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DAM-L H2O releases to help beleagured salmon: USA <fwd>
Let me try this again...
-Dianne
----------------
Date: Fri, 18 May 2001 13:57:51 -0500
Subject: BPA to spill some H2O to help save NW salmon: USA
> BPA to spill some water to help
> Northwest salmon
>
> USA: May 18, 2001
>
> SAN FRANCISCO - In a damned-if-you-do,
> damned-if-you-don't decision, government agencies cut
> a deal that allows some water to be spilled at two
> huge hydroelectric dams in the Pacific Northwest to
> help endangered salmon move safely over the
> structures.
>
> Whether federal agencies should release water to help
> the endangered salmon move safely over the dams has
> taken on a greater importance this spring due to a
> regional drought that has pitted the needs of
> Northwest hydropower supplies against the needs of
> salmon - and left few completely happy.
>
> Under the agreement, the Bonneville Power
> Administration (BPA), which markets the power
> generated from the 29 federal dams strung along the
> massive Columbia and Snake Rivers in the Northwest,
> began a limited three-week spill Wednesday night that
> helps the salmon and maintains the reliability of
> regional power supplies.
>
> "The proposed deal...should allow limited spill now
> without leaving the (power) system worse off in terms
> of reliability," BPA's Acting Administrator Stephen
> Wright said in a statement.
>
> In spring water is normally spilled over the region's
> huge hydropower dams to protect millions of migrating
> salmon from the massive blades used to generate power.
>
> In April, Portland, Ore.-based BPA dropped plans to
> spill water to maintain the reliability of the power
> system serving the western U.S. in a move that
> environmentalists said would kill thousands of
> endangered salmon.
>
> Of the 12 regional salmon species protected under the
> Endangered Species Act (ESA), 11 migrate in spring to
> the Pacific Ocean.
>
> The round-the-clock spill, less than one-third the
> amount called for by federal guidelines, will use the
> equivalent of 300 megawatts of electricity generated
> from The Dalles Dam and the Bonneville Dam, the
> statement said.
>
> "We're disappointed this couldn't be more, but, in
> view of this year's conditions, we're glad to get at
> least some protection for ESA-listed fish," said Brian
> Brown of the National Marine Fisheries Service in the
> statement.
>
> Western states are in the midst of a chronic power
> shortage which has already led to six days of
> blackouts in California this year.
>
> And the Northwest, which depends on hydropower for
> about 70 percent of its energy during normal rainfall
> years, has had one of driest winters on record.
>
> Washington state officially declared a drought in
> March in a move that freed up millions of dollars in
> emergency funds to be spent pumping water to farmland
> and other areas in need of water supplies.
>
> THE DEAL
>
> Under the agreement, subject to federal approval, BPA
> will make limited spills while being assured power
> reliability by a Washington state public utility if
> water volumes fall short in the months ahead.
>
> If water conditions worsen, Grant County Public
> Utility District would forego a portion of its own
> spill in the region in late spring or summer to
> generate power for BPA.
----- End of forwarded message from owner-dam-l@sandelman.ottawa.on.ca -----