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BPA Releases EIS on Fish and Wildlife Implementation, Funding by Barry Espenson Columbia Basin Bulletin - May 23, 2003

An environmental impact statement released by the Bonneville Power Administration earlier this month represents a key step toward its goal of building a "comprehensive and consistent policy to guide its implementation and funding of fish and wildlife mitigation and recovery efforts."

The federal power marketing agency says the study is unique in that it examines all the ongoing regional fish and wildlife actions and programs and distills them down to five broad themes ranging from a natural river focus on one extreme to a commercial river focus on the other. The 800-page EIS took three years to produce.

The documents picks from the middle of that range in selecting a preferred alternative that "encompasses policy actions that have already been identified in other regional forums or processes, and by other decision makers."

"BPA has identified a preferred alternative in the EIS, which is actually a combination of two alternatives," said Charles Alton, BPA project manager. "A key point about that choice is that it is designed to be flexible and respond to future changes."

The report includes three volumes. It will be posted on BPA's fish and wildlife web site at www.efw.bpa.gov. Copies will be available via computer compact disks.

The document initially is intended to fulfill BPA's obligation, under the National Environmental Policy Act, to understand the environmental consequences of its fish and wildlife-related actions. Alton said a notice of the document's availability was published in the May 9 Federal Register. A record of decision -- an official selection of the agency's "policy direction" -- is forthcoming no sooner than June 9 from administrator Steve Wright. Alton would not speculate whether that ROD would follow strictly the EIS preferred alternative.

The EIS also reflects the agency's desire of "unified planning approach" to address the many demands on ratepayer revenues for fish and wildlife work. Those responsibilities include trust and treaty accountability to the region's Native American tribes and obligations under both the Northwest Power Act and the Endangered Species Act.

The document's summary points out that, since the Power Act was passed in 1980, it has spent $6 billion on fish and wildlife activities. ESA hydrosystem operational requirements since 1995 have also reduced the agency's effective power generation capability by about 1,000 megawatts.

"BPA is working hard, through its implementation of the National Marine Fisheries Service's and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's biological opinions, and the Pacific Northwest Power Planning Council's Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program, to complete a unified fish and wildlife mitigation and recovery policy," according to the EIS abstract.

"However, the timing and ultimate success of that effort is uncertain. In any event, BPA is obligated to fund and implement fish and wildlife mitigating and recovery actions before, during and after these policy-level deliberations," the abstract said. "BPA also has a statutory obligation to understand the environmental consequences of its actions and to provide an opportunity for the public to participate in agency decision making.

"This FEIS is designed to meet the immediate and future needs of agency decision makers and the public for information regarding the impacts of mitigation and recovery actions proposed for implementation by BPA.

"BPA does not intend to unilaterally select a policy direction for the region. However, if the region fails to agree upon a policy direction, BPA must still implement and fund fish and wildlife mitigation and recovery strategy. The BPA administrator's initial decision, as well as future tiered decisions, will rely on this FEIS environmental analysis and its comparison of the alternatives against the purposes of action."

"Any policy adopted for fish and wildlife actions in the region will have environmental impacts," Alton said. "This study may be the first to test nearly everything we presently know and do in the region for fish and wildlife."

Developing the study actually started in 1998 when those representing many different fish and wildlife views gathered to identify more than 40 different issues that any regional fish and wildlife policy must address. In the new environmental study, the five broad themes were tested against each of those issues.

The document analyzes potential policy directions, and their potential environmental and economic consequences as compared to the status quo. A summary of that status quo situation reads: "No coordinated regional plan -- multiple governmental actions, and unclear direction on species recovery with conflicting laws, jurisdictions, and scientific analyses."

The options analyzed include:

"Natural focus: Let nature heal itself -- Emphasizes removing the past major human interventions in the ecosystem and allowing the existing fish and wildlife to return to a natural balance. The focus is on protecting habitat and controlling hydro operation to re-establish ecological processes. The preservation of habitat quality would be put ahead of economic activity. Exceptional intervention, such as dam breaching, would be considered.
• Weak stock focus: Emphasizes human intervention to support recovery of weak stocks of fish and wildlife populations, which are proposed for listing or are listed under the Endangered Species Act or other related legal protections. The focus is on actively protecting and enhancing habitat and controlling hydro operation to enhance survival of ESA listed species at all lifecycle stages. Restoring quality habitat for weak stocks would be done over economic activity.

• Sustainable use focus: Emphasizes human intervention as part of the goal to rebuild and maintain sustainable fish and wildlife populations to promote expanded harvest and recreation opportunities. The focus is on increasing hatchery production, modifying hydro operations, and enhancing and managing habitat to increase harvest opportunities.

• Strong stock focus: Emphasizes human intervention to avoid declines of strong fish stocks and strong wildlife populations preventing weakened populations that require legal protection. The focus is on maintaining habitat to sustain strong fish stocks and strong wildlife populations. Maintaining habitat and restricting further degradation would be put over economic activity and new development.

• Commerce focus: Emphasizes human intervention to enhance the economic value of river uses and allocates a portion of the revenues to fund fish and wildlife mitigation. The focus is on increasing hatchery production and improving hydro operations to support the commercial values of the river.

The BPA preferred alternative stands, for the most part, in the middle. It is a "blend of the weak stock focus and sustainable use focus alternative directions."

The preferred alternative's intent is to "protect weak stocks of fish and achieve biological performance standards, as set forth in the BiOps, while sustaining overall populations of fish and wildlife for their economic and cultural value."

The preferred alternative focuses on enhancing fish and wildlife habitat, modifying hydro operation and structures and reforming hatcheries to both increase listed stock populations and provide harvest opportunities in the long term.

"It gives priority to improving water quality and habitat for ESA-listed stocks of fish over economic activity, stopping short of breaching dams," according to the EIS. "It emphasizes human management, in a least-cost manner, to recovery listed species and restore and maintain sustainable populations of fish and wildlife, while recognizing that ultimately the fate of the listed species may be significantly determined by weather and ocean conditions rather than human action.

The document says that the main guidance for the preferred alternative "in regard to using the unified regional planning approach" comes from the Federal Caucus' Basinwide Salmon Recovery Strategy, the BiOps' 1- and 5-year implementation planning and progress reporting efforts and the Northwest Power and Conservation Council's 2000 Fish and Wildlife program, the Tribal Vision and the Corps' 2002 Record of Decision on the Lower Snake River Juvenile Salmon Migration Feasibility Study.

Related Sites:
BPA: www.bpa.gov/indexmain.shtml