The Interior Department and PacifiCorp have agreed that four of the utility's hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River in Oregon and California will be removed. The move stems from concerns over commercial salmon fisheries that depend on the river, farming interests who rely on the dam reservoirs for irrigation and the conflict between the two interests. Interior, PacifiCorp, and the states of California and Oregon announced the "agreement in principle" on Thursday, but a formal agreement will likely not be in place before June. Even as that formal agreement is reached, Interior will continue to study the environmental benefits of removing the dams, and make a final decision on whether it is worth the cost, by March 21, 2012. The agreement calls for the dams to be transferred to a "dam removal entity" that will be charged will taking down the structures by a target date of 2020. The removal is estimated to cost about $450 million. Of that amount, $200 million will come from a surcharge on PacifiCorp customers, and $250 million from a California bond issuance. The dams block fish from swimming upstream to spawn, and last year the federal government ordered PacifiCorp to construct a bypass to allow fish to make it upstream. At the time, that was estimated to cost about $300 million. Tearing down the dams has been an alternative considered by the company since that order was issued.
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