Low water levels decrease spills, harm salmon BPA may be forced to bar releases for salmon to keep the lights on

Associated Press

PORTLAND _ A continued Northwest water shortage will lead the Bonneville Power Administration to redeclare a power emergency on Monday.

The action will bar the release of water for salmon from federal dams for at least two more weeks.

Spilling water normally begins April 3, but it was canceled two weeks ago because the BPA's acting administrator, Steve Wright, declared a power emergency. At a meeting of federal, state and tribal officials Friday in Portland, he said the runoff forecast is still too low to both spill water for salmon and meet the region's power needs.

An extensive salmon recovery plan requires water to be diverted from turbines and sent over spillways, offering young salmon safer passage to the sea at the cost of energy generation.

The National Marine Fisheries Service, the federal agency in charge of endangered salmon, on Friday supported the BPA.

"The issue is reliability," said Donna Darm, acting regional director of the fisheries service. "If we spill water now and are wrong about the forecast, we risk rolling blackouts this summer."

The latest runoff forecast predicts the total amount of water carried down the Columbia River at The Dalles will be 56.1 million acre feet from January to July, far short of the normal 105.9 million acre feet.

The BPA has said that if the river carries less than 54 million acre feet of water, the agency will be stretched hard just to meet electricity demand and will have no extra water for fish.

The BPA also released a plan that sets a range of water levels that must be exceeded this year if water is to be spilled for fish.

The plan says the spill should be suspended even if the runoff forecast exceeds 54 million acre feet. The BPA needs protection against the forecast being wrong, agency officials said, and should store some additional water for power generation next year.

Four tribes have treaty rights to Columbia River salmon and say that if the spill is cut, future salmon runs will be devastated.

"We are going to see some very dismal results based on these proposals," said Don Sampson, executive director of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission.

The National Marine Fisheries Service and the Northwest Power Planning Council, a panel representing Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana, say suspending the spill will increase salmon death rates by up to 13 percent.

Tribal biologists and conservationists say the impact could be greater, because spilling not only makes it easier for fish to get past dams but also speeds their passage down the river, which could be lethally warm this summer.

"The federal government is not doing enough to get water in the rivers," said Glen Spain of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations. Spain said the BPA should increase efforts to buy water from farmers, particularly in Idaho.

"The likely result of this shortsighted action is a salmon massacre," Spain said.

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2001