Oregon Public Broadcasting

A complex agreement to remove four dams on the Klamath River is close to being signed, possibly as soon as later this month.

Tuesday was the deadline for negotiators to sign on to the agreement but some conservation groups are criticizing the plan.  Chris Lehman reports.

California-based Friends of the River says it supports the goal of dam removal. But spokeswoman Kelly Catlett says the current agreement relies too heavily on external factors.

Those include the Secretary of the Interior signing off on the plan and California voters approving a bond measure later this year.

Catlett's group advocates a more aggressive route.

Kelly Catlett: "We do worry that the settlement, as it's constructed, because of many of the pre-conditions, isn't actually going to yield the end goal."

Some Oregon environmental groups have criticized the settlement because it means the dams will stay in place until at least 2020. 

But most parties to the agreement have officially signed on, including tribes, Klamath basin farmers and Portland-based PacifiCorp.

Online:

Information about the Klamath agreement