Council warns of negative effects of diverting dam water

Northwest stands to lose $100 million

By CHRISTOPHER SMITH
Associated Press

BOISE-- The Pacific Northwest would lose an estimated $100 million in potential power this drought year if five Snake and Columbia River hydroelectric dams are ordered to run turbines at minimum speeds and divert more water over spillways to help young salmon swim to the ocean, analysts say.

The Northwest Power and Conservation Council, which concluded its three-day meeting in Boise on Thursday, was briefed Wednesday on potential scenarios if a federal judge in Oregon orders an alternative operating plan for Lower Granite, Little Goose, Upper Monumental and Ice Harbor dams on the Snake and McNary Dam on the Columbia this summer.

The state of Oregon, environmentalists, fishing groups and American Indian tribes have sued the National Marine Fisheries Service over the agency's plan governing dam operations to protect endangered salmon species.

The plaintiffs have asked for an injunction to require Bonneville Power Administration and the Army Corps of Engineers to increase spills over the five dams to get more juvenile salmon downstream this year. But the service's operating plan permits the regional power marketing agency and the corps to move fish downstream in trucks and barges rather than divert river flows away from turbines. Flows over spillways do not generate electricity.

"Just the action that calls for diverting more water around turbines, I estimated it to be a $100 million cost, using the summer forecast (electricity) price of $74 per megawatt-hour," said John Fazio, a senior analyst for the four-state panel that oversees electric power system planning and fish and wildlife recovery in the Columbia River Basin.

If another request to cut salmon-to-sea travel time by upping the velocity of downstream flows is also ordered by the court, "I just don't how big that cost will be," Fazio said Thursday.

A White House plan to force BPA to charge market rather than wholesale prices for its power was defeated by members of Congress from Western states last month who argued such rate hikes would cripple the region's economy.

INSIDE

• Seven states gearing up for battle over the Colorado River's water / C9