Washington Hunter
Well-known member
JEFF BARNARD
The Associated Press
GRANTS PASS, Ore. - PacifiCorp must build new fish ladders and make other modifications so salmon can swim freely past four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River if it wants a new license to produce electricity, federal fisheries agencies said Tuesday.
The ladders, turbine screens and fish bypasses are estimated to cost about $300 million and will be requirements of any new operating license issued by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, boosting pressure on the utility to remove the dams as a cheaper alternative.
Removing the dams would open access to 350 miles of spawning habitat blocked for nearly a century in what was once the West Coast's third most productive salmon river basin, but whose mounting struggles triggered a near shutdown last summer of commercial salmon fishing off Oregon and California.
Bolstered by an administrative law judge's findings that the science was sound behind a proposal last spring to require ladders and screens, fisheries agencies of the U.S. departments of Commerce and Interior filed documents with the commission that flatly rejected PacifiCorp's cheaper proposal to truck fish around the dams.
Under federal law, the two agencies set the fisheries requirements for the long-term licenses the energy commission grants for operating dams such as those on the Klamath.
The Klamath dams are at the end of a 50-year license, and a renewal is expected to have a term of up to 50 years.
"We are committed to the conservation and protection of fishery resources in the Klamath River Basin," Rod McInnis, southwest regional administrator for NOAA Fisheries, the Department of Commerce agency that oversees salmon restoration, said in a statement.
The fish passage mandates came from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA Fisheries.
Steve Thompson, California-Nevada operations manager for Fish and Wildlife, said the dam modifications are necessary to "provide important new conservation benefits for people and for the fish of the Klamath River."
PacifiCorp is a long way from making a decision on whether to remove the dams, and it hopes a settlement can be reached with the various agencies and parties involved in relicensing, said PacifiCorp spokesman Dave Kvamme.
Steve Rothert of American Rivers said removing the four dams would be the biggest single river restoration project in the nation to date, and perhaps the most effective. Meanwhile, seven other hydroelectric dams in Oregon and Washington - two owned by PacifiCorp - are to be removed in the next few years.
Removing the dams still would leave a major problem with warm water polluted by agricultural runoff and algae flowing out of Upper Klamath Lake, the primary source for the river, said University of California, Davis, professors Jeffrey Mount, a geomorphologist, and Peter Moyle, a fish biologist. Both served on a National Research Council team that reviewed efforts to restore fish in the Klamath Basin.
However, if the dams are removed, salmon could be reintroduced to the upper basin within a few years, increasing incentives to restore habitat degraded by grazing and logging, Moyle added.
Sea lions petition
PORTLAND - The federal government will consider a petition by three states to remove or kill troublesome sea lions in order to protect endangered salmon and steelhead headed upriver through Bonneville Dam to Columbia and Snake river spawning grounds.
The action applies to fish protected by the federal Endangered Species Act, which includes about a dozen Columbia and Snake river fish populations, Brian Gorman, spokesman for the NOAA Fisheries Service, said Tuesday.
A decision to remove or kill the sea lions, he said, likely will be a year or more away.
The Associated Press
The Associated Press
GRANTS PASS, Ore. - PacifiCorp must build new fish ladders and make other modifications so salmon can swim freely past four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River if it wants a new license to produce electricity, federal fisheries agencies said Tuesday.
The ladders, turbine screens and fish bypasses are estimated to cost about $300 million and will be requirements of any new operating license issued by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, boosting pressure on the utility to remove the dams as a cheaper alternative.
Removing the dams would open access to 350 miles of spawning habitat blocked for nearly a century in what was once the West Coast's third most productive salmon river basin, but whose mounting struggles triggered a near shutdown last summer of commercial salmon fishing off Oregon and California.
Bolstered by an administrative law judge's findings that the science was sound behind a proposal last spring to require ladders and screens, fisheries agencies of the U.S. departments of Commerce and Interior filed documents with the commission that flatly rejected PacifiCorp's cheaper proposal to truck fish around the dams.
Under federal law, the two agencies set the fisheries requirements for the long-term licenses the energy commission grants for operating dams such as those on the Klamath.
The Klamath dams are at the end of a 50-year license, and a renewal is expected to have a term of up to 50 years.
"We are committed to the conservation and protection of fishery resources in the Klamath River Basin," Rod McInnis, southwest regional administrator for NOAA Fisheries, the Department of Commerce agency that oversees salmon restoration, said in a statement.
The fish passage mandates came from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA Fisheries.
Steve Thompson, California-Nevada operations manager for Fish and Wildlife, said the dam modifications are necessary to "provide important new conservation benefits for people and for the fish of the Klamath River."
PacifiCorp is a long way from making a decision on whether to remove the dams, and it hopes a settlement can be reached with the various agencies and parties involved in relicensing, said PacifiCorp spokesman Dave Kvamme.
Steve Rothert of American Rivers said removing the four dams would be the biggest single river restoration project in the nation to date, and perhaps the most effective. Meanwhile, seven other hydroelectric dams in Oregon and Washington - two owned by PacifiCorp - are to be removed in the next few years.
Removing the dams still would leave a major problem with warm water polluted by agricultural runoff and algae flowing out of Upper Klamath Lake, the primary source for the river, said University of California, Davis, professors Jeffrey Mount, a geomorphologist, and Peter Moyle, a fish biologist. Both served on a National Research Council team that reviewed efforts to restore fish in the Klamath Basin.
However, if the dams are removed, salmon could be reintroduced to the upper basin within a few years, increasing incentives to restore habitat degraded by grazing and logging, Moyle added.
Sea lions petition
PORTLAND - The federal government will consider a petition by three states to remove or kill troublesome sea lions in order to protect endangered salmon and steelhead headed upriver through Bonneville Dam to Columbia and Snake river spawning grounds.
The action applies to fish protected by the federal Endangered Species Act, which includes about a dozen Columbia and Snake river fish populations, Brian Gorman, spokesman for the NOAA Fisheries Service, said Tuesday.
A decision to remove or kill the sea lions, he said, likely will be a year or more away.
The Associated Press
