[env-trinity] ‘Milestone’ moment: Klamath River dam removal plan submitted to feds

[Tom Stokely]

http://www.times-standard.com/general-news/20160923/milestone-moment-klamath-river-dam-removal-plan-submitted-to-feds



‘Milestone’ moment: Klamath River dam removal plan submitted to feds

Water rights issues still need addressing
By Will Houston, Eureka Times-StandardFriday, September 23, 2016The largest dam removal project in U.S. history which seeks to remove four Klamath River dams by 2020 is once again in the hands of the federal government for consideration as of Friday.Having worked on revising the plan since the start of the year, proponents called Friday’s plan submission a “milestone” for the 337-mile long Klamath River while also recognizing it as the beginning of a much larger effort to restore the river.“There is a lot that has to be done, but a lot of those will be moving forward simultaneously,” Karuk Tribe Natural Resources Policy Advocate Craig Tucker said Friday.The Klamath Hydroelectric Settlement Agreement (KHSA) seeks to remove the four California and Oregon hydroelectric dams — Copco 1, Copco 2, Iron Gate and J.C. Boyle — to improve water quality for wildlife and downriver communities. Signed by dozens of parties including tribes, state and federal officials, irrigators, and environment groups in 2010, the agreement along with two others sought to resolve decades of water rights disputes between Klamath Basin irrigators and tribes as well as to protect Endangered Species Act listed fish.However, all three agreements failed to gain traction by Congress by the end of 2015 due to Republican opposition. On Friday, a revised version of the KHSA was submitted to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) by PacifiCorp, which owns the dams, and the recently created nonprofit Klamath River Renewal Corporation.The federal commission will now hold a series of public meetings to decide whether or not to allow PacifiCorp to transfer ownership of the dams to the Klamath River Renewal Corporation for the purpose of decommissioning and then removing the dams by 2020.The process will not likely be quick or go unchallenged.“The agreement and the timeline call for this all to move forward starting in 2020,” PacifiCorp spokesman Bob Gravely said, “but FERC will have to be comfortable with the plans and we certainly don’t expect that will happen real quickly. ... No one will expect that FERC will approve the transfer of the license or decommission or removal plan until they have a high level of comfort that this is done in a way that protects the resources and surrounding areas.” Before FERC can approve the plan, the plan must obtain Clean Water Act permits from both California and Oregon. With several environmental analyses and studies having already been completed for the KHSA several years back, Tucker said obtaining these permits will likely not be an issue.Tucker said he hopes that FERC will make a final decision on the dams next year.With lower Klamath River communities currently experiencing one of the worst salmon seasons in recent memory following years of fish disease outbreaks, local tribes said the agreement could not have waited much longer.“The deplorable water quality, back-to-back disease outbreaks and bottomed-out fish runs have taken a tremendous toll on our people,” Yurok Tribe Chairman Thomas P. O’Rourke Sr. said in a Friday statement. “We welcome this major step toward restoring Klamath fish populations and providing salmon once again to our upstream neighbors, the Klamath Tribes.” But dam removal is only a piece of the puzzle toward restoring the river, proponents say. The KHSA’s companion agreement, known as the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement or KBRA, would have worked to resolve long-standing water rights disputes between Upper Klamath Basin irrigators and tribes. However, this second agreement expired at the start of the year while stalled in Congress.The new version of the KHSA as well as a new agreement known as the Klamath Power Facilities Agreement call on Klamath Basin stakeholders to work over the next year to come up solutions to water rights issues as well as prepare basin irrigators for the return of fish should the dams be removed.Tucker said not a lot has happened in this effort so far. But should a new agreement be drafted, Tucker said it will likely require congressional funding appropriations or authorization.“My gut tells me we probably won’t make a whole lot of progress until we see the (November) election results,” Tucker said. “... I still believe that to resolve the water controversy in the Klamath will require a negotiated agreement with the irrigators in the upper basin and the Klamath tribes.”While the Hoopa Valley Tribe has advocated for dam removal, it has not supported the provisions of the KBRA. Hoopa Valley Tribal Fisheries Director Mike Orcutt said that the KBRA only served to prolong PacifiCorp’s ability to bring in revenue.Orcutt said he thinks it would be a challenge to convince Congress to approve the nearly $1 billion originally proposed to resolve Klamath Basin disputes in the KBRA.“At the end of the day, there is not a lot of room for authorizations for appropriations in the federal budget,” he said.Will Houston can be reached at 707-441-0504.
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