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1 1 (September 11, 2024)

handle is hein.crs/goveqpb0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Informing the legislative debate since 1914 Updated September 11, 2024 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, federally recognized tribes (hereinafter, Tribes), fishermen, federal water project and wildlife refuge managers, environmental groups, hydropower facility operators, and state and local governments. Congress has been involved in efforts to resolve these ongoing conflicts. Four privately owned hydroelectric dams were recently removed from the river as part of a multi-decadal effort to resolve some of the basin's conflicts; this dam removal project was the largest and most complex project of its kind to date in the United States and involved coordination among local, tribal, state, and federal stakeholders. Background Multiple people and species rely on Klamath Basin waters. Irrigated agriculture in the Upper Klamath Basin is supported by water from the federal Bureau of Reclamation's (Reclamation's) Klamath Project. Six national wildlife refuges also rely on basin waters to sustain migratory bird habitat. Several Tribes (including the Klamath Tribes, the Yurok Tribe, the Karuk Tribe, and the Hoopa Valley Tribe) historically have used lower and upper basin fish species for subsistence and other purposes. Historically, seven dams on the Klamath River and its tributaries (including six dams owned by PacifiCorp, a regulated utility) have generated low-cost hydroelectric power for the basin (including Klamath Project irrigators). The original Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) license to operate these dams (collectively referred to as the Klamath Hydroelectric Project, or KHP) expired in 2006. In 2004, PacifiCorp applied to relicense the project, and, in 2007, FERC analyzed various alternatives for the application. FERC ultimately recommended a new license with mandatory prescriptions to create fish ladders that were projected to result in net operating losses for the project. Based on the interest in dam removal among some basin stakeholders, PacifiCorp entered into settlement negotiations while continuing to operate the KHP under temporary annual licenses. Klamath River Basin Conflicts 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. These ESA listings require federal actions or prohibit certain activities, which may conflict with local priorities. Conflicts in the basin came to a head in 2001, when Reclamation made significant curtailments to water deliveries from the Klamath Project to provide more water for endangered fish as prescribed in ESA biological opinions. Following a major fish kill of Chinook salmon in the Lower Klamath River in 2002, settlement talks to resolve issues were initiated among federal and state governments and basin stakeholders. In 2010, the Secretary of the Interior, governors of Oregon and California, PacifiCorp, and 44 other parties announced two companion 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 provided assurances for water deliveries to wildlife refuges and irrigators, among other things. The KHSA laid out a process for removal of four of the KHP's dams (Figure 1) on the Klamath River, freeing up an estimated 425 miles of previously inaccessible habitat for fish species. A third agreement involving off-project irrigators in the Upper Klamath Basin was finalized in 2014. Figure I. Klamath River Basin and Dam Removal Source: Klamath River Renewal Corporation, 2018. Notes: Dams in black were removed in 2023 and 2024. Originally, the settlement agreements assumed that a Department of the Interior (DOI) study of dam removal would proceed under existing authorities and Congress would then consider authorizing a formal determination on

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