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Economic and dam related articles

Utility to Fight 'Blatant' Water Grab

by Associated Press
The Spokesman Review, June 8, 2001

Idaho Power says it won't spill water to save salmon

BOISE -- Idaho Power Co. on Thursday vowed to fight an attempt by the National Marine Fisheries Service to force the utility to release at least a third of Brownlee Reservoir's water before the end of July for fish migration. The agency tasked with restoring runs of threatened and endangered Northwest salmon and steelhead asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last week to reopen the licensing process for the three-dam Hells Canyon hydroelectric complex on the Snake River. Regulators responded on Thursday with a request for detailed information.

"This is a blatant attempt to open our Hells Canyon operating license to get Idaho's water now, and then make the grab permanent when the dams are relicensed in four years," said John Prescott, Idaho Power's vice president of generation. "NMFS wants to boost our customers' rates by taking control of the Hells Canyon project and running it for fish without regard for the energy needs of Idaho."

U.S. Sen. Michael Crapo said he would ask Commerce Secretary Donald Evans to intervene and have the Fisheries Service request withdrawn. The Idaho Republican said the release proposal violated state water law and "willing buyer, willing seller" provisions already agreed to by federal officials.

Brian Brown, the Fisheries Service's assistant regional administrator, wrote in a May 30 letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that Idaho Power had repeatedly refused to agree to earlier downstream releases from Brownlee of far less water than the 350,000 acre-feet the agency now recommends. Those refusals, and the Northwest's worsening drought, made quick action by regulators essential to saving fish listed under the Endangered Species Act, he wrote.

Brown said Idaho Power representatives had refused a Fisheries Service request in April to release 110,000 acre-feet of water to enhance the survival rate of migrating fish this spring.

Then in May, he said, Idaho Power rejected a U.S. Bureau of Reclamation request for the release of up to 38,000 acre-feet of water in anticipation of a similar amount being released later from upstream federal reservoirs.

"These positions and the short timeframe available present substantial obstacles in our efforts to prevent the extinction and assist in the recovery of ESA-listed salmon and steelhead," Brown wrote. "Water management is an important component of NMFS' salmon recovery strategy. This is particularly true this year when anticipated streamflows approach the lowest ever measured and when available supplies to augment streamflows are low."

He said the peak outmigration of fall chinook was expected by early July, making energy regulators' "prompt attention to this matter of great importance."

But Prescott said Idaho Power does not believe the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission can legally reopen the Hells Canyon license.

He cited a 1980 agreement signed by all federal and state fisheries agencies, including the Fisheries Service, that spelled out what the company had to do to alleviate the impact of the series of western Idaho dams on salmon and steelhead during the term of the license that expires in mid-2005.

Idaho Power customers have been paying millions of dollars a year for those mitigation efforts, Prescott said.

"Now NMFS wants our customers to also pay for the impact the four lower Snake federal dams have had on migrating fish, without clear evidence that Idaho's water would even help their situation," he said. "We think the federal government should fix its own problems and quit trying to raid Idaho's water."


Associated Press
Utility to Fight 'Blatant' Water Grab
Spokesman Review, June 8, 2001

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