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BPA Says Crisis Means it's Solvency vs. Salmon by Jonathan Brinckman The Oregonian, February 8, 2001

Bonneville Power Administration officials painted a grim picture Wednesday for Northwest salmon and those who would save them.

Expensive salmon saving measures should be sacrificed so that a struggling BPA can meet the region's power needs without going bankrupt, a top agency official told the Northwest Power Planning Council at a Portland briefing.

Members of the planning council -- a four-state panel charged with balancing the region's power needs with wildlife protection -- agreed, saying they did not think Bonneville had any choice.

"The situation is grim," said Frank L. Cassidy, council president. "At least Bonneville is being honest."

The briefing occurred as Gov. John Kitzhaber announced in Seattle that he'd petitioned President Bush to relieve the BPA this year of its debt to the U.S. Treasury -- a reprieve that might help keep salmon protections in place.

The BPA's unprecedented dilemma has been caused by the confluence of two events, Greg Delwiche, the BPA's vice president for generation, told the power council:

• The Northwest's near-drought means there is 37 percent less water than normal in the Columbia River Basin to drive turbines at 29 federal dams. That has sharply reduced the amount of power produced by those dams.

• Record-high power prices have made it enormously expensive for the BPA to buy power that it is obliged to supply its customers, including aluminum companies and other industries and utilities throughout the Northwest. That, by some calculations, threatens the agency's solvency.

"The strategy was to depend on the marketplace to meet low load (demands) in low-water years," Delwiche said. But doing that this year, he said, could drive the BPA into fiscal crisis.

Limits on production
Power production at federal dams is limited by a federal salmon protection plan. That plan, issued in December, calls on water to be held in storage reservoirs, such as Eastern Washington's Grand Coulee and Idaho's Dworshak, for release in spring and summer to speed and cool rivers to help young salmon reach the ocean.

The plan also calls for some water to be sent through spillways instead of through turbines to provide a safer way for young salmon to get past dams.

All of that reduces the amount of electricity that can be generated at federal dams by 980 megawatts, a reduction of about 10 percent.

In its briefing Wednesday, the BPA sought exemption from certain provisions of the plan this year. It proposed relief from having to refill storage reservoirs to federally mandated levels, and it also sought to reduce the amount of water spilled in spring and summer, even if that means hurting salmon.

The proposal comes three weeks after the BPA declared a "power emergency" and, for five days in mid-January, released extra water from its reservoirs to generate extra electricity. That water would have been saved for spring and summer flows to help fish make their way to the sea.

Addressing demand
Delwiche said Bonneville was proposing the plan only after taking measures to cut electricity demand. It sponsored advertisements in 17 Northwest newspapers informing the public of conservation measures, spent $200 million to buy back 1,300 megawatts of power from aluminum companies and supported Northwest governors in their call for 1,000 megawatts of conservation.

The impacts of the proposals were not clear.

Scientists with the National Marine Fisheries Service -- which designed the fish recovery plan -- told the power council earlier Wednesday that while increased river flows seemed linked to increased fish survival in the summer, that link is not clear in the spring.

Tom Karier, a Washington state member of the council, said biologists need to determine which rules for operating the hydrosystem can be violated with least harm to salmon. "We have to rely on the science," he said.

The BPA's proposals will not go into effect until reviewed by the four Northwest states and regional tribes, and approved by other federal agencies, Delwiche said.

But members of the power council staff said their analysis supported the BPA.

If the BPA does not violate salmon protection guidelines it is certain to find itself unable to meet electricity demand at least once during February and March, said Pete Swartz, a power council analyst.

If, however, the BPA violates the guidelines, the chance of a shortfall during those months drops to about 25 percent, he said.