What: Klamath
River Renewal Corporation open house
Where: Mt.
Mazama Room, Oregon Tech, 3201 Campus Drive
When: 6 to 8
p.m. Tuesday
Those interested in learning more about removal of four
dams along the Klamath River are invited to attend an
open house hosted by Klamath River Renewable Corpration,
the dam removal entity, from 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday in the
Mt. Mazama Room at Oregon Tech, 3201 Campus Drive,
Klamath Falls.
The gathering will be held community forum-style, where
Basin residents will have the chance to meet Dave Meurer,
KRRC’s community liaison, ask questions related to dams
and how the entity plans to facilitate removal of the
J.C. Boyle, Copco 1 and 2 and Iron Gate dams.
Meurer, who is based in California, travels the region
extensively meeting with interested parties. He was
named community liaison in January and serves as the key
spokesperson for the San Francisco-based nonprofit.
“I’m kind of the new face in town so it’s my turn to be
introduced, explain a little bit of my history and why I
joined the project, ” Meurer said.
At
least one member of the KRRC board of directors may also
be on hand to answer questions from the public.
“The intent is
just to provide information and to just respond to
questions, and give a status update and try to clarify
some of the ongoing questions that we continue to hear
or to clear up misperceptions that we continue to hear,”
Meurer said.
Meurer also
emphasized that KRRC has no discretion or authority to
consider alternatives to dam removal.
“We are the dam
removal entity that was created by the signatories –
California, Oregon, PacifiCorp,” he said. “The
signatories have marked out for us so we really can’t
entertain alternatives. That is a policy decision.”
Meurer said in a
recent interview with the Herald and News that two
separate but interrelated applications are pending
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approval
regarding dam removal.
Meurer said KRRC
will file a “definite plan” moving forward with the
process of the estimated $290 million to $300 million
dam removal in July and that there could be some
“pre-construction activity in 2020.” But the “drawdown
of the reservoirs” may not start until tentatively
January or February 2021, Meurer said.
“That (2020) was
never a locked in stone date,” Meurer said of an
original timeline.
Meurer said 2021
is also not “locked in stone” as the start time for the
dam removal.
Meurer also said
there are a variety of dam removal processes being
considered, including the “possibility” of using
dynamite.
KRRC last held a
public open houser in November with Mark Bransom,
executive director of KRRC, and other board of directors
present.
