Siskiyou Co. Supervisors call for more transparency on Klamath Dam Removal

SISKIYOU COUNTY, Cal. – Siskiyou County Supervisors are sending a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).

During Tuesday’s meeting, board members unanimously voted to approve the letter which outlines several of their concerns over the Klamath Dam Removal Project. Those concerns center around what they say is a lack of communication from administrators to potential claimants, the perimeters of what will be compensated, who is eligible, as well as the deadlines for claimants to seek funding which Siskiyou County officials say may have already passed.

Supervisors are now calling on FERC to resolve these issues, many of which the county has been unable to resolve with the dam removal entities.

Those requests include asking for the Klamath Mitigation Fund to be reopened and allowing community members to be able to file their claims, which could continue for up to 10 years after the dams have been removed.

Additionally they are asking for payments of claims to be large enough to make filers ‘whole’ and they are requesting no cap for the funding.

Supervisors want any money left in the Klamath Mitigation Fund to be used for community impact mitigation. An example given during Tuesday’s meeting was for those property owners who paid to test their ground water wells, to be reimbursed for that cost.

The county is also asking KRRC to assess any outstanding project impacts and include coverage of those in the funds. They’d also like to see continued water tracking to protect water quality, assurances of fishery recovery, as well as monitoring for health issues caused by the dam removal.

The letter also requests FERC to require KRRC to be more transparent by providing the source of funding for the Klamath Mitigation Fund, the amount of original funding, and the amount spent so far.

Siskiyou County Supervisors are asking for a response from FERC within 30 days.

Read the full letter here.