The California Public Utilities Commission has endorsed removing four dams and hydro plants on the Klamath River, wire services reported.

At a recent meeting in San Francisco the commission also granted Portland-based dam-owner PacifiCorp a 2 percent rate increase for its 45,000 customers in California to help pay for removing the dams in Southern Oregon and Northern California, the Associated Press reported.

The $13.8 million raised by the surcharge during the next nine years goes into trust funds to be used if federal authorities approve the removal of the dams.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation last year awarded a $4.2 million contract to CDM Federal Programs Corporation for an economic study of an agreement to remove four dams in the 161.338-MW Klamath hydroelectric project in Oregon and California.

Project licensee PacifiCorp and other parties unveiled a settlement agreement in September 2009 on resolution of Klamath River resource issues and removal of the utility's main Klamath River hydropower plants and dams, 90.338-MW J.C. Boyle, 20-MW Copco 1, 27-MW Copco 2 and 18-MW Iron Gate.

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