Dam removal

The largest dam removal project in U.S. history hits major milestone

Historic Klamath dam removal project underway in Northern California

By Ashley Harrell

One dam down, three to more go.

Work crews completed the deconstruction of Copco No. 2 — a hydroelectric dam on the Klamath River near the Oregon-California border — in early November, according to a press release from Klamath River Renewal Corp., the nonprofit organization removing the dams. It’s a major milestone in the largest dam removal project in U.S. history, and the three remaining dams are slated to come down next year.  

The effort to remove the dams has spanned more than 20 years, with hundreds of tribal members and other river advocates dedicating their careers to the river and its salmon populations.

“It’s been two decades of so many ups and downs,” Yurok Tribal Fisheries Department Director Barry McCovey Jr. told SFGATE. “The people involved have just really been persistent.”

McCovey grew up hearing stories of how the U.S. government forcibly relocated tribes to reservations and took control of the Klamath River in the 1880s, allowing private companies to build hydroelectric dams in the early 1900s. In studying to become a fish biologist, he learned all about how the dams — which altered the river’s flow, temperature and sediment — were devastating for salmon and their habitat. 

In 2002, when McCovey was just beginning his career, more than 30,000 fish (and possibly more than twice that many) were wiped out on the Klamath in a short time. It was the largest fish kill in the nation’s history.

The event drew national attention, and efforts to remove the dams began in earnest. Although the dams were relatively small producers of hydroelectric power, Republican leaders and landowners were worried about setting a precedent of removing dams. For nearly 20 years, negotiations fell through and agreements failed to launch.

During that time, river advocates took a multipronged approach, according to McCovey. “So many people were involved in so many different disciplines,” he said. “It really, really took a monumental amount of work.”

Some people concentrated on removing the dam based on law, litigation and policy, while others were working in advocacy. For his part, McCovey focused on scientific research, monitoring the river and collecting data that supported dam removal.

Because the effort stretched over so much time, not everyone will see the fruits of their labor. “We lost people,” he said. “Some of them worked really hard on this and then they passed away.”

The sustained effort finally paid off in late 2022. At that time, the dams were owned by PacifiCorp, a company owned by Berkshire Hathaway. The revenue the dams brought in was a small percentage of the company’s earnings, and renewing the license for the dams was more costly than removing them. PacificCorp instead transferred ownership of the dams to the states of California and Oregon, and Klamath River Renewal Corporation, and operations to remove the four largest of the river’s aging dams began in March of this year. 

Work crews finished deconstruction on Copco No. 2 —  the smallest of the four dams —  in September. By early November the crews had removed diversion infrastructure, graded the river channel, performed erosion control and completed the project. Nearby Ward’s Canyon, where water has not flowed consistently since 1925, would soon reap the benefits, KRRC announced.

“Seeing the Klamath River flow through this canyon after being diverted for nearly a century is inspiring,” Laura Hazlett, chief operating officer of KRRC, said in the November statement. “It makes me excited for everything else that is to come with the removal of the other three dams.”

In January 2024, crews will begin draining the water behind the walls of the three remaining dams. Then they’ll demolish the dams and remove the rubble. Finally, they will spread mulch and seed over the empty reservoir beds. In partnership with restoration contractor Resource Environmental Solutions, the Yurok tribe has gathered, propagated and stored some 13 billion seeds for this purpose over the last five years, according to McCovey. The goal is to get to 19 billion.  

“We have an all-Native crew that collects all-native vegetation that’s around those reservoirs that we want to plant back in there,” he said. “We don’t want invasive species.” 

The project will likely wrap up by November of 2024, according to KRRC’s press release, but McCovey emphasizes that the true impact of removing the dams will not be seen for many years. While factors such as drought could create ongoing obstacles, “dam removal is the largest single step we can take towards rebalancing the Klamath River Basin and ecosystem,” he said.

At the tribal membership meeting in October, McCovey was sitting at a desk, preparing to deliver a report about the Klamath. He had not visited the site of Copco No. 2, but he did know that work on its deconstruction was wrapping up. When a fellow tribesman walked up and placed a rock in front of him, he knew what it was right away.

He picked up the piece of the demolished dam, studying its contours. 

“That almost made me emotional,” he said. “If anything has made it seem real, it’s been that. Holding a chunk of that dam in my hand.”