|
|
It is feasible to build fish
ladders around Copco No. 1, the first
Klamath River hydroelectric dam, a
judge ruled last week. PacifiCorp now
operates the concrete arch dam that
rises 126 feet above Ward Canyon about
2 miles south of the Oregon border. |
|
Judge sides with government on most Klamath
hydro challenges
PacifiCorp license renewal prompts fishery
requests
Tam Moore
Capital Press
10/13/2006
Oceangoing fish could again use the upper
Klamath River and probably survive high-rise
fish ladders the federal government wants
constructed.
That's how Administrative Law Judge Parlen
McKenna sees challenged facts in the
PacifiCorp relicensing case before the Federal
Energy Regulatory Commission. McKenna's
report, summarized after a full week of
hearings in a Sacramento federal courtroom,
was filed Oct. 2.
A repeat of low returns for Klamath wild
fall-run chinook prompted the Pacific Fishery
Management Council and the states of Oregon
and California to close most ocean fishing in
2006 in waters used by Klamath chinook.
Historic runs of salmon, steelhead and
ocean-going lamprey eels were blocked when egg
taking began in 1910. The U.S. Bureau of
Sports Fisheries trapped fish as a runup to
construction of COPCO No. 1, the first Klamath
hydroelectric dam. It was built in 1917 and
began turning out power in 1918. The dam is
two miles south of the Oregon border.
A new regulating structure, Iron Gate Dam
about five miles east of I-5 in California's
Siskiyou County, now blocks fish passage
downstream of the original California Oregon
Power Co. dams.
It's the renewal of the PacifiCorp licenses
for what are now four dams that prompted
federal fishery agencies in May to ask for
either fish ladders or dam removal as a
condition of the FERC issuing another
long-term license. Flow requirements for
downstream fish dictate upstream storage water
availability for irrigation on nearly 200,000
acres of upper basin cropland.
Earlier last week a draft environmental impact
statement came out with a FERC staff
recommendation that a less-expensive
trap-and-haul system be used to get fish
around the dams.
McKenna, a U.S. Coast Guard administrative
judge based in Alameda, was brought into the
case when PacifiCorp challenged what are
called "material facts" used by the government
in arriving at its fish ladder condition and
other proposed license requirements. It will
be up to the commissioners to sort out
McKenna's findings and those proposed by its
staff.
Here's a quick trip through the 94-page
report:
n Fish above Iron Gate Dam - There are stocks
of salmon and steelhead that should adapt to
returning to waters above the dams. There's a
low risk that those ocean-going fish would
spread disease to resident fish. Opening
passage between the dams would probably help
resident trout. It's reasonable to estimate
that 58 river miles of salmon and steelhead
habitat would be gained if fish passage is
restored.
n Current project operations and fish - The
surge-then-storage of water used for power
generation impacts streambanks, and seasonal
high flows asked by the agencies will help
redband trout. Other proposed flows and river
management conditions "would improve fishery
resources."
n Flows from J.C. Boyle power plant - Proposed
flows below diversion for the Boyle power
plant in Oregon will reduce "frequency and
quality" of whitewater rafting and decrease
opportunities for fly-fishing.
Based on a study of hatchery salmon planted in
some reservoirs, then tracked by radio,
PacifiCorp consultants argued that physical
conditions might not now be appropriate for
survival of migrating fish. McKenna would have
none of that, saying he found the study "not
scientifically reliable." Survival rates for
groups of fish ranged from 18 percent to 100
percent.
"The record shows that construction of dams
has necessarily changed the migratory behavior
of anadromous fish," McKenna wrote. He noted,
however, that chinook and coho salmon and
steelhead continue to come upriver to the
barrier at Iron Gate.
"If access was provided through … properly
designed, operated and maintained fishways,
anadromous fish would migrate past Iron Gate
Dam and into the upper Klamath River Basin,"
he wrote.
Tam Moore is based in Medford, Ore. His e-mail
address is tmoore@capitalpress.com.
|
