PacifiCorp loses challenge of fish ladders over dams (Klamath River)

[jpak]

http://www.oregonlive.com/newsflash/regional/index.ssf?/base/news-16/115941417166750.xml&storylist=orlocal

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — Salmon and steelhead would take back hundreds of miles of habitat above a series of hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River if they had fish ladders to get there, an administrative law judge found late Wednesday.

The finding by Administrative Law Judge Parlen L. McKenna, following a two-day hearing last month in Sacramento, Calif., adds to increasing public relations and economic pressure on PacifiCorp to remove the four dams straddling the Oregon-California border to help the Klamath River's struggling salmon runs.

The Portland-based utility has estimated it would cost $250 million to build fish ladders and make other improvements for salmon mandated by federal fisheries agencies, and would cut power production at the 150-megawatt facility in half.

In the first case of its kind under a new provision of federal energy law, PacifiCorp had challenged mandates from federal fisheries agencies that it restore free-swimming fish passage past the dams, screen turbines and devote a smaller proportion of the river to power production.

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[eppur_se_muova]

1. K&R for our anadromous friends. nt