The largest dam demolition in history is approved for a California river
The destruction of four dams on the lower Klamath river will open up hundreds of miles of salmon habitat. U.S. regulators approved the plan Thursday in a unanimous vote.
PORTLAND, Ore. — U.S. regulators approved a plan Thursday to demolish four dams on a California river and open up hundreds of miles of salmon habitat that would be the largest dam removal and river restoration project in the world when it goes forward.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's unanimous vote on the lower Klamath River dams is the last major regulatory hurdle and the biggest milestone for a $500 million demolition proposal championed by Native American tribes and environmentalists for years. The project would return the lower half of California's second-largest river to a free-flowing state for the first time in more than a century.
Native tribes that rely on the Klamath River and its salmon for
