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dam-l Damed fish
NORTHWEST TO LOSE MORE
HYDROPOWER IN BID TO SAVE FISH
By Deena Beasley
LOS ANGELES - Hydropower production in
the Pacific Northwest, already stunted by El
Nino, will be cut back even further this spring
by efforts to protect the steelhead salmon.
"People here in general are pro-environment
and pro-fish, but sooner or later it is going to
dawn on them they are paying the cost," said
Bolyvong Tanovan, hydraulic engineer at the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers control center
in Portland, Ore.
Those costs are likely to rise this year
following the recent addition of Pacific Coast
steelhead to the list of fish protected under the
Endangered Species Act, which already
includes sockeye and chinook salmon.
"Salmon are a cultural icon in the Northwest.
There is broad public support for salmon
recovery," said Jim Baker, the Sierra Club
environmental group's Northwest salmon
campaign coordinator.
It is illegal to kill an endangered species or
harm its habitat. The act also requires all
federal agencies to make sure their activities
do not jeopardize a listed species.
The National Marine Fisheries Service requires
dam operators to load thousands of fish on
barges and trucks to get them past the dams,
and to spill large quantities of water from the
projects so fish remaining in the river are not
mutiliated by power turbines.
Spill rates are carefully monitored because a
too-rapid release can cause high levels of
dissolved gas that can give fish a potentially
fatal case of the bends, defeating the purpose
of letting them swim around the power
turbines.
But the Sierra Club and other
environmentalists still say barging and
trucking should be minimized, with more fish
allowed to move downstream unimpeded by
dams.
Details of this year's changes in a document
known as the Biological Opinion, are still
being reviewed by state and tribal authorities,
and a final plan is expected in the next few
days.
Threats to steelhead population were said to
include timber harvest, agriculture, water
diversions, hydropower operations, gravel
mining, urbanization, hatchery practices and
fishing.
Since 1995, the Northwest's massive
hydroelectric power dams have been operated
with fish restoration as a top priority,
superceded only by flood control.
Hydropower generation, which accounts for
about 60 percent of regional electricity
supplies, is the No. 3 priority.
Each spring, dam operators have to divert a
big volume of water to the sides of power
turbines so as few fish as possible are
mutilated as they swim downstream and river
levels are kept high enough for spawning.
In a wet year like 1997, the spill requirements
have minimal impact on hydropower output,
since there is more than enough water to go
around.
But drier weather can mean the bulk of
available water is run through reservoirs and
dams without producing power.
Thanks to El Nino, which pushed jet stream
moisture south into California, rain and
snowfall in the Pacific Northwest is running 10
percent to 20 percent below normal this
winter.
Meanwhile, fish-management authorities this
year are asking for higher spill volumes than in
the past due to the steelhead listing.
The Bonneville Power Administration, the
federal agency that markets power produced
at hydropower dams in the Northwest, has
said the fish measures cost about $160
million annually in lost capacity.
Another $127 million is budgeted for recovery
projects.
When the new steelhead requirements are
added, the BPA said costs will rise by another
$15 million a year on average.
About $4 million of the additional amount
would result from reduced power transmission
capacity along the grid connecting the
Northwest to California, BPA said.
Oversight of the grid became a sensitive issue
after two blackouts hit the western United
States in the summer of 1996.
Some analysts have said the Aug. 10, 1996
outage, which was felt in 13 states, could
have been minimized if power schedulers had
not been so worried about protecting fish.
In the days immediately after the power
outage, Bonneville suspended fish-related spill
at one Columbia River dam in a bid to stabilize
voltage, but the move killed about 2,000 fish.
Dam operators also noted the fish constraints
move more generation into lower cost summer
months, while cutting output during
higher-cost winter months, when Northwest
demand for electricity is at its highest. "The
Biological Opinion is only an interim protection
plan," said Baker from the Sierra Club. "It
outlines what federal agencies need to do right
now to at least slow the decline in fish
population."
The U.S. fisheries agency is still scheduled to
make a decision next year on longer-term
measures for salmon and steelhead survival in
the Snake and Columbia Rivers.
((-Los Angeles bureau + 1 213 955 6761)).
(C) Reuters Limited 1998.
--
Don E. McAllister /& Canadian Centre for Biodiversity
Ocean Voice International /Canadian Museum of Nature
Box 37026, 3332 McCarthy Rd. /Box 3443, Station D
Ottawa, ON K1V 0W0, Canada /Ottawa, ON K1P 6P4
URL: http://www.ovi.ca E-mail: mcall@superaje.com
(or: ah194@freenet.carleton.ca) Tel: (613) 264-8986, Fax: (613)
264-9204