Group Pressures Klamath Negotiators
Klamath Riverkeeper Press Release
August 5, 2009

Orleans, CA-- With dam removal negotiators holed up for what's supposed to be their final meeting to hash out differences this week, Klamath Riverkeeper is pressing nine points that the citizen-powered nonprofit needs to see addressed before it can support the deal.

Removal of the Klamath Hydro Project’s four dams on the Klamath River in Northern California and Southern Oregon would revive ailing salmon fisheries and improve water quality. It would be the largest dam removal project in the world and one of the largest river restoration efforts in the United States.

The group said it might take legal action to jumpstart the dam removal process if these issues aren't adequately addressed.

Klamath Riverkeeper has been a major player in the past several years of the dam removal campaign, pushing the dam owner PacifiCorp to the negotiating table by filing four lawsuits pressuring the utility to deal with the lethal legacy of its dams and calling on its parent company Berkshire Hathaway to clean up the corporation's act at annual shareholders' meetings in Omaha, Nebraska.

The group has deliberately stayed outside the dam removal settlement negotiations of the last three years, awaiting a promised final product from the parties at the table, but has grown weary of watching deadlines come and go with no visible progress while salmon runs falter and toxic algae blooms continue to pose a public health threat on the Klamath.

"We'd like to support this legislation, which we expect will lead to dam removal, fish reintroduction, restoration work, funding for tribes, a reinvigorated fishing industry, innovative water balancing, better survival rates for fish and better health for people throughout the rural basin. But if our concerns are not adequately addressed, we will be forced to consider other ways to protect the Klamath's unique natural resources, including legal and/or legislative strategies," Terence said.

The bottom line, the Riverkeeper reminded, is that without a sufficiently strong settlement, the whole process would end up back in the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's court. That's a prospect that PacifiCorp likely finds unappealing due to requirements for clean water permits and pricey, federally mandated fish ladders, Terence said.

At the top of the list of issues Riverkeeper hopes to leverage is a dam removal agreement that gets the job done no later than 2020.

"Activists in our communities are painting signs and making t-shirts that read "WILL NOT WAIT." Asking these people to live with dams for more than another ten years is unacceptable," said Klamath Riverkeeper Erica Terence.

Secondly, Klamath Riverkeeper said it will not endorse a legislative package that fails to adequately plan for drought problems in the basin. The parameters of the drought plan should be clearly written in legislation, and should protect fisheries, farmers and refuges.

Third, Klamath Riverkeeper said legislation must mandate all settlement parties to comply with the Clean Water Act and its TMDL standards.

"Opting out of pollution limits and load allocations is not an option. PacifiCorp and other water users upstream need to comply with the law just like the rest of us. They should pay what it takes to clean up the river, before and after dam removal," Terence said.

"Klamath River Tribes, fishermen and fisheries have paid the environmental costs of dams and other uses that degrade water quality for too long already," she added.

Fourth, Klamath Riverkeeper wants to ensure that language in authorizing legislation is cleaned up so that it does not undermine the integrity of the Endangered Species Act and mandates all parties to comply with species protection law and regulations.

Fifth, Klamath Riverkeeper is calling on California to come up with its share of the Klamath dam removal money by 2012, and to commit to explore funding sources other than a general obligation water bond. Bond proposals have included environmentally damaging projects further south in the state.

"Ecological gain on the Klamath does not justify ecological loss in the San Joaquin Delta or anywhere else in the state. We're not willing to compromise the health of another watershed or the chances that Klamath dam removal funding becomes a reality," she emphasized.

Riverkeeper wants to avoid a losing battle on the ballot over a contentious California water bond that voters in the state have rejected repeatedly in the past due to inclusion of environmentally damaging projects such as the Peripheral canal and new dam construction, Terence explained.

Sixth, the package of agreements and legislation cannot provide a sixty-day right of withdrawal for the states of Oregon and California.

"The states should take an active role in removing the Klamath dams, and this agreement should not enable them to back out on their obligations to restore fisheries and the cultures and economies that depend on them," Terence said.

Seventh, the federal government needs to accept responsibility for removing the dams.

Eighth, the feds should use the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) record built up during earlier stages of the relicensing process to determine whether the dams should stay or go. Their analysis should not be clouded by economic studies.

And finally, an overly broad immunity clause should be narrowed so that it simply shields PacifiCorp from the act of dam removal, and should still hold the company accountable for decades of impacts from dam operations on our communities.

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