Interior Department recommends removal of dams on Klamath River to aid salmon

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Interior Department recommends removal of dams on Klamath River to aid salmon

By Laura Zuckerman
Thu Apr 4, 2013 11:16pm EDT

(Reuters) - The government on Thursday recommended the removal of four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River in Oregon and California to aid native salmon runs and help resolve a decades-long struggle over allocation of scarce water resources.

The Interior Department proposal, which comes as the largest dam removal project in U.S. history is nearing completion in Washington state, concerns a system of dams that straddle the Oregon-California border.

The proposal to dismantle the dams owned by utility PacifiCorp coincides with a broader push by environmentalists and others to restore salmon fisheries in the Klamath Basin and elsewhere in the nation.

The dams recommended for removal, two in Oregon and two in California, block upstream spawning migrations of salmon and place juvenile fish at risk by slowing their return to the Pacific Ocean.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/05/us-usa-environment-dams-idUSBRE93402O20130405

[CreekDog]

1. .

[hatrack]

2. Ironic - for decades, nothing spelled The End for ecosystems and fish like a dam . . .

Until recently.

[jeffreyi]

3. get ready for another

frenetic right-wing *&^#$-storm in the Klamath Basin and surrounding areas. Where I live. Can't wait. We're in a severe drought, also, which doesn't help.

[wtmusic]

4. The power may be "renewable", but dead salmon aren't.