This morning’s Daily Digest included this story from the California Globe, stating that Kiewit had pulled out of the Klamath Dam removal project. I have just received this email from Ren Brownell with the Klamath River Renewal Corporation:
“The assertion made in the California Globe and Siskiyou News articles that our contractor has left the project is wholly inaccurate. Kiewit chose not to implement an exploratory drilling program that they had previously proposed, and FERC was simply acknowledging this in the letter. There are no delays to the project as a result.
The letters back and forth between the KRRC and FERC that they are referencing are part of FERC’s ongoing review of our removal plans for various components of Iron Gate dam. These reviews are routine. We provide updated plans responsive to Board of Consultants and FERC comments on earlier plans and we iterate until we have approval. We will make a filing with FERC in late April requesting final approval for the removal of Iron Gate dam, in the hopes of beginning around mid-May, though it is weather dependent.
The articles also reference a 2012 letter from Stephen Koshy, that asserts that dam removal would be catastrophic. The statements in the letter are technically incorrect. It states that the clay core is fully saturated which is not the case. The reality is that clay was placed within the dam to provide an impermeable watertight barrier from the upstream water surface to the downstream dam face. We will take the dam out in horizontal layers from the dam crest down to the foundation. The clay core will remain confined as the dam removal advances through each phase.
Bottom line, everything is still on schedule – FERC’s feedback is a part of the process, and our contractors are ramping up for the complete removal of the remaining three dams.“
