[env-trinity] Times-Standard -Editorial: Who gets the cost and who gets the benefit of Klamath dams?

[Tom Stokely]

KLAMATH RIVER BASIN
Editorial: Who gets the cost and who gets the benefit of Klamath dams? 
Eureka Times-Standard - 6/25/04
It's no surprise that hundreds showed up to tell the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that the dams on the Klamath are still hurting lower river communities. The good thing is, they were able to make it, after the Northcoast Environmental Center and others led a petitioned FERC to schedule a meeting in the most affected part of the watershed, instead of just listening to a few folks far inland.

FERC must now weigh what issues need to be analyzed by dam owner PacifiCorp, out of Portland, Ore. There are a host of problems, and it will be no small task to look into them.

But it seems incredible that the project would even be eligible for another 50-year license. It produces a marginal amount of electricity that the California Energy Commission says will be dwarfed by power plants soon to come on line in the region. PacifiCorp says the facility helps with peaking and flood control, too.

The costs of the dams, though, are staggering, and they fall mostly on others beside PacifiCorp. They block hundreds of miles of spawning grounds in a river whose salmon runs are struggling. The reservoirs have profound effects on water quality, generating algae blooms which later suck oxygen from the water that goes downstream to fish. Candlefish, lampreys, and sturgeon barely manage to hang on. Tribal, commercial and sport fishermen lose, as do the economies the Klamath's once-heavy fish runs supported. 

Perhaps more alarming is that while PacifiCorp profits on the electricity generated by the dams, many American Indians on the Yurok reservation are still without power. That arrangement is unconscionable. 

Dam removal is complicated and expensive, but it needs to be an option. FERC must demand that PacifiCorp consider it an option. PacifiCorp's parent company, ScottishPower, touts its environmental record while proceeding to ignore perhaps the most practical element of its license application: Dam decommissioning. 

There is no doubt. The North Coast cannot afford to live under the shadow of these dams for another 50 years without at least being able to weigh its options. #



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