Felice Pace: Why the Klamath Deals failed and what ought to happen now

Below KlamBlog presents the views of its editor, Felice Pace. on why the Klamath Dam and Water Deals failed to secure the endorsement of Congress. Felice argues that understanding why Klamath legislation failed in Congress is essential to crafting a successful path to dam removal and restoration of the Klamath River, its salmon and aquatic ecosystems. Read on to find out why the longest serving Klamath River activist believes legislation is not needed to get the dams out and restore the River. 

Why the Klamath Deals failed and what ought to happen now

Felice Pace

For those who would craft a successful way forward toward dam removal and restoration of the Klamath River and Klamath Salmon understanding why the Klamath Dam and Water Deals failed is essential information. This article presents actual and unreported reasons the deals failed to be endorsed and funded by Congress in 2015, additional congressional hurdles legislation to authorize and fund the deals faced, and why the tribes which supported the deals (the Yurok, Karuk and Klamath Tribes) have apparently decided not to continue hoping for a better result in a future Congress. Finally, this article suggests a way forward toward dam removal, water balance and river restoration that I believe offers the best chance of success and the least vulnerability to legal challenges.

Why Klamath Legislation failed in the 114th Congress

There can be no doubt that the #1 reason legislation to authorize and fund the Klamath Dam and Water Agreements failed to become law was opposition by Republican members of the US House of Representatives to removal of PacifiCorp's Klamath River Dams. While that opposition has an ideological component, opposition to both the KHSA Dam Deal and the KBRA Water Deal by Klamath County Commissioners in Oregon and opposition by Siskiyou County California Supervisors to the KHSA Dam Deal is what convinced Oregon Congressman Walden and California Congressman La Malfa to oppose any legislation that would have resulted in removal of any Klamath River dam.

Opposition to the Dam and Water Deals convinced House Republicans to oppose S 133 

However, opposition to dam removal in the US House does not explain why a bill supported by both senators from Oregon and both Senators from California not only failed to pass the Senate but even failed to get a hearing in the committee which had to pass the bill before it could get a vote by the full Senate. So why did S 133, the Klamath Basin Water Recovery and Economic Restoration Act of 2015, fail to get a hearing in the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources? The answer is Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski.