The US Department of Interior (DOI) and Department of Commerce's NOAA Fisheries announced today the submission of their joint preliminary fishway prescriptions for the relicensing of PacifiCorp's dams and hydroelectric facilities on the Klamath River to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). These preliminary prescriptions, developed after several years of careful analysis and interagency cooperation, include fish passage fish passage
Fish passage is the ability of fish or other aquatic species to move freely throughout their life to find food, reproduce, and complete their natural migration cycles. Millions of barriers to fish passage across the country are fragmenting habitat and leading to species declines. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's National Fish Passage Program is working to reconnect watersheds to benefit both wildlife and people.
Learn more about fish passage , both upstream and downstream, for PacifiCorp's Iron Gate, Copco I and II and J.C. Boyle dams.
PacifiCorp's FERC license expired on March 1, 2006, and until a new 30-50 year license is issued it will be operating on annual extensions of the existing license. The existing license contains no provision for fish passage. Under the Federal Power Act, the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Commerce have the discretionary authority to require conditions to be included in new hydropower licenses. The Department of Interior has delegated the lead for PacifiCorp's FERC relicensing to Steve Thompson, Manager for the US Fish and Wildlife Service's California and Nevada Operations Office (CNO). Thompson is also the DOI lead for ongoing, broad-based settlement talks with PacifiCorp and many Klamath basin stakeholders.
In the project area the fishway prescriptions would restore access to 58 miles of habitat for chinook, steelhead, and lamprey and improve connectivity for resident redband trout. This includes 46 miles of habitat for the threatened coho salmon. Fish passage would also create the opportunity for the development and implementation of a reintroduction plan to return salmon, steelhead and lamprey to more than 300 miles of historic habitat above the project. The exclusion of these fish from the upper basin began with the completion of the first dam in 1918.
"Restoring access to good quality spawning and rearing habitat above Iron Gate Dam is a major step in rebuilding healthy salmon runs and fisheries that depend on them," said Jim Lecky, Director, Office of Protected Resources, NOAA Fisheries. "It creates the opportunity to reconnect the Klamath basin, from headwaters to the ocean.?
In addition to the fishway prescriptions, DOI is also submitting conditions necessary for the protection of the agricultural diversions within the Keno Reach that serve the Klamath Irrigation Project. Another prescription would provide for a reduction of the amount of water diverted out of four miles of mainstream river below J.C. Boyle Dam. Boyle's powerhouse and canal lie on lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).
All of these conditions are preliminary, and subject to review after hearings and consideration of alternatives provided by stakeholders. Once the preliminary conditions are filed, any party can file a request for a hearing before an administrative law judge within 30 days, according to the new regulations under the recently amended Federal Power Act. If a hearing is requested it is likely to take place in late summer or early fall of 2006.
"These prescriptions provide important new conservation benefits for people and for the fish of the Klamath River," said Steve Thompson. "I am convinced, however, that a locally driven, basin-wide approach holds the most promising hope for a comprehensive solution to the river's problems. I am increasingly encouraged that the people of the Klamath basin -- farmers, tribes and fishermen alike -- have joined together to see if they can make that happen.?
