Tribes celebrate as biggest dam removal project in history is about to start in California

The biggest dam-removal project in history moved one step closer to reality Thursday after the federal government cleared a key regulatory hurdle that would allow demolition to begin on four hydroelectric dams along California’s border with Oregon.

The decision Thursday by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission allows PacifiCorp, a utility company controlled by financier Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, to surrender the dams’ license to a nonprofit organization backed by California and Oregon.

Demolition on the Klamath River dams — three in California and one in Oregon — could begin as quickly as a few months from now.

FERC’s decision represents a major victory for some of California’s largest American Indian tribes, including the Karuk, Hoopa Valley and Yurok in far Northern California. The tribes’ cultures, economies and spiritual lives are tied directly to the health of the Klamath River watershed and the fish that swim in it.

They’ve been fighting for years to have the dams removed to open up more than 100 miles of river that the dams had blocked. The tribes, along with fishing and environmental groups, argue that tearing down the dams will provide an important boost for migratory fish such as salmon and steelhead whose numbers have plummeted in recent decades.

“It is a real strong testament to the blood, sweat and tears that have been put into this effort by so many people,” Joe Davis, the chairman of Hoopa Valley Tribe, said. “And it just goes to show what can be done when people work together.”

Siskiyou County opposes dam removal

In 2020, Gov. Gavin Newsom and Oregon Gov. Kate Brown signed a landmark deal with Buffett’s company that allowed a nonprofit group called the Klamath River Renewal Corp. to take control of the dams on the Lower Klamath River and oversee their demolition.

The project is expected to cost at least $450 million, including $250 million already pledged by California and $200 million contributed by PacifiCorp ratepayers on both sides of the border through surcharges on their monthly bills.

Newsom said at the time that removing the dams lets California “right some wrongs, address some of our historic mistakes.”

“Today’s action culminates more than a decade of work to revitalize the Klamath River and its vital role in the tribal communities, cultures and livelihoods sustained by it,” Newsom said Thursday in a news release.

The dams provide no irrigation water and little flood control to the region. The dams range from 50 to 100 years old and provide power to 70,000 homes. But PacifiCorp officials say the power they generate amounts to less than 2 percent of the power in PacifiCorp’s system, and removing them would have little impact on the grid.

Nonetheless, local residents and property owners have protested against the dam removal project for years. They say the demolition process would harm the river, and would wreck the values of properties that sit on the reservoirs formed by the dams.

In 2010, voters in Siskiyou County, where three of the dams are located, voted by a 79-21 margin against the demolition in a non-binding vote.

Congressional Republicans, including the region’s U.S. Rep. Doug LaMalfa, also have fought to block the demolition.



LaMalfa was instrumental in killing water-sharing and habitat-restoration settlements signed by tribes, farmers and others in the Klamath Basin more than a decade ago because the accords included taking out the dams.

In a statement Thursday, LaMalfa said FERC “systematically ignored the concerns of the citizens in the region.

“The citizens of California are losers in today’s hearing so the green movement could claim a symbolic win,” he said.

This story was originally published November 17, 2022 at 11:11 AM.