The news this week about the Klamath River dams is so huge, it’s almost impossible to believe how far we’ve come in the past seven years.
The headline is this. Pacific Power, which owns the four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River, has agreed to their removal. It’s an agreement in principle. There are many obstacles to overcome. It’ll take years to implement. But if this goes through one of the great salmon rivers of the west coast could be running free from headwaters to the ocean.
This is THE Klamath we’re talking about. Low salmon numbers from this river led to a near closure of the commercial salmon season across most of Oregon and Northern California in 2006. Bitter water wars erupted in 2001 when farmers were denied irrigation water in favor of salmon and other fish. The farmers got their water after the Bush administration intervened, and the following year tens of thousands of salmon died in warm, shallow waters.
So why would any salmon respecting green group be opposed to such a deal?
For Oregon Wild, this deal amounts to little more than a last minute attempt by the Bush team to reward its friends. Oregon Wild says the deal relies on getting $1 billion from the federal government, a four year cost-benefit analysis by the Interior Department, and other conditions it describes as “highly unlikely” to be met. Meanwhile, work on removing the dams wouldn’t even begin until 2020.
Oregon Wild also complains that the deal gives too much water to agribusiness, doesn’t preserve enough water for salmon, and grants another 50-year extension of agriculture development on the Lower Klamath and Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuges.
Other environmental groups are not so cynical. The Wild Salmon Center in Portland told the Oregonian that this is as big as anything they’ve seen to restore a river. The group’s President, Guido Rahr, is quoted as saying “You really are giving a river the chance to come back.”
Sustainable Northwest called the agreement a step in the right direction. This group was involved in the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement, which is based on seeing the dams removed. Sustainable Northwest called on the federal and state governments to implement the entire Klamath Basin agreement and to remove the dams quickly enough so that salmon will benefit.
12 years is a long time to wait for dam removal to begin. Much of the costs of dam removal will fall on the shoulders of Oregon customers of Pacific Power. A deal that removes dams, but still doesn’t provide the water needed by salmon isn’t much of a deal at all.
Powerful political forces are lining up behind this. We hope they get it right.
