We can't FERC This Up - by Leaf G. Hillmnan, Karuk Tribe

http://www.karuk.us
 
We can’t FERC this up
 
Leaf G. Hillman
Vice chair
Karuk Tribe
 
There was a flurry of activity last week concerning the most contentious dam relicensing in the nation – that of PacifiCorp’s Klamath River dams.
 
The dams’ impact on the river was highlighted this year with the near total closure of over 700 miles of coastline to commercial salmon fishing. The dams block access to hundreds of miles of spawning habitat and degrade water quality.
 
For a long time the only way that state and federal regulars could address the declines in salmon and water quality was by either restricting fishing or farming. In some years fish quotas were cut, in other years diversions to Klamath project farmers were curtailed. The result is a rotating crisis in the basin. In years such as this it’s the fishermen who struggle to survive. In other years, such as in 2001, it’s the farmers who take the hit. However, while fishermen and farmer take turns suffering, one party has not suffered nor have they been held accountable…until now.
 
Basin Tribes have argued for decades that the dams play a key role in the decline of salmon, but the opportunity to change dam operations, or better yet, remove the dams altogether, come but once every 50 years with the federal relicensing process.
 
Earlier this year, federal fish agencies issued ‘mandatory terms and conditions’ for a dam license renewal. The agencies made the strongest mandate possible – PacifiCorp would have to provide fish the means to swim freely upstream. Although the agencies cannot mandate dam removal, NOAA Fisheries recommended dam removal as the best means to achieve this. However, PacifiCorp initiated a legal challenge to the agencies’ mandate.
 
Last week, after months of written and verbal testimony, a federal judged ruled against the PacifiCorp’s challenge on every major issue. The judge’s ruling is a win for communities who depend on a healthy river.
 
The judges ruling will require the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to stick by the agencies’ fish passage requirements. For now that means a complex system of ladders. Although ladders are far superior to PacifiCorp’s comical proposal to capture and drive fall chinook, hundreds of miles around the dam project, they would not provide the same benefits that removal would – either to fish or PacifiCorp ratepayers.
 
FERC issued a Draft Environmental Impact Analysis last week. In it, the commission compared trap and haul, construction of ladders, and removal of the two largest dams in the system, Iron Gate and Copco 1. FERC concluded that removal is the best option for water quality and fisheries restoration. What’s more, FERC found removal to be millions of dollars cheaper the only alternative provided by agencies - ladders.
 
The time has come to hold PacifiCorp accountable for nearly 100 years of degradation to the Klamath’s water, fish, and economies. We need PacifiCorp and its owner, Warren Buffet, to work out a settlement agreement with Tribes and other stakeholders. The removal of Klamath dams is not only the right choice ethically; it’s the right choice economically. Governor Kulongoski of Oregon understands this equation. He stated his support for dam removal while stumping in Klamath Falls last week. It’s time for Governor Schwarzenegger to call for the termination of PacifiCorp’s fish killing dams as well.