Settlement Coming in Fight For the Klamath River?

While I’ve focused on fight to remove the Klamath River dams(owned by PacifiCorp) that are throttling the life out of the Klamath’s salmon runs, there’s been a similar battle going on upstream over water rights.

Involved in this battle have been several Native American tribes, environmental groups, PacifiCorp, water users and several government groups.

It’s made for one great big furball, but a news report (written from the irrigator’s perspective) suggests the groups have gotten together and are nearing a settlement.

KLAMATH FALLS (AP) - After two years, the end may be in sight for settlement talks in the dispute over water rights and four Klamath River hydroelectric dams operated by PacifiCorp.

The Portland-based utility invited 28 groups, including state and federal agencies, three county governments, irrigators, four American Indian tribes and environmental organizations into the settlement negotiations.

Now, the groups involved say they expect to release details of a settlement in a few weeks to a few months. The settlement is expected to lead to the Klamath Summit, an event promised by the governors of Oregon and California last year to address watershed issues.

We’ll wait and see. Since FERC offered PacifiCorp an alternative the standard licensing process, I don’t know how this settlement will affect dam removal or relicensing, though many of PacifiCorp’s recent shenanigans (the threat to install the ladders and their recent P.R. offensive equating removing the dams with worsening global warming) suddenly come into clearer focus:

When the relicensing for the dams came up, the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission provided PacifiCorp the option of a settlement
with involved stakeholders - or the traditional legal and technical
process that works through petitions and testimony. The utility decided
to try both options.

I’ll be keeping track of this one. See you at the settlement table, Tom Chandler.

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