Klamath River

SACRAMENTO -- After more than three years of negotiations, a collection of long-quarreling Klamath Basin farmers, fishermen and tribes announced a breakthrough agreement Tuesday that they said could lead to the nation's most extensive dam-removal project.

The power company that owns four Klamath River dams blocking the migration of imperiled salmon launched a counterattack Monday against a recent government study that declared it cheaper to remove the structures than to keep them. Officials at Portland-based PacifiCorp said the study released by the California Energy Commission failed to account for certain unavoidable costs that could dramatically increase the price of demolition.

Firing the latest salvo in a battle over the future of the Klamath River, the California Energy Commission on Monday reaffirmed its stand that removing four hydroelectric dams that block salmon migration would cost less than trying to keep them. In December, the commission issued a report asserting that removing the dams and purchasing replacement power would cost roughly $100 million less than installing extensive new fish ladders for imperiled salmon and steelhead.

An environmental group sued PacifiCorp and California's wildlife agency Tuesday over claims that a Klamath River fish hatchery is releasing pollution that is deadly to fish downstream. Klamath Riverkeeper, part of an alliance headed by environmentalist Robert Kennedy Jr., filed suit in U.S. District Court in Sacramento alleging discharges from the hatchery violated the Clean Water Act. At issue is the hatchery at the Iron Gate Dam on the Klamath near the Oregon border.

Under the rolling cloud-scape of the Klamath Basin, a curious rite of spring is underway. Migratory birds are flocking to the basin's necklace of federal wildlife refuges straddling Oregon and California -- one of the most important stops on the Pacific Flyway. As usual, the geese, mallards and terns are sharing the sanctuaries with tractors. Agriculture fields have elbowed onto what once were marshes and shallow inland seas, shrinking the basin's wetlands by nearly 80%.

A national consumer campaign to save wild salmon will launch in Washington today, as about 200 chefs from restaurants in 33 states call on Congress to pass laws to restore river habitats and tear down massive hydroelectric dams that have decimated salmon species along the Pacific coast. The initiative, led by celebrity chef Alice Waters of Berkeley's Chez Panisse, follows last year's federal shutdown of 88% of the commercial salmon fishing along 700 miles of coastline in California and Oregon.

REDDING -- Indian tribes, farmers and commercial salmon fishermen are blasting a federal regulator's recommendation Friday that four PacifiCorp hydroelectric dams remain on the Klamath River. The decision by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in Grants Pass, Ore., sided with the utility and ignored calls from fishery agencies to build costly fish ladders.

Wading anew into one of the West's fiercest water wars, a scientific panel from the National Research Council said this week that a more comprehensive study needs to be done on the problem-plagued Klamath River Basin. Past studies have focused only on the main river -- which has seen dams and water diversion hurt threatened salmon and suckerfish populations -- ignoring its many tributaries, the panel said in a report.

Facing a salmon shortage on the ailing Klamath River, a fishing advisory board Wednesday sketched out ways to slash this year's West Coast salmon catch that range from cutting the season by more than half to adopting an outright ban. The Pacific Fishery Management Council asked its staff to return Friday with a review of three potential options, all of them met with dismay by fishermen already hard-hit by a shortened 2005 season.

Aboard his weatherworn fishing boat, Duncan MacLean has pulled a livelihood from the high seas. He takes pride in putting seafood on dinner tables. He loves his workday on the roller-coaster swells. But that storied way of life is at risk for West Coast fishermen. The culprit is a sick river and its dwindling salmon runs.