Northwest Power Planners Urge Reduction In Dam Spillage

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Northwest Power Planners Urge Reduction In Dam Spillage

Water Levels Lowest In 23 Years

PORTLAND, 5:49 p.m. PST March 27, 2001 -- Facing the second worst drought in recorded history, Northwest power planners are turning off the dams.

Members of the Northwest Power Planning council on Tuesday recommended a further reduction in dam spillage on the Snake and Columbia rivers, below the levels required to flush young steelhead and salmon downstream. Some fish will die, but the reduced flow will keep lights on and power rates stable.

Panel Recommends Dam Spillage

Water levels are at their lowest point since 1978, and Columbia River managers are declaring an energy emergency. "We don't think we'll have blackouts," Northwest Power planner Richard Watson says, in reference to California's power woes. "We think we can manage it, but it will require difficult choices be made fairly quickly."

Conservationists are predicting that some smolts will be slaughtered by the warm water, predators, and disease. But water managers think that they can help migration by smaller releases at dawn and dusk when fish are active.

Jeff Curtis, the Western conservation director of Trout Unlimited, said that officials should be considering other options besides sacrificing fish for power demands.

Planners say that their other choices are worse -- either lose enough electricity to power Seattle for six months, or pay over $1 billion to buy it somewhere else.

By holding back the water, they think that they can help the fish downstream next spring and summer.

The council doesn't control how the dams are operated, but it can make recommendations to the federal agencies that do.

It will meet again April 4 and possibly release a final proposal then.

Meanwhile, the West Coast's energy crisis has caused some out-of-state energy developers to cast an eager eye on Oregon.

Calpine Corporation, a publicly held company based in San Jose, California, is looking at several sites in Marion County as possible locations for natural gas-fired power generation plants.

Tenaska, an Omaha, Nebraska, company, is checking out sites throughout the Willamette Valley. Tenaska also is interested in building a natural gas-fired plant.

The companies say that a growing demand and higher prices for electricity are the reasons they are looking at Oregon.

Officials say that there are at least four other gas-fired plants and one wind-power project already in front of state regulators.

http://www.channel6000.com/c6k/news/stories/news-56187720010327-180319.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), March 30, 2001


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