[5] Feds Recommend Fish Ladders At Pacificorp's Klamath Project

The U.S. Department of Interior and NOAA Fisheries Service have recommended to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that PacifiCorp add fish ladders to its 151-MW Klamath River Hydroelectric Project as a condition of renewing the project's license.

The recommendation thrust PacifiCorp onto center stage in a new round of contentious and heated debate over salmon and water policy in the basin.

To protect the Klamath's fall chinook run, the Pacific Fishery Management Council voted to close the ocean to commercial trollers from Florence, Oregon to Arcata, California.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger joined Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski in asking the U.S. Department of Commerce to declare an economic disaster because of the new fishing restrictions.

In PacifiCorp's 7,000 page relicensing application that was filed in 2004, the utility did not include the addition of fish ladders as an option because the estimated costs of installing fish passage would be about $200 million. PacifiCorp's study of habitat in the upper Klamath indicated that water quality and temperature could not support salmon.

Removing the hydro facilities would cost an estimated $100 million.

"Water quality entering our project is already very poor," Dave Kvamme, spokesman for PacifiCorp, told NW Fishletter. "The source of the Klamath is not a pristine snowpacked mountain. The water quality is hypereutrophic--meaning its filled with algae."

PacifiCorp operates the Iron Gate hatchery, just below the Iron Gate dam, which sees about 20,000 adult fish return yearly, Kvamme said. The Iron Gate Hatchery is one of three hatcheries in the basin.

Kvamme added that huge amounts of Klamath River water are diverted for irrigation use, some of which flows back into the river. The basin is also plagued by abandoned side channels once used for logging and the remnants of "really poor" mining practices, he said.

"The reason we didn't call for fish passage is, we just don't think any significant numbers of fish could be produced," he said.

In 2000, the Pacific Fishery Management Council estimated the inriver chinook run totaled 218,077, the second largest run since 1978. In 2003 an estimated 191,948 fish were counted inriver, but that number declined to 79,192 in 2004, and 65,280 in 2005.

Federal fish managers expect about 110,000 fish to return this year.

The debate over Klamath fish has prompted several groups to point fingers at the Klamath project. In May 2004, the California Energy Commission asked FERC to consider decommissioning some or the entire project. The California Water Resources Council, the Resources Agency and the Department of Fish and Game, have joined the CEC in calling for removal of the dams.

"Fully 300 miles of mainstem and tributary salmonid habitat could be made accessible to the Klamath River salmonids if the barriers to passage created by PacifiCorp's lower dams...were removed," the staff of the CEC wrote to FERC.

But none of the agencies pushing for fish ladders could quantify in fish numbers any expected benefits.

PacifiCorp has offered a number of system enhancements in its application to address impacts on fish populations. These include decommissioning two powerhouses which generate 3.8 MW total, increasing minimum flows, augmenting "spawnable gravel," and adding fish screens and some fish ladders at various locations.

Most recently angry commercial fisherman have blamed the dams for the loss of their season.

The utility will file its response to the Fed's recommendations to add fish ladders to three of the six hydroelectric facilities in the project by May 15.

No talks are currently scheduled, but PacifiCorp remains hopeful that a settlement can be reached that will avoid either being forced to build fish ladders or remove the dams completely, Kvamme said.

The project's 151 MW is enough to serve PacifiCorp's customers in Northern California.

"The settlement process, however difficult, has the advantage of being done under confidentially agreements and with a mediator," Kvamme said. "It's in that kind of environment that lots of ideas can be brought forth and we can focus on things that are doable and practicable." -Steve Ernst

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