In our view Nov. 17: Victory for Fish

Our friend the salmon is on a roll. For months now it has been known that demolition of the 125-foot-tall, 95-year-old Condit Dam on the White Salmon River is scheduled for October, 2009. Despite problems with sediment that will occur as a result of the removal of the dam about 65 miles east of Vancouver, in a few years more than 30 miles of river habitat will open again for the spawning and rearing of salmon, steelhead and bull trout.

Last week brought another triumph for the miraculously anadromous fish. It was strictly a nonbinding policy victory, and any progress remains more than a decade away, but when you’re threatened or endangered, a win is a win.

President Bush and Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne announced federal approval of the removal of four PacifiCorp dams on the Klamath River, which winds through southern Oregon and northern California. Governors of the two states and PacifiCorp officials also have signed the nonbinding agreement. Much work remains, however. The federal government has until 2012 to ascertain if removal of the dams is indeed feasible, and 2020 is set as the deadline for the dam-removal projects to start. According to The Associated Press, demolition costs will be capped at $450 million, with PacifiCorp, the Portland-based utility, paying $200 million. That’s a steep price for the utility to pay, but it likely will come through future rate increases, and it’s less than the $300 million in fish ladders and other improvements that the feds have mandated in order for operating licenses to be renewed.

We’re glad that progress has been made in the opening of about 300 miles of salmon spawning habitat in two states. It’s also a relief that peace has come to an area that has suffered years of political bitterness and bureaucratic bungling. Much of the blame for these unnecessary battles rests upon the Bush administration, which in 2001 strongly supported farmers even after the Endangered Species Act forced restricting irrigation water so as to leave enough water for threatened salmon.

The following year, the salmon suffered a setback as the administration restored irrigation even as tribes and conservation groups complained. Then came the consequence of lower water conditions: 70,000 adult salmon, racing to answer their migratory and reproductive instincts, died in the Klamath River because of the low water.

In 2006, a collapse in the commercial salmon fisheries was blamed largely on poor Klamath River returns.

Last week Kempthorne, whose appointment to the Interior post in 2006 is seen by many as beneficial to the compromise process, acknowledged the calamity of 2002: “We all have those images of what happened in Klamath. Nobody wants to see those images occur again. We were motivated to find a solution because we’ve seen how bad it can be. Nobody wanted to say, ‘It’s beyond our abilities to solve this.’” An announcement from President Bush said the agreement turns “what was a conflict into a conservation success.”

And Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski said the compromise is “a model for not only the West, but a model for the rest of the country of how federal and state governments can all work together.”

We wish this could have been accomplished without the unproductive contention among farmers, environmentalists and tribes. If only the agreement could have been reached before the death of 70,000 fish. We also wish that removal of the four dams could begin sooner than 2020.

But there’s no doubt that last week’s milestone agreement is proof that conflicting constituencies can meet at the confluence of solutions.