Klamath
Description
Water quality issues: Water temp, dissolved oxygen, eutrophication in Upper Klamath Lake.
Fishery values: Restoration of coho and chinook salmon and steelhead runs, in and above the project reach: Iron Gate dam blocks 200-250 mi. of historic salmon and steelhead spawning habitat.
Type of proceeding: Hybrid
Threatened/endangered: Coho salmon
Recreational values: Whitewater below JC Boyle dam and powerhouse
Other values: Yurok reservation on lower 44 mi. of river. 70% of the reservation is without electricity- tribal culture and economy depends on healthy fish populations.
Milestones
| Date | Description | |
|---|
| 1/17/2008 | Settlement Signed | |
| 4/23/2007 | FERC will issue final EIS | |
| 3/29/2007 | CA and OR 401 application deadlines | |
| 12/14/2006 | FERC Section 10j meeting, 9am - 5pm, Hilton Garden Inn, Redding, CA | |
| 12/13/2006 | FERC Section 10j meeting, 9am - 5pm, Hilton Garden Inn, Redding, CA | |
| 12/12/2006 | FERC Section 10j meeting, 9am - 5pm, Red Lion Inn, Redding, CA | |
| 11/24/2006 | Comments due on draft EIS. | |
| 11/16/2006 | Draft EIS meeting 7 - 10 PM, Red Lion hotel, Eureka, CA | |
| 11/15/2006 | Draft EIS meeting, 9 AM - 12, Yreka Community Theater, Yreka, CA; and 7 - 10 PM, Yreka Community Theater, Yreka, CA | |
| 11/14/2006 | Draft EIS meeting 9 - 12, Shiloh Inn, Klamath Falls, OR | |
| 10/5/2006 | USFWS requests formal consultation as required by section 7 of the ESA | |
| 9/25/2006 | FERC files draft EIS | |
| 8/25/2006 | Trial type hearing conducted week of 8/21/06 and concluded 8/25/06. Judges decision expected by 9/21/06 | |
| 4/28/2006 | Pacificorp submits request for trial hearing to dispute issues of material fact on section 18 prescriptions | |
| 4/12/2006 | Reply comments due on recommendations, terms and conditions, and prescriptions | |
| 3/29/2006 | PacifiCorp files CA and OR 401 applications | |
| 3/27/2006 | NMFS and DOI submit preliminary terms and conditions | |
| 12/28/2005 | REA notice issued | |
| 5/17/2005 | FERC issues Scoping Document 2 | |
| 4/16/2004 | FERC issues Scoping Document 1 | |
| 2/26/2004 | PacifiCorp files final license application | |
News Related to Klamath
Klamath Riverkeeper is organizing a benefit dinner on Mar 14 in Bayside, CA to help bring down the four obsolete dams in the Klamath River.
After years of negotiation the Klamath Settlement Group has finalized the Klamath River Basin Restoration Agreement.
In the recently issued final environmental impact statement (EIS) for the Klamath Project, FERC took a bewildering position siding with PacifiCorp by recommending the continued operations of five hydroelectric dams. Previously, federal agencies issued “mandatory conditions” that PacifiCorp will have to comply with to get a new license, the most significant being the construction of fish ladders and screens to meet the legal requirement to ensure fish passage. FERC’s analysis concluded that fish ladders and other measures, estimated by a federal study to cost up to $470 million, makes removing four of the five dams more economical than keeping the dams in place. FERC also concluded that removing the Klamath River dams would improve water quality, salmon productivity and reduce fish disease. Yet, FERC recommended keeping the dams and “trapping and hauling” fish to their historic habitat upstream of PacifiCorp’s project. This recommendation ignores the federal mandatory requirements to construct fish ladders.
Further confusing the issue, FERC stated that mandatory conditions “may need to be included in a new license” and “incorporation of these mandatory conditions into a new license would cause us to modify or eliminate some of the environmental measures that we include in the Staff Alternative.”
On the other hand, FERC acknowledges that only dam removal will produce the full range of environmental benefits such as colder, cleaner water and improved spawning habitat, and that removing the four dams is cheaper, by $7 million per year, than keeping the dams and installing fish ladders and other measures. This can be interpreted as strengthening the argument to remove the dams.
All parties now have until the end of the year to submit comments about the final EIS. Before FERC can issue a new license to PacifiCorp, Oregon and California must issue their Clean Water Act Section 401 water quality certifications for the project, We expect that process could take up to another year. In the meantime, stakeholders continue to negotiate a settlement agreement about the fate of the dams and other basin restoration issues.
The June/July 2007 edition of The Advocate, the official publication of the Idaho State Bar, features an article on the hydropower provisions of the Energy Policy Act (EPAct). The point: "the EPAct... makes the [licensing] process more complex, litigious, and expensive."
An editorial in the San Francisco Chronicle laid out the case for removal of the Klamath River dams, calling the potential restoration "an amazing change."
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