[6] New Date Set For Klamath Agreement; Oregon Bill Signed
Parties in negotiations over the future of PacifiCorp's Klamath River hydroelectric project have targeted Sept. 1 as the new date for a final agreement. The previous target, announced as part of an Agreement in Principle last November, was June 30.
Mike Carrier, the Natural Resource Policy Director for Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski, said a codicil formally extending the date was still being circulated for final signatures as of June 30, but that staff to the four AIP parties--the states of Oregon and California, the Department of Interior and PacifiCorp--had agreed on the new date.
The AIP includes a clause allowing any signatory to withdraw from the agreement if the June 30 deadline is missed, unless all agree to an extension. Carrier said none of the parties expressed a desire to withdraw.
Although only the four principal parties signed the AIP, 22 other basin interests are involved in the negotiations and are expected to sign the final agreement.
Carrier said the negotiations took longer than expected because of the number of parties involved and because Oregon was busy with its legislative session. Others said delays were added due to the time it took the Obama administration to get appointments made and policies reviewed.
Carrier said the parties are "making great progress."
PacifiCorp affirmed that the parties are "close to a final settlement," although it warned there were still "significant mile posts along the way" and that passions in the basin "present an immense challenge to reaching reasonable peace and compromise."
In what critics have called its least workable element, the AIP calls for a "non-federal" entity to assume liability for dam removal. Carrier said "we continue to have that discussion" and that the parties have looked at a number of different options; other sources confirmed that provision remains a "sticky wicket."
The parties also appear to be negotiating a change to the deadline for the Secretary of Interior's determination that dam removal benefits outweigh the costs and risk. The AIP sets that deadline for March 31, 2012. But parties are wary of extending the deadline too long, and don't want to push it so far that that the deal risks being subjected to the review of another new presidential administration in 2013.
"I am anxious to see this thing wrapped up," said Craig Tucker, spokesman for the Karuk Tribe, which is one of the 22 parties negotiating the final agreement. He said if the new Sept. 1 deadline does not stand, the parties may risk losing federal funding for the studies Interior plans to conduct to inform the Secretary's determination. The economic stimulus bill allocated $4 million toward such studies.
In the meantime, Kulongoski signed Oregon Senate Bill 76--required under the AIP--which authorizes Oregon ratepayers' share of the removal costs. SB 76 allows PacifiCorp to rate-base up to $200 million in removal-related costs. It passed the House 34 to 24 on June 12 and the Senate 19 to 9 on June 22.
Under the AIP, California voters also must approve a general obligation bond for $250 million for that state's share of the costs. Some parties are worried about that element, as California wants to fold the bond into a much larger $15 billion bond measure aimed at funding construction of the Peripheral Canal--an ambitious plan to divert water directly from the Sacramento River to the San Joaquin Valley so as to bypass the San Joaquin delta--hub of the State Water Project--where fresh water withdrawals endanger a species of smelt. Parties are worried about the prospects for passage of such a large bond measure at a time when California is in serious economic crisis and are suspicious that California wants to add the Klamath element as way to "green-up" the combined bond measure.
Another party to the negotiations, the Hoopa Valley Tribe, remains annoyed that PacifiCorp has not filed interim conservation measures promised last November in the AIP and in letters the US Fish & Wildlife Service and NMFS sent to PacifiCorp, which cited "our mutual understanding for the immediate implementation" of the measures. The Tribe has sued in the DC Circuit to have conditions filed by BLM implemented immediately as interim measures.
"The AIP discussions are a road to nowhere," said Hoopa Valley attorney Tom Schlosser. "It's a plan for delay." He said the agreement to push back the date for the final agreement reinforces the Tribe's position. -Ben Tansey
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