PacifiCorp Now Says Klamath Dams Might Stay. Underground Not Happy. Not At All.

 Some time ago the Underground jumped for joy when the Feds told PacifiCorp - owner and operator of four salmon-killing dams on the Klamath - they needed to spend approximately $300 million to upgrade the dams with fish ladders.

The thinking was simple: it’s far cheaper to take the dams out ($100 million) than it is to upgrade them.

Well, think again:

GRANTS PASS — PacifiCorp said Wednesday it is willing to spend $300 million to build fish ladders and other means to get salmon over its Klamath River hydroelectric dams rather than tear them out and build a new generating plant to replace the power.

Read more at: The Dalles Chronicle

Crap.

One wonders PacifiCorp is playing $200 million worth of chicken. If the state public utility commissions allow PacifiCorp to pass on the costs to customers instead of stockholders, then maybe modification worth it to them after all (but not us - the fishermen and ratepayers).

And - in an emerging, irritating trend where dams are described in glowing, environmentally friendly terms, here’s a real “talking out his ass” statement from PacifiCorp’s President:

 Bill Fehrman, president of PacifiCorp Energy, said in a statement that the utility wanted to keep the dams to support the future addition of wind power, because both neither source releases greenhouse gases.

“The fact that the Klamath project is an emissions-free, renewable resource will make it more valuable to our customers in the future and reduce our overall carbon footprint,” Fehrman said in a statement.

Yes, the Klamath dams are emissions free. They’ve also turned one of the West Coast’s most productive salmon runs to dust.

Fish ladders would help salmon gain access to spawning grounds, but wouldn’t resolve all the water quality problems (low flows, high temps, contaminants) that these dams cause, and so while the salmon might not disappear, they certainly wouldn’t rebound to pre-dam levels.

Nowhere near it.

The last of the great Klamath Salmon runs are swimming past the graveyard, and the best these yahoos can do is dig more graves.

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