GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — PacifiCorp has
filed a motion to dismiss the Klamath Tribes' lawsuit seeking $1 billion in
damages for salmon runs lost to hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River on
grounds that the tribes waited too long to file their claims.
The motion filed in U.S. District Court in
Medford argues that when the tribe was terminated in 1961, it became subject
to state statutes of limitations, and did not lose its federal treaty right
to fish and hunt on ancestral lands.
The tribe was restored to federal
recognition in 1986.
The longest of those state limitations
allows just 10 years to make a claim of damages from the time the damages
began, the motion argued. Construction began in 1911 on Copco Dam, the first
of the projects, and Keno Dam, the last, was completed in 1967.
By those measures, the latest the tribes
could have filed for damages would have been 1977, said PacifiCorp spokesman
Jon Coney.
"I would like to see somebody stand up and
admit responsibility somewhere along the line with things," said Allen
Foreman, chairman of the Klamath Tribes. "It always seems to be the case
with things like that — nobody claims that they were responsible. The fact
is there are damages."
PacifiCorp is meanwhile seeking a new
federal license to continue operating the dams, but has made no provision to
restore fish passage over the dams. The Klamath Tribes and other tribes and
interest groups are in settlement talks with the utility to try to reach
some agreement for future conditions before a license is considered by the
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
The $1 billion lawsuit was brought by the
Klamath Tribes, the Klamath Claims Committee, and tribal members.