[env-trinity] Fw: FERC will vote on staff recommendation to remove four PacifiCorp dams at Nov. 17 meeting

[Tom Stokely]

  ----- Forwarded Message ----- From: Dan Bacher <danielbacher53 at gmail.com>Sent: Saturday, November 12, 2022 at 09:56:13 AM PSTSubject: FERC will vote on staff recommendation to remove four PacifiCorp dams at Nov. 17 meeting
 
https://www.dailykos.com/story/2022/11/11/2135354/-FERC-will-vote-on-staff-recommendation-to-remove-four-PacifiCorp-dams-at-Nov-17-meeting 



FERC will vote on staff recommendation to remove four PacifiCorp dams at Nov. 17 meeting

by Dan Bacher

On November 17 at 7 am PST, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) will vote on the staff recommendation to surrender the license for the four lower PacifiCorp dams on the Klamath River and begin the dam removal process. 

In an action celebrated by Klamath Basin Tribes, conservationists and fishing groups, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) staff on August 27, 2022 released the final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) recommending the removal of the lower four Klamath River Dams.

Dam removal on the Klamath will open up over 240 stream-miles of salmon and steelhead habitat that has been blocked to fish migration for over 100 years. The project, the largest of its kind in U.S. history, is funded by dam owner PacifiCorp and a voter-approved California bond measure.

Frankie Myers, Vice Chair of the Yurok Tribe, said in a tweet, “Klamath Dam removal is on the agenda for the November 17 FERC meeting. With approval next week it marks the last major regulatory hurdle to begin deconstruction. The largest dam removal in US HISTORY!”

“After 20 years of action dam removal can begin in 2023 and will be finished in 2024, if FERC approves next week,” said Regina Chichizola, co-director of Save California Salmon. “This is one of the final permits and decisions needed for dam removal, and is the most important approval.”

“It is only happening  due to the Klamath River Tribes and communities refusing to give up. Congratulations to the Klamath River Communities.,” she stated.

“We can see the light at the end of the dam removal tunnel,” said Karuk Chairman Russell ‘Buster’ Attebery in a press statement.  “I am so proud of everyone in our river communities that have worked so hard for the past 20 years to realize our vision of river restoration.”

The live stream information will be posted at https://www.ferc.gov/.../november-17-2022-open-meeting…

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is composed of up to five commissioners who are appointed by the President of the United States with the advice and consent of the Senate. Commissioners serve five-year terms, and have an equal vote on regulatory matters. 

The current commissioners are Chairman Richard Glick, Commissioner James Danly, Commissioner Allison Clements, Commissioner Mark C. Christie, and Commissioner Willie L. Phillips.

The document for license surrender, decommissioning and removal of four dams – Copco No. 1, Copco No. 2, J.C. Boyle and Iron Gate – contains the FERC staff’s evaluation of the environmental, cultural and economic impacts associated with dam removal.   

The FEIS was released nearly 20 years after a massive fish kill left over 60,000 adult salmon rotting along the banks of the Klamath River on the Yurok Reservation in September 2002, a disaster that I was one of the first journalists to cover. The fish perished from disease spurred by low, warm water conditions under abysmal water management of the river by the G.W. Bush Administration.

"The fish kill is a lot worse than everybody thinks," said a shaken Walt Lara, then the Requa representative to the Yurok Tribal Council, in a phone interview with me on Monday, September 23, 2002. "It's a lot larger than anything I've seen reported on the T.V. news or in the newspapers. The whole chinook run will be impacted, probably by 85 to 95 percent. And the fish are dying as we speak. They're swimming around in circles. They bump up against your legs when you're standing in the water. These are beautiful, chrome-bright fish that are dying, not fish that are already spawned out."

The fish kill served as a lightning rod to unite Klamath River Tribes, environmentalists, fishing groups and the public around the cause of dam removal and salmon restoration on the Klamath, the second largest producer of Chinook salmon in California next to the Sacramento River at this time.

For more information, go to: www.dailykos.com/...
  
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