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1 1 (March 3, 2022)

handle is hein.crs/govehci0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional Research Service n forming the legislative debate since 1914 Updated March 3, 2022 Klamath River Dam Removal and Restoration The Klamath River Basin (Figure 1)-a 12,000 square mile area on the California-Oregon border-is a focal point for discussions on water allocation and species protection. These issues have generated conflict among farmers, Indian tribes, fishermen, water project and wildlife refuge managers, environmental groups, hydropower facility operators, and state and local governments. Background Multiple people and species rely on Klamath Basin waters. Irrigated agriculture in the Upper Klamath Basin is supported in part with water from the federal Bureau of Reclamation's (Reclamation's) Klamath Project and in part with off-project supplies. Further, six national wildlife refuges rely on basin waters to sustain migratory bird habitat and several Native American tribes historically depended on lower and upper basin fish species. Mitigating the effects of water management, habitat alteration, and other factors on listed species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA; 16 U.S.C. §§1531 et seq.) is a perennial issue in the basin. Two species of upper basin fish are currently listed as endangered under the ESA-the Lost River sucker and the shortnose sucker. In the lower basin, the coho salmon is listed as threatened. Conflicts in the basin first came to a head in 2001, when, as a result of previous biological opinions, Reclamation severely curtailed water deliveries to the Klamath Project to provide more water for endangered fish. Subsequent issues, including a major fish kill of Chinook salmon on the Lower Klamath River in 2002, resulted in federally led settlement talks in the 2000s. The basin contains seven dams on the Klamath River and its tributaries, built between 1918 and 1962. Six of these dams were owned by PacifiCorp, a regulated utility. These dams are known collectively as the Klamath Hydroelectric Project (KHP). Historically, all but one of the dams have produced hydroelectric power for the basin, including low- cost power for Klamath Project irrigators. The original Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) license to operate the KHP expired in 2006. In 2004, PacifiCorp applied for relicensing of the project, and, in 2007, FERC staff issued a final environmental impact statement for the application. FERC analyzed various alternatives for the application, ultimately recommending a new license with mandatory prescriptions to create fish ladders that was projected to cost hundreds of millions of dollars to implement and to result in net operating losses for the project. At this time, PacifiCorp has entered into basin settlement negotiations with stakeholders and continued to operate the project under temporary annual licenses. Figure I. Klamath River Basin and Proposed Dam Removal Proiect Reach Source: Klamath River Renewal Corporation, 2018. Note: The figure identifies four dams proposed for removal. Klamath Settlement Agreements In 2010, the Secretary of the Interior, governors of Oregon and California, PacifiCorp, and 44 other parties announced two interrelated settlement agreements intended to resolve long-standing issues in the basin: the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement (KBRA) and the Klamath Hydroelectric Settlement Agreement (KHSA). The KBRA proposed actions to restore Klamath fisheries and assurances for water deliveries to wildlife refuges and project irrigators, among other things. The KHSA laid out a process for removal of the four Lower Klamath Project dams (Figure 1). After a secretarial determination on dam removal, the dams would be transferred to the Department of the Interior (DOI), which would oversee decommissioning. The dam removal project would be one of the largest and most complex ever undertaken in the United States. A third agreement involving off-project irrigators in the Upper Klamath Basin was finalized in 2014. The Klamath settlement agreements were contingent on passage of federal legislation authorizing numerous new federal activities and expenditures in the basin. Legislation approving the agreements was introduced and received hearings in the 113th and 114th Congress but was not enacted. Despite this, some work under the KBRA and KHSA occurred under existing authorities: studies by DOI to inform the KHSA secretarial determination on dam removal were completed (although a formal determination

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