A freeflowing Klamath is in sight

Water wars don’t easily end, especially in California. There are too many combatants, too many costs and too little water. The Klamath River could prove the exception to this troubling history. An allsides agreement is cementing over the latest problem standing in the way of demolishing four moss s licked dams astride the California and Oregon border. Taking them out is a longheld dream for environmentalists, fishing groups and native tribes pushing for revived flows and returning salmon on a river that once flourished.

All the pieces are now in place. The dam operator, PacifiCorp, was originally willing to go along with demolition to save itself from costly upgrades to the aging structures. The four hydroelectric facilities crank out little power, not nearly enough to justify the looming bills required by federal relicensing.

But it balked at a latearriving federal demand that it stay in the bargain as a deeppocket guarantor if the removal costs rose. After pressure from lawmakers in both states, the utility, which is part of investor Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway empire, announced it will continue on after assurances that the two states will pick up overruns on a project expected to total up to $ 500 million.

That step could be the final chapter in the on andoff again project that amounts to the largest dam removal on record in this country. With the financing set and the major players on board, demolition could begin in 2023.

This week’s agreement featured Gov. Gavin Newsom and Oregon Gov. Kate Brown in a virtual announcement that also drew a supportive statement from Buffett. This summer,

Newsom had appealed directly to the financier to stay in negotiations and not upend the settlement.

The public relations salvo underscores the toplevel endorsement. It also brings up the intriguing idea of giving new life to a 257mile river running through two states, a pair of Native American reservations and a slice of California’s wildest backcountry. The dams steered water and power locally but at an increasing cost to down river wildlife, especially salmon runs that once were the third largest on the West Coast.

Removing the structures will free up cold water flows needed by the fish, scour river bottoms that now host fish killing organisms and open up miles of spawning areas not used in nearly a century. For the Karuk and Yurok tribes, salmon are a dietary and cultural mainstay, and taking out the dams is a form of environmental justice. Tribal leaders recall fish dieoffs due to warm, unhealthy water and salmon runs so small that seasonal catches were suspended.

By one estimate, some 1,700 dams across the country have come down in recent years. In Maine and Washington state, the concrete barriers were taken out on salmon rivers where runs were dying. That indicates growing support for removing the structures where the stakes justify that dramatic step. But nothing can compare to the scale of the Klamath for size, potential and complexity.

The removal plan should offer another level of speculation. Bringing together all the players took years before reaching this week’s breakthrough. If the Klamath’s future can be studied and agreed on, then it might serve as a model to solve even bigger water disputes that afflict California. One major skirmish in the water wars may have ended. Larger ones are still raging.