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Costly Fish Passage Technologies Await Judgment by Barry Espenson Columbia Basin Bulletin - December 15, 2000

The Corps of Engineers and other Columbia Basin fish and hydrosystem managers face several forks in the road, this year and in the years to come, in deciding which capital improvements can best improve salmon's survival chances during their migrations through federal dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers.

The first landmark is next spring, when a decision is expected on whether to forge ahead with surface bypass collection technology at Bonneville Dam's first powerhouse, or modify the existing juvenile salmon bypass system. The reworked bypass is estimated to cost more than $67 million. The installation of surface bypass could cost as much as $300 million between now and the end of fiscal year 2010, according to "outyear" budget projections presented to the System Configuration Team Wednesday.

Bonneville has the lowest fish guidance efficiency, fish diverted from turbines to other bypass means, on the Columbia/Snake river system, according to Corps work plans.

Regardless of what path that is chosen, the needs of the Columbia River Fish Mitigation Project will begin climbing according to the cost estimates. The Corps' John Kranda described the spreadsheet as an exercise intended to give SCT members a glimpse of potential costs of proposed fish passage improvements.

"There's a lot of decisions imbedded in here that could change dramatically" the bottom line, Kranda said. Research is ongoing to decide the efficacy of a variety of passage technologies at the eight Columbia and Snake river dams in the CRFMP.

The SCT, made up of state, federal and tribal representatives, was formed as a result of the National Marine Fisheries Service's 1995 hydrosystem biological opinion. It annually prioritizes a Corps' list of research and passage improvement implementation projects intended to avoid jeopardizing the survival of salmon and steelhead listed under the Endangered Species Act.

A new hydro BiOp, with prescriptions for passage improvement measures as well as "off-site" mitigation, is expected to be released next week.

The new BiOp is expected to include 3-, 5- and 10-year "check-in" points at which the progress toward meeting specific performance standards will be judged. The exact form of those standards, benchmarks showing improvement in fish survival, is still being debated.

Some at Wednesday's meeting suggested that the SCT's prioritization process might have to be reworked, giving deference to research and/or implementation actions that might best help the "action agencies" meet those performance standards. The federal action agencies are the Corps and Bureau of Land Management, which operate the dams, and the Bonneville Power Administration, which markets the power produced and repays the U.S. Treasury for hydrosystem's share of the passage improvement costs.

"The action agencies are going to want to make sure the things that get lopped off aren't critical to meeting performance standards," said the BPA's Phil Thor. With the CRFMP dependent on congressional appropriations, funding levels are always uncertain.

"My presumption is that we will have limited resources," Thor said. The Administration this year requested an $85 million budget for the 2001 program. Congress appropriated $81 million with $13 million of that total withheld for "savings and slippage."

The SCT ranks the Corps project list for funding preference. The revised 2001 list now totals $75.9 million but jumps to $82.7 million if it is decided to launch construction on the Bonneville Dam bypass modifications and outfall relocation.

The Corps divisional office has sent a request of national headquarters to restore from $7 million to $12 million to the 2001 CRFMP budget if funds become available within the national budget. The request is intended to gain funds to begin the Bonneville construction if bypass modifications are chosen, the start of construction on an Ice Harbor auxiliary water supply and fund other projects that dropped below the $68 million budget line.

"We will get some money I'm sure," Kranda said. "I think in the long run it will all work out for the list we have here."

The estimates provided by Kranda show that budget needs would jump to $144 million in 2002 and to $171 million in 2003 if the Corps launches into the Bonneville PH1 juvenile bypass modification. If the surface bypass route is chosen the 2002 and 2003 budget estimates are lower, $116 million and $150 million respectively. Budgets would be smaller while the surface bypass concept is tested and developed. The large surface bypass implementation costs would be pushed back to the end of the decade if the technology proves out.

Multiple passage improvement alternatives are being studied at other projects as well, such as John Day on the Columbia and Lower Monumental on the Snake River. At John Day, tests continue on extended length screens to improve fish guidance to the existing bypass system. A decision to proceed would trigger more than $60 million in construction costs. Development of a prototype "removable raised crest" surface bypass prototype began last year for John Day with outyear costs projected at more than $80 million if that course is chosen.

The removable spillway weir concept is also being eyed for the four Snake River projects as well.

"You would have to make a decision once the research is in," Kranda said of the multiple alternatives.

In the case of John Day, "it may be both (surface bypass and extended length screens), it may be neither or it may be one or the other," Kranda said.

The National Marine Fisheries Service's Steve Rainey said concepts such as the spillway weirs, intended to pass more fish per volume of water than existing spillways, remain untested.

"It's speculative what kind of performance you might have," Rainey said. He joined Kranda and Thor in emphasizing that the projected dates and costs for implementation of technologies now being developed are "soft." Rainey said the cost estimates are at the high end of likely costs.

The projections estimate cost of from $916 million to $1.3 billion through 2010 though those figures could change considerably, either down or up, if other promising technologies are identified.

"There may be other things that we haven't considered," said NMFS' Bill Hevlin.

The research is important to identify what incremental improvements in fish survival can be attributed to any particular measure, Rainey said. The new BiOp is expected to outline the improvements needed as part of the effort avoid jeopardizing the survival of listed species.

"There shouldn't be a lot of disagreement when SCT comes together," ultimately, about which measures are likely to provide the greatest gains, Rainey said. Philosophical differences will likely remain.

"We'll have to grapple with that as best we can," Rainey said.