Opinion: What a long, strange trip to kill four dams
Finally, after a 50-year effort, four massive dams on the Klamath River in northern California and Oregon will start coming down this July. For the Yurok, Karuk, Hoopa, Shasta and Klamath tribes living along this river since time immemorial, there’s much to celebrate. They have long fought for the lives of the salmon that are harmed by these dams, and for their right to fish for them. Even PacifiCorp, which marketed the electricity of the four hydroelectric-producing dams, will also have something to cheer about. PacifiCorp, which is owned by billionaire Warren Buffett, won’t have pricey fish ladders to install and its share of the cost of dam removal has been passed to ratepayers in both states.
–Written by Rocky Barker, a contributor to Writers on the Range