Hydropower Changes Offered to Save Salmon

The Clinton Administration, under federal court order to save endangered salmon stocks in the Northwest, Wednesday proposed what it called “major changes” in the way it operates the vast hydropower system of the Columbia and Snake rivers.

But the Bonneville Power Administration says it will need federal assistance to compensate for those changes, and environmentalists say the plan does not change enough to help the dwindling salmon runs.

The National Marine Fisheries Service released a draft version of its plan to operate a series of federally managed dams on the Columbia-Snake rivers’ system. The plan, part of a comprehensive salmon recovery blueprint, calls for holding more water behind the upriver dams until the spring and summer, when young salmon need an increased flow of water to speed them to the Pacific Ocean.

That goes against the normal practice of releasing more water in the winter months for power generation, when it is most needed in the Northwest. The Bonneville Power Administration says the lost capacity--and other fish recovery costs--will amount to $160 million annually, over and above the $350 million it spends on recovery efforts.

William Stelle, regional manager of National Marine Fisheries Service in Seattle, said managing the system for fish will have a higher priority than maximizing power generation. “At the heart of our proposal today is to change the order of priorities,” he said, adding that only flood control will carry more importance.

A Bonneville Power Administration spokeswoman said the agency, which markets the power for the government, will cooperate as much as possible to implement the changes if they are adopted and submitted to a federal judge in Oregon next month. “But we need to work with the Administration and the (congressional) delegation for funding,” Dulcy Mahar said.

As many as 11 million salmon may have once made the annual trek from the Pacific up the Columbia to spawning grounds as far inland as Idaho. Now only about 2 million return to those stream beds.