12/23/2020 -- A long contested plan to remove four hydro-electric dams on the Klamath River is moving forward, creating a path for restoring the river's decimated salmon fisheries and cleaning up a waterway that has long been central to local Native American tribes.
The process of physically removing the four dams, which are owned by energy company PacifiCorp, is set to begin in three years.
The agreement was announced at a Zoom meeting on Wednesday afternoon which featured California Governor Gavin Newsom, Oregon Governor Kate Brown, leaders of the Karuk and Yurok Tribes, California Department of Fish and Wildlife director Charlton Bonham, CEO of the Klamath River Renewal Corporation, and representatives from Pacificorps, which is owned by billionaire Warren Buffett’s company Berkshire Hathaway Energy. Here’s Bonham again
The parties signed a memorandum of agreement detailing how they will see dam removal through. However, the question of whether or not to remove the dams has been fraught for over a decade, defined by distrust between tribes, fishing groups, Pacifiorps and Berkshire Hathaway, environmentalists and lawmakers. And there is no promise that this plan will be any different.
However, the deal does bring new energy to the plan to remove Pacificorp’s four massive, hydroelectric dams in Northern California and Southern Oregon and could set the stage for other dam removal projects around the country as national concerns for environmental health and fish passage grow.