Countdown on the Klamath: Feds, state beginning environmental examination of dam removal project
John Driscoll
Times-Standard
07/13/2010
Some of the most difficult questions surrounding what would be the largest dam removal project in the world have yet to be answered.
Tearing out four dams on the Klamath River would be an incredibly complicated endeavor, requiring a host of engineering studies, economic analyses and biological investigations before it could start. After a broad array of tribes, agencies, fishing groups, environmental and farming interests -- though not without opposition -- signed two agreements to embark on the project in February, the federal government and the state of California are coming to the public in what they say is an effort to turn over every stone.
Public meetings on the development of an environmental impact statement and environmental impact report have been held in inland areas, and they are now beginning on the coast. A meeting will be held today in Brookings, Ore., Wednesday in Arcata and in Orleans on Thursday.
The sessions, called scoping meetings, are meant to inform the agencies working on the environmental analyses, which will be molded together with a set of technical studies. All together, the information will be used by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior to determine if tearing out the dams is in the public's best interest.
U.S. Geological Survey program manager Dennis Lynch, representing the U.S. Interior Department during the process, said that while the effort consists of two different tracks, they both aim to answer a key question: Will the removal of the dams, as widely believed, benefit salmon fisheries and social and cultural values without creating hazards to communities and to public health? For example, while many believe that taking out the dams will be a significant help to struggling salmon and other fish, Lynch said, the studies are trying to remove uncertainty over the issue.
”Will it do what people think it's going to do in terms of the biological response?” Lynch said.
Lynch said that removing the dams could have significant environmental effects, and the EIS/EIR process looks to examine what those effects would be. At the same time, the secretarial determination process will consider whether the project upholds the federal government's tribal trust responsibilities and protects the social and spiritual values of salmon and other fish. It will also weigh whether the project can be done for $450 million, the cap agreed to by Oregon and California as part of the Klamath Hydroelectric Settlement Agreement and the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement.
Those agreements call for removing Iron Gate, Copco 1, Copco 2 and J.C. Boyle dams, and to move forward on a broad range of watershed restoration projects that would cost another estimated $1 billion. The deals were reached after years of conflict over declining fisheries and water supplies to Upper Klamath Basin farms.
Supporters of the agreement say implementing the deals will put an end to the rotating crises by improving conditions for salmon and solidifying water and power supplies for farms.
”For coastal people this is a bread and butter issue," said Glen Spain, with the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations.
”The Klamath dams have been a disaster for fishermen, and are partly responsible for the 2006 Klamath salmon collapse that cost ocean fishermen their livelihoods over 700 miles of coastline.”
Restoring the health of the Klamath River means restoring fishing jobs throughout Northern California and Southern Oregon, Spain said.
The initial phases of the examination should wrap up in about a year, Lynch said. Should the Interior Secretary determine the project is in the public interest, the wide range of projects making up the larger effort would also have to undergo environmental review, a process that could take another eight years, he said.
