In what is being touted as the world's biggest dam removal project, an agreement was reached yesterday to remove four dams on the Klamath River and restore a 300-mile migratory route for California's beleaguered salmon.
The tentative agreement was reached after a decade of negotiations among 28 parties, including American Indian tribes, farmers, fishermen and PacifiCorp, the hydroelectric company that operates the dams and distributes the water.
The plan would set in motion one of the most ambitious efforts in U.S. history to restore the habitat of a federally protected species if it receives final approval in December, as expected.
The dams — Iron Gate, Copco I, Copco II and J.C. Boyle — have blocked salmon migration for a century along the California-Oregon border and have been blamed for much of the historic decline of chinook and coho salmon and steelhead trout in the Klamath. Under the plan, the dams operated by PacifiCorp would be dismantled beginning in 2020.
The ultimate goal of the Klamath Hydroelectric Settlement Agreement is to restore what has historically been the third-largest source of salmon in the lower 48 states, behind the Columbia and Sacramento rivers, and end decades of battles over scarce water.
The groups agreed yesterday to take the proposal to their various boards and commissions for approval and then have everyone sign the final document in December.
The project, which would cost an estimated $450 million, is then expected to go through nearly three years of study and cost analysis before it lands on the desk of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar in 2012.
Serious talk of removing the dams began in 2002 after a federally ordered change in water flow led to the deaths of 33,000 salmon in the river.
California and Oregon's governors pressed for dam removal after West Coast commercial salmon fisheries collapsed in 2006 because of declines in Klamath River returns, triggering a disaster declaration.
The four midsize dams were built along the Klamath's main stem starting in 1909, blocking off about 300 miles of salmon spawning habitat. The dams warmed the river water, allowing destructive parasites and blooms of toxic, blue-green algae to contaminate the water. Water diversions to cities and for agriculture exacerbated the problem, according to fishery biologists.
The various tribes with rights to the river have been battling for years to get the dams removed. Fishermen and environmentalists rallied to their side, but PacifiCorp and farmers along the Upper Klamath Basin fought the effort and even sought to extend the hydropower lease.
PacifiCorp will not bear the estimated $450 million cost of removing the dams. Oregon has approved $180 million in surcharges on state ratepayers. Another $250 million depends on California approving general obligation bonds.