacts calls for the removal, starting in 2020, of four hydropower dams operated by <a class="taxInlineTagLink" id="ORCRP011688" title="PacifiCorp" href="http://www.latimes.com/topic/economy-business-finance/pacificorp-ORCRP011688.topic">PacifiCorp</a>, a subsidiary of billionaire <a class="taxInlineTagLink" id="PEBSL000005" title="Warren Buffett" href="http://www.latimes.com/topic/economy-business-finance/financial-business-services/warren-buffett-PEBSL000005.topic">Warren Buffett</a>'s <a class="taxInlineTagLink" id="ORCRP001814" title="Berkshire Hathaway Incorporated" href="http://www.latimes.com/topic/economy-business-finance/berkshire-hathaway-incorporated-ORCRP001814.topic">Berkshire Hathaway</a>
empire. The other includes fishery restoration programs as well as
promises of a certain level of water deliveries to Klamath basin farmers
and two wildlife refuges that are important stopovers for migrating
birds.<br>
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The dam removal must still be approved by Congress and the U.S.
secretary of the Interior, who will rely on reviews by the independent
panel, federal agencies and others to determine if the decommissioning
is in the public interest.<br>
<br>
The <a href="http://klamathrestoration.gov/sites/klamathrestoration.gov/files/FINAL%20Report_Chinook%20Salmon_Klamath%20Expert%20Panels_06%2013%2011.pdf">scientists' June 13 report</a>
describes the proposals as a "major step forward" that could boost the
salmon population by about 10% in parts of the upper basin. But to
achieve that, the panel cautions, the project must tackle vexing
problems, including poor water quality and fish disease.<br>
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The report concluded that the agreement doesn't adequately address those
issues. Under the proposal, vegetation in restored wetlands and stream
banks would be expected to absorb the phosphorus from natural and
agricultural sources that promotes harmful algal blooms. But such a
method, Kimmerer said, would require converting an area roughly
equivalent to 40% of the irrigated farmland in the Upper Klamath Lake
watershed to wetlands.<br>
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"This does not seem like a feasible level of effort," the report notes.<br>
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Dennis Lynch, who is overseeing a team of <a href="http://klamathrestoration.gov/sites/klamathrestoration.gov/files/SD%20Fish%20Synthesis%2006-13-2011%20FINAL.pdf">federal scientists gathering information</a>
on the effects of dam removal, said his group agrees that major
water-quality problems will take decades to fix. But the federal
scientists are more optimistic that they can be resolved.<br>
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"I think they were pretty conservative in their analysis," Lynch said of
the panel's report. There are other options for controlling nutrients,
he added, such as using chemicals to bind phosphorus to lake bed
sediments or mechanically scooping up algae. And new federal and state <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jan/05/local/la-me-salmon-klamath-20110105">pollution standards</a> are expected to reduce runoff contamination in coming decades.<br>
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"All of us involved in this would agree more needs to be done," said
Steve Rothert of American Rivers, one of the groups that signed the
pact. But "by removing the dams, we're removing the biggest obstacle to
upstream migration and productivity."<br>
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The agreements have strong critics, including the Hoopa Valley tribe,
which refused to sign. "The agricultural practices that led to salmon
being threatened in the system are the agricultural practices that will
be continued," argued Thomas Schlosser, a Seattle attorney who
represents the tribe. He cited provisions that call for the continued
leasing of wildlife refuge lands for farming and substantial water
diversions for irrigation.<br>
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The agreements require nearly $1 billion in federal funding for water
management, habitat restoration and monitoring efforts. PacifiCorp
customers in Oregon and California are expected to pay $200 million
more to dismantle the dams, and if necessary the state of California
would provide as much as $250 million in bond money.<br>
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"If federal taxpayers are going to be asked to spend this kind of money,
it better be for a program that works," said Steve Pedery of Oregon
Wild, which favors taking a significant amount of cropland out of
production to reduce water demand.<br>
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Schlosser said he doubts Congress will approve the legislation, which
proponents expect to be introduced this summer. But he predicted that
the utility will eventually remove the dams anyway because demolition is
cheaper than building the fish passages required to renew federal
licenses.<br>
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<i><a href="mailto:bettina.boxall@latimes.com">bettina.boxall@latimes.com</a></i>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><div><div>Tom Stokely<br>Water Policy Analyst/Media Contact<br>California Water Impact Network<br>V/FAX 530-926-9727<br>Cell 530-524-0315<br><a href="mailto:tstokely@att.net">tstokely@att.net</a><br>http://www.c-win.org</div></div></span>
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