Plan for removing dams on Klamath to help salmon? or Farmers?

[nosmokes]

Imall for restoring the Klamath to a wild and obstacle free river, but in removing the dams on the Klamath why should the Hupa have to give up their water rights and some timber rights along the Trinity?There's something very wrong about this plan but the brilliance is in trying to set the tribes against one another. One thing is for sure. and that's if the Bush admin approves you have a damn good reason to be wary as hell.
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original-indiancountry

Groups offer plan for removing dams on Oregon's Klamath River to help salmon population

Posted: January 18, 2008

By Jeff Barnard -- Associated Press

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) - An ambitious deal calling for the removal of four hydroelectric dams to restore struggling salmon runs has been forged among farmers, Indian tribes, fishermen, conservation groups and government agencies battling over scarce water in Oregon and neighboring California.

The plan, announced Jan. 15, came after two years of closed-door negotiations among parties with different ideas about how to divide Klamath Basin water between a federal irrigation project and fish protected by the Endangered Species Act.

The agreement must be reviewed by federal agencies, including the U.S. Justice Department. The Klamath River dams' removal would open 300 miles of rivers that have not seen salmon in the past century by increasing the number of areas for them to spawn and be reared.

The dams could be removed as early as 2015, according to the agreement. Their removal would be the largest such undertaking in American history, said Steve Rothert of the conservation group American Rivers.

Salmon have struggled to survive in the region, where competition for water between farms and fish has been intense, especially in drought years.

Removal of the dams and restoration of salmon depends on approval of about $400 million in new funding over 10 years, primarily from Congress, and an agreement from the dams' owner, Portland-based utility PacifiCorp.

''What we've come up with is a blueprint for how to solve the Klamath crisis,'' said Craig Tucker, Klamath Campaign coordinator for the Karuk Tribe, which has worked for years to restore dwindling salmon catches that were once a keystone of members' diet and culture.

PacifiCorp is a unit of MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co., which is controlled by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

PacifiCorp has previously said it would be willing to remove the dams if its ratepayers do not have to pay. But it has also been pursuing a new 30- or 50-year operating license, which would require it to spend about $300 million to build fish ladders. The dams produce enough power for about 70,000 homes.

Steve Thompson, director of the California-Nevada office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Sacramento, Calif., said the Bush administration has supported the agreement.
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complete article http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096416499">here