Dam plan has town in a wringer
Relicensing conditions aid fish, bicyclists, but harm ratepayers

Dan Hansen - Staff writer
Spokesman Review

 

CUSICK, Wash.12.10/01 _ In Pend Oreille County, where one in five residents lives in poverty, folks are being told their power bills may quadruple and a large employer may close because the government wants to build a bike route, help fish and make other improvements at electrical customers' expense.

"What you're seeing is legal extortion, nothing less," John Middleton, a former Pend Oreille County Public Utility District commissioner, told an angry crowd here Thursday.

In 1952, the PUD built Box Canyon Dam on the Pend Oreille River. It was a good investment, giving the county about the lowest electrical rates anywhere; bills in Spokane are twice as high and some in Western Washington are 10 times higher.

Box Canyon Dam's 50-year license is about to expire. State and federal agencies have a list of proposed conditions for a new license. But the PUD says those demands would cost $200 million to $500 million over the next 30 to 40 years.

"We don't have that kind of money," said Mark Cauchy, PUD director of regulatory affairs. "We'd have to mortgage the dam."

Bill Meany, vice president of Ponderay Newsprint Co., warned Thursday's crowd that increased power rates could force the plant out of business. Ponderay has 200 employees and pays $2.5 million a year in local taxes, Meany said.

Mark Brown, manager of the Pend Oreille Mine, said increased power costs could force Cominco Inc. to walk away from the project after spending about $35 million to develop it. He said he expects to employ about 150 starting in 2004 when the zinc and lead mine is expected to open at Metaline Falls, Wash.

"I think there are some misplaced priorities," Brown said. "We don't have a doctor north of Newport (Wash.), and I think $500 million could go a long way toward the betterment of everyone."

Nonfederal dams are licensed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, a panel of presidential appointees. About the only time agencies can mandate major changes in a dam's operation -- or concessions for environmental losses it has caused -- is when its license expires and its operator must seek a new one.

The commission has little leeway if the U.S. Department of Interior says a dam needs modifications for fish or the U.S. Forest Service says a boat launch would help make up for recreational opportunities lost when a river was pooled. State agencies, too, can list conditions for relicensing, although they carry less weight than those by federal agencies.

Proponents say that's only fair because rivers are a public resource that the government lets dam operators alter to make a profit or offer low-cost electricity to members.

Appealing in federal court is about the only recourse for dam operators once the commission sets conditions. That can tie up the relicensing process for decades.

Here are some of the conditions agencies are proposing for the dam:

• The U.S. Forest Service wants a 50-mile paved trail for nonmotorized uses on the east side of the river. It wants a fourth campground along the river, and it wants the PUD to take over maintenance of all four.

It also seeks forest habitat improvements and annual drawdowns to control Eurasian milfoil, an aquatic weed.

"Those are draft conditions, and we're serious about them," although the agency is accepting public comments and will consider alternatives, said Dan Dallas, Newport district ranger.

• The U.S. Department of Interior wants a fish ladder and other improvements to help bull trout, mountain whitefish and other species. It wants 750 acres of PUD land transferred to the Kootenai Indian Tribe, which has a reservation along the river. It also wants the PUD to build a new powwow grounds and recreational area on the reservation.

• The Idaho Department of Fish and Game wants the PUD to change its operations so water behind the dam no longer backs into Idaho. The pool is 56 miles long now; this proposal would reduce it to 54 miles.

The change would restore two miles of trout stream, said Scott Grunder, state fisheries coordinator.

• The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife wants a boat for enforcement and biological studies on the river.

PUD officials are incensed, and they're rallying the utility's 7,000 customers.

Thursday's meeting in Cusick (pop. 212) drew about 100 people, while one Wednesday night drew 175 people in Metaline Falls (pop. 223). A hearing Wednesday in Newport drew about 115 people.

PUD officials and community leaders urged residents to write letters outlining what they do -- and don't -- like about the agencies' proposed conditions.

The PUD's estimates include $25,000 for the state boat, $1 million for the new campground, $3 million for the trail and $40 million for various dam improvements to improve water quality.

Meeting Idaho's demand for free-flowing water would cost $5 million a year in lost power generation, the PUD says. And each drawdown to kill milfoil would cost $90,000, the utility estimates.

Avista Corp. avoided much of the wrangling that goes with dam relicensing by bringing together agencies, tribes, activists and ratepayers for a long series of negotiations before it applied for new licenses for its Clark Fork River dams. The company agreed to a number of concessions, including $220 million over 45 years to help bull trout.

Pend Oreille County PUD did not go through such a process, however, because its dam generates only about 60 megawatts compared with about 750 megawatts for the two Avista dams combined, said Bob Geddes, general manager of the PUD. The utility feared it would get locked into expensive concessions, he said.

The PUD's application to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission includes proposed changes that are far more modest than those proposed by the agencies.

The PUD plans to change its turbines anyway, so it easily could use a design that does less harm to fish, Geddes said. It proposed spending $40,000 to help build a park in Oldtown, Idaho, and $10,000 a year to maintain it. The PUD said it would make similar arrangements for parks in other towns.

"We're not trying to get by with nothing. We feel we have an obligation to put something back," Geddes said.

But the agencies' demands, he said, "would be like entering a death spiral."

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