Oregon, California Coalition Calls on Congress to Fix Klamath Deal

OREGON WILD * WATERWATCH * NORTHCOAST ENVIRONMENTAL CENTER * CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY * CASCADIA WIILDLANDS* SALEM AUDUBON SOCIETY * UMPQUA WATERSHEDS * LANE COUNTY AUDUBON SOCIETY * HUMBOLDT WATERSHED COUNCIL * SISKIYOU LAND CONSERVANCY * FRIENDS OF DEL NORTE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 18, 2010

Contact:
Sean Stevens 503.283.6343 ext 211 or Ani Kame’enui, Oregon Wild, ext 205
Jay Wright, Northcoast Environmental Center, 707-834-3433

Oregon, California Coalition Calls on Congress to Fix Klamath Deal
With the Klamath settlement negotiations over, wildlife and river groups push realistic restoration plan

ARCATA, CAL and PORTLAND, ORE – After five years of controversial backroom negotiations over the fate of the Klamath Basin ended today, members of the Klamath Conservation Partners responded by calling on Congress to fix loopholes in the proposed settlement and eliminate provisions harmful to fish and wildlife.

Initiated under the Bush administration, the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement (a deal to apportion the Klamath’s water, or KBRA) and the Klamath Hydropower Settlement Agreement (a deal designed to remove dams, or KHSA), call on Congress to spend nearly $1 billion without any guarantee of dam removal. While the Klamath Conservation Partners—a coalition of local, state, and national advocacy organizations that includes former settlement parties—support the removal of the lower four Klamath River dams, member groups are concerned that insufficient science and unrelated subsidies may sink the potential for historic dam removal.

“The settlement process had a predetermined outcome,” said Ani Kame’enui, Healthy Rivers advocate with Oregon Wild. “Slowly, river and wildlife groups realized that this process was not going to lead to a balanced solution for all of the Klamath Basin’s problems. Now that negotiations are complete, we will work with Congress to get real and lasting solutions that benefit fish, wildlife, and river communities.”

Many longtime river advocates have joined forces with the Klamath Conservation Partners or rejected the settlement deal outright due to various concerns over river flows, dam removal timelines, and harmful provisions for wildlife. Just last week, two parties to the KBRA and KHSA negotiations, the Hoopa Valley Tribe and dam-removal advocacy group Friends of the River, based in Sacramento, announced their opposition to the proposed plans.

The Klamath Conservation Partners is advocating for specific fixes to both the KHSA and KBRA that would solve some of the glaring problems that currently threaten basin-wide restoration, including:

Adequate river flows for threatened and endangered fish species based on the best available science.

A plan to phase out the harmful practice of leasing 32,000 acres of National Wildlife Refuge land for commercial agriculture.

Improved dam removal legislation to move forward independent of the controversial and subsidy-heavy KBRA.

The timeline for dam removal to be shortened significantly and for the Secretary of Interior to submit a decommissioning plan by 2012.

Dam removal to be funded through PacifiCorp customer contribution of $200 million (already passed through the Oregon legislature) and an independent $250 million general obligation bond in the State of California with a contingency plan for the federal government to contribute needed funds if the bond fails.

Interim dam operation conditions that provide for the adequate protection of fish, wildlife, water quality, and other aquatic resources.

“Now that the settlement agreements are no longer hidden by confidential negotiations, the general public and their representatives in Congress can finally get a look at these proposals, we can start to shine some light on the complex and controversial terms in the KBRA and KHSA,” said Jay Wright with the Northcoast Environmental Center, a group that left the negotiations in December. “Once we take the $1 billion shackles off of the dam removal deal and get a more certain and timely decommissioning proposal, we’ll be on our way to restoring the watershed.”

Last week, Senator Jeff Merkley went on record as the only member of Oregon’s congressional delegation supporting the KBRA and KHSA. Merkley suggested that “Washington needs to take a serious look at how we get things done here in Oregon,” overlooking the fact that no Oregon environmental groups support the KBRA or KHSA.

“It’s disappointing that Senator Merkley is supporting these old Bush initiated policies,” concluded Kame’enui. “We’re eager to work with the Senator and his staff to further educate them on the red flags in these agreements related to fish and wildlife that deeply trouble so many Oregonians.”

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