[6] PacifiCorp Calls For Trap And Haul At Klamath River Dams
After federal agencies called for the addition of fish ladders at PacifiCorp's 151-MW Klamath Hydroelectric Project earlier this month, the utility responded last week with a proposal to trap and transport salmonids into areas now blocked by its project on the Klamath River.
PacifiCorp filed documents April 28 with the departments of Interior and Commerce that propose testing the feasibility of the trap and transport idea. The utility made its recommendation under a new licensing provision of the 2005 Energy Policy Act.
In an earlier FERC filing, NOAA Fisheries had recommended that the dams be removed, but it lacked authority for such a draconian order, and said another option would be to build fish ladders at the four dams involved in the relicensing process.
The federal fish agency said the modifications would restore access to 58 miles of habitat for chinook, steelhead, and lamprey, improve connectivity for resident redband trout, and include 46 miles of habitat for the threatened coho salmon. They said it could eventually lead to a plan to reintroduce salmonids to more than 300 miles of habitat above the project, which was blocked in 1918 by the construction of Copco 1 Dam, 196 miles from the mouth of the river.
PacifiCorp had said that fish ladders would cost about $200 million, about twice the expense of tearing the dams out. They had earlier argued that reintroducing fish above the project was a dicey proposal because of water quality problems that begin far upriver.
PacifiCorp Energy president Bill Fehrman said the utility was trying to strike a balance among the concerns over fish and reliable power generated at a reasonable cost. -B. R.
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