[env-trinity] Redding.com: Siskiyou residents debate Klamath River dams

[Tom Stokely]

http://www.redding.com/news/local/Siskiyou-residents-debate-Klamath-River-dams-366666931.html

Siskiyou residents debate Klamath River dams
YREKA — The debate about whether four Klamath River dams should be removed raged on Tuesday evening.State Water Resources Control Board officials came to Yreka on Tuesday to hear comments about what they need to include in an environmental impact report for issuing water quality permits for the dams.Instead, they mostly heard arguments from the public about whether four dams on the river should stay or be removed.Erin Ragazzi, an environmental program manager with the water board, said she and other officials are not for or against removing dams.“We are not advocating any position at this point in time,” Ragazzi said.However, the state believes the dams contribute to poor water quality in the river, harming fish and limiting the stream’s use for recreation.While removing dams on the Klamath River has been a divisive issue, PacifiCorp, which owns the dams, supports taking them out.A Klamath Hyrdroelectric Settlement Agreement signed by PacifiCorp, the U.S. Department of the Interior, as well as state agencies and Indian tribes, expired at the end of 2015 when Congress failed to pass a law approving the agreement.But Bob Gravely, a spokesman for PacifiCorp, said his company is working to implement key portions of the agreement without congressional approval.The most controversial portions of the agreement propose removing the J.C. Boyle, Copco No. 1 and No. 2, and Iron Gate dams.“The settlement parties, including the company, have not completely given up on getting the settlement enacted,” Gravely said.
Whether or not the agreements are implemented, PacifiCorp has to get permits from the state giving it approval to continue to operate the dams. The state’s permit is part of their relicensing process with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.The state’s approval hinges on whether PacifiCorp can ensure the water in the river will meet water quality standards while the dams continue to operate, Ragazzi said.The river is on the state’s list of impaired water bodies due to low levels of oxygen, high water temperature in the summer and fall, and high levels of mercury and microcystin, a liver toxin produced by blue-green algae.The high water temperatures and other problems were blamed for the deaths of some 35,000 fish in 2002.
However, many at Tuesday’s meeting contended the dams do not contribute to water pollution.
Rick Costales, a retired natural resources adviser to Siskiyou County, said removing the dams would hurt the county’s economy by eliminating jobs associated with the facilities.“I think short shrift has been given to the socioeconomic impacts of taking the dams out,” Costales said.But others who argued for the dams’ removal, noted the economic benefits of taking them out.Regina Chichizola of the Hoopa Valley Tribe said the dams have hurt the commercial salmon fisheries by lowering the number of fish in the river.
Removing the dams would help the industry, she said.“These dams are causing a giant impact,” Chichizola said. “Commercial salmon fishermen want to see their way of life continue, just as the people in this room want to see their way of life continue.”But Mark Baird, who lives in the Scott Valley and has been a leader in the State of Jefferson movement, said much of the claims by state officials are untrue. He said the relicensing process is also illegal and unconstitutional.“This whole process has been filled with so many lies and cheating it’s hard to describe,” he told state water board officials during the public comment period.
Ragazzi said dam removal is one of several alternatives evaluated in the environmental report.Some of the other options include improving fish ladders on the J.C. Boyle Dam and installing fish ladders on two other creeks.Other proposals include adding oxygen to Iron Gate Reservoir, altering river flows, removing only two of the dams, increasing fish and disease research, and doing habitat restoration on the river.Ragazzi said comments from the public Tuesday, as well as those from other public hearings on the issue, will be used to help guide what issues are considered when writing the environmental impact report. 
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