Deal on Dams on Klamath Advances

[XemaSab]

Bitter opponents over the future of the Klamath River unveiled a formal agreement on Tuesday to pave the way for removal of four aging hydroelectric dams that re-engineered the watershed and sharply decreased fish stocks.

The decades-old disputes between advocates for fish and the farmers who are their historic adversaries appeared to dissolve as almost all of 26 user groups, tribes and governments involved backed a plan to allocate the waters of a dam-free river.

But the agreement lacks one vital link: a decision by the dams’ owner, PacifiCorp Power, to agree to their removal. That decision, a company spokesman said, will not be made unless the financial interests of the company’s customers are safeguarded.

If the dams came down, more than 300 miles of the Klamath, in northern California and southern Oregon, would be open to fish for the first time in more than 90 years.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/16/us/16klamath.html?ref=us