Tag: klamathriver

A new report in Smithsonian magazine details how demolition of four aging dams slated for removal from the Klamath River in 2023 could help restore hundreds of miles of historical salmon habitat in California and Oregon. The project was made possible by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in November 2022 approving $500 million for the project that Native American tribes and environmentalists have been urging for years. Chrysten Rivard, Oregon director for nonprofit conservation group Trout Unlimited, said the Klamath River has been Exhibit A for how dams, drought, imbalanced water management and climate change can strangle a river, but is now poised to become a prime example of how an entire river system and all those depend on it can be renewed.   The four PacifiCorp dams slate...

Federal officials have approved a plan for demolition of four aging dams on the Klamath River at the foot of the Cascade Mountains on the California-Oregon border, in an effort to open up salmon habitat and restore the river by 2024. The unanimous decision by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) allows for the $500 million demolition project, which would return the river to a free-flowing state for the first time in over a century. Removal of the dam could begin as early as the summer of 2023. On Nov. 17, FERC unanimously approved a request from PacifiCorp to surrender licenses and decommission the Lower Klamath Project’s four hydroelectric dams in Oregon and California, ending decades of debate over the issue. Oregon Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden said in a statement ...