Oregon Public Broadcasting

The Oregon Public Utility Commission says a fee PacifiCorp has been charging its customers since March is fair, just and reasonable.

The 1.7 percent surcharge is meant to cover the cost of removing 4 dams along the Klamath River.

Bob Jenks is the executive director of the Citizens Utility Board, a non-profit organization that represents residential customers in Oregon.

He says the $184 million price tag represents a good deal for consumers. The alternative, he says would be to relicense the dams with the obligation of making them accessible to fish. 

He says the costs of that could be huge.Bob Jenks: “And there would be no caps on liability.  Customers would be on the hook for potentially almost unlimited costs associated with trying to make the Klamath River with its dams work for fish.  And if that wasn’t to happen we still might be liable for removing the dams.”

3 of the 4 dams are in California. Back in February, that state agreed to provide $250 million to fund the dam removal. But California voters have to take that up as a ballot measure.