SANDPOINT - A flexible winter power operations plan continues to track toward implementation on Lake Pend Oreille.

But it remains unclear exactly when the Bonneville Power Administration will ask the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to begin modifying operations at Albeni Falls Dam to implement the plan.

The corps will not act on a BPA request until kokanee are done spawning, which usually takes place from now until the end of the month. From there, BPA would have to evaluate weather conditions, forecasts and other variables to determine what the request will be.

The corps intends to monitor ice conditions in the basin with Web cameras, while the Idaho Department of Fish & Game plans to focus its attention on erosion, particularly at the Pack and Clark Fork river deltas.

Dock and marina owners, meanwhile, will be on their own and corps officials emphasized that damage to shoreline infrastructure will not necessarily mean a halt to the flexible winter power operations plan.

"We can't guarantee that damage is not going to occur," Joel Fenolio, a senior water manager for the corps, said during a meeting Wednesday to discuss implementation of the BPA plan.

Corps spokesman Scott Lawrence said landowners who experience damage to their property are to contact the Albeni Falls Dam to see about seeking a claim for damages.

The corps anticipates the fluctuating water will cause a hinge crack to form in the ice and will help buffer shoreline infrastructure from harm. Ice on the landward side of the crack will remain relatively stationary, while ice on the lakeward side will float up and down with the water.

But few appear to be warming up to the BPA proposal.

Landowners, anglers and resource watchdogs continue to raise objections, concerns and suspicion about the plan to strategically store and release water to maximize the value of the water flowing through the Pend Oreille.

"It's hard for those in the community to have a voice, input," said Jerry Hansen, an owner of the Willow Bay Marina, a significant portion of which could be damaged if floating docks freeze to the ground and the water is drawn up.

Bill Schaudt of the Lake Pend Oreille Idaho Club said it made little sense to embark on an opportunistic lake level management plan when mitigation of the dam's construction and operations remains largely unfinished.

"We could be creating a whole new problem," said Schaudt, who also expressed concern that the plan would undo gains in rebuilding the kokanee population.

Sportsman Dean Press accused federal regulators of being dishonest in reporting how the lake level is managed and attested to the erosion damage caused by current dam operations.

"We're just tired of being drug around by big government agencies," he said.

BPA officials said the agency is merely trying to protect utility customers.

"We're trying to provide economic benefits to the region," said Tony Norris of BPA.