Grant County paying $15.6 million

EPHRATA - The Grant County Public Utility District commission approved a contract with the Okanagan Nation Alliance for funding of the 12-year experimental reintroduction of sockeye salmon into Skaha Lake near Penticton, B.C.

Grant PUD began participating in the program in 2004. The professional services contract, passed by the commission Jan. 8, covers participation in the remaining 10 years. The cost is $15.6 million. Chelan County PUD agreed to fund half cost through 2010.

Adult sockeye migration was blocked by the operation of McIntyre and Okanagan Falls dams since the 1950s. The Okanagan Nation Alliance and Colville Confederated Tribes initiated a research program in 1999, funded by Bonneville Power Administration, evaluating the feasibility of reintroducing sockeye salmon into their former range, beginning with Skaha Lake.

The research program showed the reintroduction of sockeye into Skaha Lake posed little risk to existing Okanagan sockeye and resident Skaha Lake kokanee populations, according to the Okanagan Nation Alliance's proposed workplan.

"Grant PUD will use data collected from the reintroduction of sockeye salmon in Skaha Lake to evaluate the potential of a long-term program to meet the protection, mitigation, and enhancement measures that Grant PUD has committed to in the Priest Rapids Salmon and Steelhead Settlement Agreement for sockeye salmon," PUD spokesperson Rita Bjork said today.

"The 12-year experimental reintroduction includes extraction of eggs from mature adults, fertilization and incubation in a local hatchery, planting of fry in the Okanagan River at Penticton, B.C., where they move downstream to Skaha Lake and monitoring and evaluation of their survival in the lake," Bjork said. In other recent PUD business:

? The commission OK'd an increase in the PUD's contract amount with Strategies 360, which specializes in public policy, federal lobbying, marketing and communications.

The PUD receives advice from Strategies 360 on relicensing, fish programs, water quality certification, power sales, telecommunications, and legislative issues. The original contract, set at a not-to-exceed amount of $150,000, is expanded to a not-to-exceed amount of $225,000.

? A motion was approved revising the rate schedule in a legal services contract with Mark C. Rutzick, as special counsel in connection with the PUD's Section 401 Water Quality Certification from the state Department of Ecology. The certification is related to the PUD's relicensing efforts for the Priest Rapids Hydroelectric Project. The need for special counsel continues through early 2007. The $90,000 current contract is now increased to $135,000.

? The commission passed a resolution amending a past

resolution establishing the commission's meeting times. The five-member commission is now set to meet each Monday at 9 a.m. at the PUD's Ephrata Headquarters Building, with the business portion beginning at, or before, 1:30 p.m.

When holidays fall on Monday, the meeting is then held on the next business day.