DOI: Blow up all Klamath river dams to save fish

Dismantling the four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River would open up 420 miles of habitat for migrating salmon, create thousands of jobs and cost less than it would to maintain the reservoirs, a U.S. Department of the Interior report said Wednesday.

The long-awaited environmental report on what would be the biggest dam-removal project in California history predicted an 81.4 percent increase in the number of chinook salmon and similar increases for steelhead trout and coho salmon.

Opening up the waterway would also eliminate toxic algal blooms, the report said, and employ 4,600 people during 15 years of work.

The $291.6 million estimated cost of removal is substantially less than the $450 million worst-case scenario outlined in previous reports.
Upkeep is costly

The cost of keeping the dams open - including federally mandated fish ladders, water-quality improvements and construction of new recreational facilities - is in the $400 million to $500 million range, officials said.

"These results have confirmed that removal of the dams will benefit the economy by creating jobs, it will benefit the fishery by increasing productivity, and fishing jobs would increase in the basin and elsewhere," said Steve Rothert, the California director of American Rivers, a national nonprofit conservation group.

The environmental document will be used by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to make a final decision in March on whether to remove the dams. The report predicts 49 utility jobs and 14 recreational jobs would be lost if the dams are removed.
Biggest cost

The biggest cost, most people agree, would be the loss of lakefront property. The value of 668 parcels is expected to go down, said the document, which did not specify exactly how much.

"It devalues the property," said Tom Rickard, 74, who moved with his wife, Lee, into a home on Copco Lake 10 years ago. He said removing the dams would take away the entire reason he and the other mostly elderly homeowners live in the area.

"There are probably 100 families on just this one lake, but nobody listens to us or cares what we think," Rickard said. "We've got 22 acres and at least 2,000 feet of lake frontage. Without the dam there would be nothing there."

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Some 28 parties, including American Indian tribes, farmers and fishermen, agreed over the past few years to allow the dams operated by the utility PacifiCorp to be dismantled beginning in 2020.