FERC last week approved the surrender of the license for the 163-MW Lower Klamath hydroelectric project straddling the California-Oregon border, setting the stage for the largest dam removal and salmon restoration effort in U.S. history.

The commission’s decision marks a major victory for local tribes and environmental groups in the region, who for years have sought the breaching of the dams to restore salmon runs to an area of the Klamath River that saw fish populations decline dramatically with the completion of the first dam in 1918. For Northwest tribes, salmon represent a traditional source of food and a vital component of cultural identity.

During the commission’s open meeting on Thursday, Chair Richard Glick said some people might wonder why a hydro plant licensee would agree to remove dams “in this time for great need for zero-emissions energy.”

“First of all, we have to understand that this doesn’t happen every day. The last time there was approval for decommissioning dams was about 10 years ago,” Glick said.

The FERC chair pointed out that the dams were built during a time “when there wasn’t as much focus on environmental issues.”

“Some of these projects have a significant impact on the environment and a significant impact on fish and other wildlife, so when companies are contemplating going through the relicensing process, people recognize that now we have new information and different laws, and so on, and sometimes these relicensing processes can be rather expensive,” he said.

Glick added that, while the Klamath dam removals “make sense” from the perspective of wildlife protection, tribal concerns weighed heavily as well.

“I think it’s a very important issue,” Glick said. “A number of years back, I don’t think the commission necessarily spent a lot of time in thinking about the impact of our decisions on tribes, and I think that’s an important element that I think is in today’s order and a number of orders recently. And I think for [the] good we’re making progress on that front. Still a ways to go, but I think we’re making the right progress there.”

A Model for Other Removals?

Culminating a process that began more than 15 years ago, last Thursday’s 174-page order authorizes Klamath River Renewal Corporation (KRRC) and PacifiCorp — the dams’ previous owner — to remove four hydroelectric developments along the river, including the J.C. Boyle Dam in Oregon and the Copco No. 1, Copco No. 2 and Iron Gate dams in California (P-2082-063).

“Never before have so many large dams been removed from a single river at one time in the U.S.,” the Congressional Research Service said in a report last March, noting that the project could become a “proof-of-concept for other major dam removals.”

The Lower Klamath Project was originally part of the 169-MW, seven-dam Klamath Hydroelectric Project, built between 1918 and the early 1960s. In 2007, PacifiCorp decided not to seek relicensing of the four lower dams following a long-running dispute over water rights and the health of salmon runs in the Klamath Basin. The utility determined that new mitigation measures that would have been required under renewed licenses for the four aging structures would be too costly to implement.

For years the dams operated under a series of interim licenses, until FERC in June 2021 approved transfer of their licenses to the KRRC, a group comprising the Yurok and Karuk tribes, area farmers, ranchers, fishermen and environmental groups. The states of California and Oregon assumed roles of co-licensees to ensure that KRRC’s decommissioning and restoration efforts had sufficient backing. (See Klamath Hydro License Transfer Approved.)

Under the terms of the transfer, PacifiCorp has continued to operate the dams until decommissioning. Three dams further upstream, which have been modernized with fish ladders to facilitate salmon runs, will remain in service.

Opponents of the dam’s removal said the reservoirs created by the projects play an important role in irrigation, flood control and wildfire protection, as well as recreation and hydroelectric production. While acknowledging those concerns in its order, the commission noted that California, Oregon and the KRRC have committed to addressing many of them, including monitoring wells currently located near the reservoirs for declines in water levels and modifying the region’s fire management plans to account for the loss of a ready water supply, including an increase in storage tanks and installation of remote, camera-monitored fire-detection systems to allow for “precise triangulation” of wildfires.

The commission acknowledged that dam removal could have mixed effects on property values, with the loss of value for formerly waterfront properties potentially offset by increased values because of improved water quality and “an enhancement of the natural riparian environment.”

The commission also noted that commenters such as Siskiyou County, Calif. — home to the three of the dams — raised concerns that removal could result in a significant reduction in their tax revenue. “While it is possible that revenues related to the presence of the project will be lost, we have previously stated that the termination of any business venture reduces tax revenues to governments but is not a reason to deny a surrender application,” FERC wrote.

Terms of Surrender

FERC’s order requires the Lower Klamath co-licensees to submit an owner’s dam safety program within 30 days, which will be effective from the termination date for each facility until removal. And, at least 60 days prior to any construction activities, the licensees must provide the secretary of the commission with final decommissioning design documents and an independent board of consultants’ review of those documents.

Within 30 days of completing decommissioning, the licensees must submit to the secretary a final decommissioning report, with photographs, which documents that the dams have been decommissioned in accordance with FERC’s order.

“The surrender of the license for the Lower Klamath Project shall not be effective until the commission’s Division of Dam Safety and Inspections – Portland Regional Engineer has issued a letter stating that the project’s facilities have been decommissioned in accordance with this surrender order and the commission’s Division of Hydropower Administration and Compliance is satisfied with the required monitoring in accordance with this surrender order,” the commission wrote.