| Klamath: River Of The Dammed: by Tim McKay |
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The long simmering renewal process for PacifiCorp’s seven Klamath River power projects is heating up, with its draft application for a 50-year license needing comments by September 22.
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September 2003
Fishing, tribal and conservation interests are asking PacifiCorp to consider an alternative that addresses fish passage or dam removal, a move the Scottish-owned utility has resisted.
The dams have changed the timing of Chinook salmon runs dramatically. The Klamath was once dominated by spring-run fish that now only exists in the Salmon River and the south fork of the Trinity, leaving the fall-run Chinook as the main run of the river.
The dams have also blocked access for steelhead to the Klamath and its tributaries in the 63-mile stretch where PacifiCorp’s projects are located.
PacifiCorp began its long application process in 2000 but is not expected to make its formal application to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) until next spring. The seven Klamath dams and power plants operate under one license, which expires in 2006.
Getting Old
The facilities were built between 1908 and 1962, and the newest is the 173-foot-tall Iron Gate dam some 190 miles upstream from the river’s mouth at Klamath.
The plants generate about 163 megawatts of electricity, and they are completely integrated with the Bureau of Reclamation’s Klamath Irrigation Project situated along both sides of the Oregon-California border. That project entails 701 miles of canals and 728 miles of drains that seasonally flow with Klamath River water.
The California Energy Commission, which was asked by the state Resources Agency to assess energy issues associated with the PacifiCorp facilities, wrote in an April report that the state will ask FERC to consider decommissioning some or all of the dams in the name of salmon restoration.
The commission said thermal resources could replace 163 megawatts of hydroelectric energy—but this was inconsequential because PacifiCorp will have to build or buy power capacity to meet 4,1000 megawatts of future demand in California and the Northwest no matter what the outcome of the Klamath relicensing.
Unyielding
Todd Olson, the company relicensing project manager, say the utility has no intention of decommissioning the dams. But in separate relicensing proceedings it has agreed to remove the 125-foot-high Condit Dam near Mount Adams, Washington.
The company has released a 3,500-page draft FERC application to the public, but it steers clear of the decommissioning. The documents are available at its website www.pacificorp.com. If you click on “about us,” then “PowerGeneration,” then “HydroRelicensing” and finally “KlamathRiver.”
The whole thing is available on CD-ROM form Olson by calling (503) 813-6657. The disks are also available in the NEC library .The NEC is urging those with a yen for restoring the Klamath River salmon runs to ask PacifiCorp to develop an alternative—which means either some method of fish passage or breaching the existing dams. Send comments by September 22 to Todd Olson, PacifiCorp, 825 NE Multnomah, Suite 1500, Portland OR 97232.
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Updated Wednesday, September 03, 2003 |
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