[4] PacifiCorp Says Klamath Dam Removal May Be OK With Them

PacifiCorp Energy president Bill Fehrman said last week that his utility wasn't opposed to removal of its projects on the Klamath River if a future settlement safeguarded the economic interests of its customers. The dam removal issue has heated up lately, with the project in the middle of a re-licensing process that has focused on improving fish runs above the dams as a probable major condition for re-licensing the project.

But after poor chinook returns the past few years, along with drastic cuts in commercial ocean fishing and reduced opportunities for tribes in the river, the clamor for dam removal has increased. Last week, Northern California tribes demonstrated in favor of removing the dams in Portland during a national hydropower conference.

"We have heard the tribes' concerns," Fehrman said on Aug. 2. "We are not opposed to dam removal or other settlement opportunities as long as our customers are not harmed and our property rights are respected."

PacifiCorp spokesman Dave Kvamme said he had no dollar-estimate for the cost of replacement power, but he said the expense of building a new, high-efficiency combustion turbine and running it for 30 to 40 years to replace the 735,000 MW-hours the project now produces every year for 70,000 residential customers would be "considerable."

The utility has proposed a $50-million trap and haul program at its project, but NOAA Fisheries and the USFWS recommended installation of fish ladders, though they said dam removal would be the best way to re-colonize blocked portions of the river.

PacifiCorp estimated fish ladders would cost $200 million to install, more than the expense of removing the dams. But dam removal proponents argue that fish ladders won't fix the problems associated with toxic algae and temperature. In 2002, 30,000 or more chinook died from high water temperatures that critics said could have been prevented by higher flows.

A five-day hearing is scheduled to begin Aug. 21 in Sacramento, allowed under new rules in last year's energy bill that gives licensees and others the chance to challenge and file alternatives to the conditions imposed by divisions of the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce and Interior.

PacifiCorp's Kvamme said the hearing will give the utility a chance to question many points of material fact in the filings filed by fish agencies and others. One major issue is whether more flows will help the fish. The utility says the water quality is already degraded before it enters the project.

The utility says there are still many issues that need to be sorted out, including uncertainties over reintroduction of anadromous fish to areas within and above the project. Neither NMFS nor USFWS has estimated the potential benefits in fish numbers from adding ladders to the projects.

PacifiCorp's 50 hydropower facilities are located in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Utah and Montana and generate about 1,073 megawatts of electricity, about 11 percent of the total capacity of the utility's sources of power. -B. R.

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