Snake River Currents

Volume 1, Issue 12

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The Army Corps of Engineers has responded to Judge Helen Frye’s February, 2001 order to review and amend its 1998 agency decision with regard to operation of the four lower Snake River dams.

Judge Frye ruled at that time that the Corps did not explicitly address its legal obligations under the Clean Water Act. The dams create water temperature increases and dissolved gas, thereby degrading habitat and inhibiting fish migration. (see Snake River Currents, April 10, 2001).

The Corps’ response is that Snake River dam operations are not overheating the water and killing salmon. Furthermore, the Corps has no plans to change operations to cool the water. Although the Corps acknowledges dams may contribute to rising water temperatures, they state that dam operation has no significant impact on water temperatures.

The Nez Perce Tribe and Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, which was also involved in the law suit, plan to respond. Look for the Tribe’s press release in the next issue.

The Northwest Power Planning Council is an agency of the states of Idaho, Montana, Washington, and Oregon. It is charged with developing a long-range electric power plan for the Pacific Northwest. The Council must also maintain a program to protect and enhance fish and wildlife of the Columbia River Basin that have been impacted by dams.

The Council was created in 1980 by the Northwest Power Act. The Act places basic planning authority in the Council, and so removes it from the agencies with an institutional bias in favor of power production:

the Army Corps of Engineers, the Bonneville Power Administration, the Bureau of Reclamation, and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The Council is to determine policy and the agencies implement it.

The Northwest Power Act requires that the Council’s program be balanced so that it helps fish and wildlife resources, but also assures the region an adequate, efficient, economical, and reliable power supply. It has eight members with two representatives from each state. The fish and wildlife program for the region is put together by combining recommendations from federal, state, and tribal agencies.

The Council plan to restore wild salmon runs included what was at the time the innovative idea of budgeting a fixed quantity of water for release at peak times of migration by juvenile salmon. The increased flows helped carry the young fish downstream faster, and so lowered the number of fish deaths caused by longer migration times. The Council also called for agencies to develop comprehensive fish passage plans to help fish get past the dams.

The Council’s programs, however, are not binding on the agencies. The law only mandates that they take the programs into account “to the fullest extent practicable.” This gives the agencies a lot of leeway, such as in drought years like this one, to make their own determinations regarding power and fish.

The majority of the U.S. West generally has less than 20 inches of precipitation each year. Large portions of the West average less than 10 inches. When precipitation is less than 20 inches, most farmers require additional water for their crops.

The additional water is generally used in the late summer and early fall when streams have low flows and some even dry up completely. So reservoirs were needed to capture and store the excess water from peak runoff in the spring. Reservoirs can also store water from wet years and keep it for use during drought years with little runoff.

To create reservoirs of the size needed to support irrigated agriculture in West, large dams were needed. Only the federal government had the resources to build these dams and create large water storage projects.

The national effort to expand available water through the use of major dams and reservoirs began with the Reclamation Act of 1902. The Bureau of Reclamation (originally called the Reclamation Service) set in motion a construction program to provide reliable water for irrigation. By 1970, these projects provided water to 8.7 million acres of cropland. An example is Palisades Reservoir in southern Idaho.

During the same period, the Department of Agriculture maintained programs that were responsible for the construction of over 80,000 small irrigation reservoirs. It also assisted with over two million ponds and pits for agricultural use.

Another agency involved in the construction of dams was the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. They were responsible for many large

dams along the nation’s waterways. The primary purposes for their dams were flood control and navigation. Irrigation was usually only a secondary purpose of their projects. They are the agency that constructed Dworshak Dam and Reservoir, which lies partly within the Nez Perce Reservation.

The era of large dam construction projects is over because of lack of favorable sites, increased costs, and environmental concerns. Where additional reservoirs are either physically constrained or economically infeasible, water planners and water users must look towards better management and conservation to meet increasing demands on existing supplies.

A Temporary Biological Opinion for the Upper Snake River

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) last month released its Biological Opinion (BiOp) for the operation of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) dams in the upper Snake River. The BiOp will guide flow augmentation from those dams, but only until March 31, 2002.

NMFS had delayed completing this portion of their BiOp for the Federal Columbia River Power System since the BOR claimed they were unable to define actions needed to fulfill the needs of endangered species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) until the SRBA had reached a settlement. This is because it is possible that one aspect of the overall SRBA agreement would include dam operations on the upper Snake River.

The purpose of the current BiOp is to provide for BOR operations for the 2001 irrigation season. The BOR operates and maintains 10 irrigation projects with 22 major storage facilities, and several smaller reservoirs and diversion works in the upper Snake River Basin.  The active storage capacity is over 7 million acre feet.

The current requirement, as detailed in NMFS’ 1995 BiOp, is that BOR projects and upper Snake River irrigators provide 427 thousand acre feet (kaf) of water for spring and summer flow augmentation for ESA listed fish species. In the 1995 BiOp and again in a suplemental 1998 BiOp, NMFS ruled that when the 427 kaf of flow augmentation was combined with other measures, the BOR’s irrigation and storage projects did not pose a jeopardy to listed salmon and steelhead.

The problem, though, in a low water year such as this one is how much water will be available. NMFS recognizes that the upper Snake River Basin will not have anything near 427 kaf of extra water. Most reservoirs will not fill, and water for flow augmentation is last in line according to Idaho state law. Irrigators, not fish, have first priority for whatever water there is this year.

In addition, rental pools, which in the past provided nearly half of the 427 kaf, are unlikely to be available for flow augmentation.

There are, however, some sources of water available for flow augmentation. According to the BiOp, there is 38 kaf from a Shoshone/Bannock lease and 17.65 kaf from Oregon natural flows. Also, a 6 kaf lease on the Lemhi is likely. Other possibilities include 30 kaf from Payette Rivers projects, and 20 kaf from Boise River projects. Those flows, though, are currently dedicated for use for winter instream flows for resident fish.

Idaho Power has purchased water from irrigators that has resulted in 35,000 acres farmland being taken out of production. This will mean, however, that 109 kaf more water will remain in the river.

The BiOp also recommends “reasonable and prudent” measures and conservation practices, but they are mostly the same ones as in previous BiOps. One of the conservation measures is to improve BOR access to rental pool water through modification of rental pool rules.

There is so little water this year that BOR expects to have only about 500 kaf to 850 kaf of active storage left in its reservoirs at the end of this irrigation season. The reservoirs are usually full and have a 3.3 million acre foot excess.

NMFS and BOR are worried that the water shortage will result in flows below Brownlee Dam falling below the minimum that fish require, thus diminishing fall chinook spawning habitat.

Reminder: SRBA Court Proceedings Lewiston, October 16, 2001 Nez Perce County Courthouse 10:00 a.m. IDWR information meeting; 1:30 p.m. status conference