[env-trinity] Herald and News

[Jim Carpenter]

      Klamath Falls, Oregon • 800-275-0982 Make Us Your Home Page Thursday,
November 13, 2008

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Updated, 7 p.m.: Dams would be removed by 2020
State, feds and PacifiCorp agreement scheduled for signing Thursday
Thursday, November 13, 2008 8:43 AM PST

Posted 7 p.m., Wednesday: In what is being billed as the largest salmon
restoration ever attempted,  a nonbinding agreement to be signed today would
remove four Klamath River dams by the year 2020. The project is expected to
cost $450 million and be paid for in part through surcharges to PacifiCorp
customers.

Officials from the states of Oregon and California, the Bush administration
and Portland-based PacifiCorp were expected to sign the agreement by noon
Thursday. They briefed Klamath River Basin stakeholders today at a meeting
in Sacramento. When signed, the dam removal agreement would be nonbinding
until a final agreement is reached, but one PacifiCorp official lauded the
document as “remarkable.”

“Our full expectation and commitment is to come to a final agreement,” said
Dean Brockbank, vice president and counsel to the PacifiCorp. Read the full
story in Thursday's Herald and News print edition. Check back at breaking
news for more updates.

Posted 5:05 p.m., Wednesday: Four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River
would be removed by 2025 at a cost of $450 million under an agreement
scheduled to be signed Thursday.


A press release from the U.S. Department of the Interior called a planned
public announcement Thursday “the first critical step down a presumptive
path toward a historic resolution of Klamath River resource issues and the
Klamath River dams.” Check back later tonight for more updates and read the
full story in Thursday's Herald and News print edition.

Posted 2:55 p.m. Wednesday: (AP) — Farmers, Indian tribes, fishermen and
state officials have been briefed on a nonbinding agreement for PacifiCorp
to turn over control of Klamath River dams so they can be removed to help
struggling salmon. The briefing from Bush administration officials took
place Wednesday in Sacramento, Calif. A formal announcement is expected
Thursday.

According to a copy obtained by The Associated Press, the agreement is a
roadmap for starting to remove the dams by 2020, contingent on a favorable
cost-benefit analysis, and to allow operations to continue until then.

Posted 11:40 a.m. Wednesday: Klamath County Commissioner Bill Brown said
today there is an agreement in principle regarding the removal of four
hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River. Brown restated his opposition to
dam removal — an aspect of the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement — during
the commissioners’ public meeting. He said he does not have the document on
the agreement but expected to have it soon.

The groups and organizations that crafted the restoration agreement are
meeting today in Sacramento. Commissioner John Elliot is attending the
meeting as a representative of the county and said today while traveling to
Sacramento that he had not yet seen a document concerning dam removal. “That
’s going to be the discussion today,” he said. Look for online updates later
today and read the full story in Thursday's Herald and News print edition.


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