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Klamath Dam Removal: An Abbreviated Timeline
2004 PacifiCorp’s 50-year operating license expires on the Klamath dams and they file for a new one with no provisions for fish passage. Tribes, fishermen and others travel to Scotland to demand dam removal from Scottish Power, the owner of PacifiCorp. Settlement negotiations begin.
2005 Karuk Tribe identifies dangerous toxic algae blooms on PacifiCorp’s reservoirs. The algae spreads when nutrient-rich water warms and stagnates behind the dams. Public health warnings are posted near the reservoirs for the next 5 years. Tribes return to Scotland to disrupt Scottish Power’s shareholder meeting.
2005 Klamath advocates rally in front of PacifiCorp’s headquarters, returning annually for 3 years.
2006 Scottish Power sells PacifiCorp to Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway.
2006 Low Klamath salmon returns close the commercial salmon season from Monterey, Ca to Newport, Or.
2006 Federal agencies file terms for relicensing including $400 million in fish passage upgrades. PacifiCorp challenges the terms but judge’s ruling upholds them.
2007 The California Energy Commission uses PacifiCorp’s own data to show that dam removal would be cheaper than mandatory upgrades associated with relicensing.
2007 FERC releases a final EIS recommending the dams remain (with fish to be trucked around them) but also showing dam removal to be cheaper than relicensing. One week later NOAA & USFWS require volitional fish passage, ruling out the trap-and-haul option.
2007 Klamath delegation travels to Omaha to ask Warren Buffett to discuss dam removal options. He refuses. Delegation returns to Omaha the next 2 years.
Jan 2008 After years of negotiations, stakeholders release a Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement supported by over 20 agencies and organizations. The KBRA rests on a parallel dam removal agreement with PacifiCorp, which the utility refuses to comment on throughout settlement negotiations.
May 2008 After a successful lawsuit from KRK, US EPA lists PacifiCorp’s reservoirs as impaired by dam-caused algal toxins. The listing potentially blocks the corporation’s chance to acquire a 401 clean water permit needed to relicense the dams.
Nov 2008 PacifiCorp decides to work with the federal government, Oregon, and California on the hydropower agreement called for by settlement negotiators. The corporation announces publicly that dam removal is in the best interest of its customers. An Agreement in Principle (AIP) to remove the dams is released.
2009 A final dam removal agreement integrating the KBRA and the AIP is due in June, and then delayed until September.