Pend Oreille levels could fluctuate
KEITH KINNAIRD | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 13 years, 2 months AGO
SANDPOINT - The Bonneville Power Administration is offering the Idaho Department of Fish and Game more than $3 million in erosion management and monitoring funding if the state puts its support behind a plan to fluctuate the level of Lake Pend Oreille during winter.
The proposed offer is contained in an Oct. 28 letter from BPA to John Chatburn, interim administrator for Idaho's Office of Energy Resources.
It was not clear Tuesday if Chatburn's office responded to BPA's proposed agreement. Chatburn did not return a call or email seeking comment on the matter.
Chip Corsi, Fish and Game's Panhandle supervisor, said BPA offer is still under consideration by state officials.
"There's still some discussion on some points in the BPA letter," Corsi said on Tuesday.
Under the terms of the proposal, BPA would provide $3 million to Fish and Game over a three-year period to further study erosion impacts caused by Albeni Falls Dam. Another $150,000 would be provided to the state during the same time frame for erosion monitoring and gravel placement for kokanee spawning at lower lake elevations.
If the state accepts the offer, it would have to agree not to participate in any administrative or legal challenges of BPA's proposed flexible winter operations plan, which seeks to wring more power generating capacity out of the Columbia hydropower system by strategically storing and releasing water via Albeni Falls.
The flexible winter power operations would fluctuate the lake level within a 5-foot range between December and March. The fluctuation would be limited to 6 inches per day.
The lake level fluctuation proposal has drawn intense criticism in Bonner County due to concerns that it will hasten erosion, diminish wildlife habitat and damage shoreline infrastructure.
The BPA agreement would also effectively set the winter lake level at 2,055 feet in 2012 and 2,051 feet in 2013.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently issued a final environmental assessment on the fluctuation proposal. The analysis concluded that the impacts would be no greater than the impacts caused by current dam operations.
Fish and Game raised a number of concerns during the environment analysis. Chief among them was that the winter operations plan would "substantially magnify" erosional losses of biologically-rich deltas in the Pend Oreille.
The department also said the fluctuation could impinge upon kokanee embryo survival, which could effect bull trout that feed upon kokanee.
The BPA offer has raised the eyebrows of the Idaho Conservation League, which contends mitigating fluctuation impacts should addressed through the public review under the National Environmental Policy Act, not rolled into general mitigation of dam impacts.
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