U.S. Gov't Approves Demolition Of 4 Dams Choking California Salmon

Federal regulators have issued a draft environmental impact statement saying there were significant benefits to a plan to demolish four massive dams on Northern California’s Klamath River to save imperiled migratory salmon, setting the stage for the largest dam demolition project in US history at $500 million, Gillian Flaccus reported for the Associated Press (AP).

Photo Insert: The Coho salmon from the river is listed as threatened under federal and California law, and their population has fallen by anywhere from 52% to 95%.

The issuing of a statement by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) clears a major regulatory hurdle for the project and paves the way for public hearings on the document before a final draft is issued as soon as this summer.

A final environmental impact statement would allow the extensive preparations necessary for the nearly $500 million demolition and habitat restoration plan to begin in earnest. Dam removals could begin as early as next year if all goes smoothly, but a more likely scenario is 2024.

The aging dams near the Oregon-California border were built before current environmental regulations and essentially cut the 253-mile-long (407-kilometer-long) river in half for migrating salmon, whose numbers have plummeted.

The project on California’s second-largest river would be at the vanguard of a push to demolish dams as the structures age and become less viable and as concerns grow about their environmental impact. In recent years, as much as 90% of juvenile salmon sampled tested positive for a disease that flourishes when river flows are low.

“The dams are a key factor in the diseases that are wiping out entire generations of salmon,” said Glen Spain of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations.

Regulators wrote that moving ahead with the proposal would “maximize benefits” to salmon fisheries important to local tribes and restore the landscape to a “more natural state.”

Tribes that rely on the salmon for their sustenance and culture, including the Yurok and Karuk, cheered the milestone Friday. So did commercial fishermen and environmentalists who have worked for years to bring the dams down in a region already suffering through intense drought and dwindling water supplies.

“Our culture and our fisheries are hanging in the balance. We are ready to start work on dam removal this year,” Yurok Vice Chairman Frankie Myers said in a statement.

The Coho salmon from the river is listed as threatened under federal and California law, and their population has fallen by anywhere from 52% to 95%. Spring chinook salmon, once the Klamath Basin’s largest run, have dwindled by 98%. Fall chinook, the last to persist in any significant numbers, have been so meager in the past few years that the Yurok Tribe canceled fishing last year for the first time in memory.

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