Klamath River Archives

Opinion: Why Are Taxpayers Footing Klamath River Dam Removal Cost?

November 23, 2020/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /CalMattersby Dan Walters

Decades of political conflict over the fate of four obsolete dams on the Klamath River reached a turning point last week with a multi-party, two-state “memorandum of understanding” to remove them in hopes of restoring salmon runs.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, heads of two Indian tribes that depend on the river for sustenance, and an executive of Warren Buffett’s PacificCorp that owns the dams announced agreement on a $450 million removal project.

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Historic Deal Revives Plan for Largest US Dam Demolition

November 18, 2020/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /AP Newsby Gillian Flaccus

An agreement announced Tuesday paves the way for the largest dam demolition in U.S. history, a project that promises to reopen hundreds of miles of waterway along the Oregon-California border to salmon that are critical to tribes but have dwindled to almost nothing in recent years.

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The Rebirth of a Historic River

November 12, 2020/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Kimberlyn Velasquez /BBCby Alexander Matthews

“My great uncle and my grandma and my great grandparents and, I’m sure, their great grandparents: they were all fishermen. That’s just what they did – they fished and it was out of necessity to support their families. And it’s because that’s what we’ve always done and we’ve never known another life,” says Amy Cordalis, the general counsel of the Yurok, and a member of California’s largest indigenous tribe.

It’s hard to overstate how important this livelihood has been to the Yurok people who have lived for millennia in rural Northern California. And yet this livelihood has been diminishing for decades after the Klamath River – which flows through the tribe’s territory – was dammed for hydroelectricity. But now, after years of painstaking negotiations, the fortunes of the Yurok could be set to change, with the largest dam removal project in US history given the green light.

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Court Rules in Favor of Klamath Irrigation District, State Water Rights

August 12, 2020/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Kimberlyn Velasquez /Herald & News (Oregon)by Alex Schwartz

A win for state water rights came earlier this month after the Marion County Circuit Court ruled that the Bureau of Reclamation cannot release water from Upper Klamath Lake for flows down the Klamath River.

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Opinion: Dam Removal Plan for the Klamath River Hinges on Billionaire Warren Buffett

August 6, 2020/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /San Francisco Chronicleby Chronicle Editorial Board

Through three governors, California has set a path to tear down four aging dams on the Klamath River astride the Oregon border. It would be the biggest such removal project in the nation, done in the name of fish preservation, clean water flows and political consensus.

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Warren Buffett Controls Dams in Northern California. Why Gov. Newsom Wants Them Torn Down

July 30, 2020/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /The Sacramento Beeby Dale Kasler

Desperate to complete a historic but complicated dam removal on the California-Oregon border, Gov. Gavin Newsom has appealed to one of the world’s wealthiest men to keep the project on track: financier Warren Buffett.

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Agency Throws Curveball in Largest U.S. Dam Demolition Plan

July 17, 2020/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /Associated Press by Gillian Flaccus

Federal regulators on Thursday threw a significant curveball at a coalition that has been planning for years to demolish four massive hydroelectric dams on a river along the Oregon-California border to save salmon populations that have dwindled to almost nothing.

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Opinion: Keep Momentum Going to Remove Klamath River Dams and Restore Salmon Runs

May 19, 2020/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /CalMattersby Frankie Myers

With the outbreak of COVID-19, many Americans are starting to realize how fragile our economy and social safety nets really are.

Many people face economic uncertainty and food shortages for the first time in their lives. For Indians, confronting economic uncertainty and food shortages has been part of life since Europeans arrived in our lands. We have known for a long time that in order to survive, we must prioritize the protection of our salmon, acorns, mushrooms, eels and the hundreds of other sources of food and fiber in our environment.

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Largest Dam Removal Project in US Takes Further Step Forward

April 14, 2020/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Kimberlyn Velasquez /Water Power Magazine

The Klamath River Renewal Corporation’s (KRRC) plans to remove four dams on the Klamath River in the US has taken a major step forward with the issuance of key documents from the California State Water Board.

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California Greenlights Massive Klamath River Dam Removal

April 10, 2020/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Kimberlyn Velasquez /E&E Newsby Jeremy P. Jacobs

The largest dam removal project in U.S. history came one step closer to fruition this week, as California issued permits for breaching the four dams on the Klamath River.

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