The trade-off isn't between power and salmon
Better planning by Corps and more scrutiny of agriculture water use are both needed
Wednesday, April 4, 2001
By Daniel J. Rohlf
» Corps must follow own set of rules
As river flows plummet and power prices climb, conflicts between two of the Northwest's signature assets -- salmon and inexpensive electrical energy -- are fodder for attention-grabbing headlines.
But nearly lost amid the fish vs. hydropower rhetoric is public scrutiny of policy choices that hold the promise of producing both more salmon and more kilowatts.
Both migrating salmon and power generators at dams need abundant water flowing down the Columbia and Snake rivers. In addition, the region's economy and the Bonneville Power Administration, which supplies much of the Northwest's electricity as well as finances measures to protect fish, both benefit from reasonable power costs.
Given these realities, one prescription helps salmon and power consumers alike: Find more water to increase river flows, and find ways to keep power prices as low as possible.
It can be done -- even in times of dry weather.
Water levels in the region's reservoirs are now at their lowest point in a quarter-century in part because federal dam operators, principally the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, empty the reservoirs each winter to create space for capturing floodwaters that, at least this year, will never come.
While operating the reservoirs for flood control is an important duty of the Corps, the agency could make additional water available for fish and power generation by modernizing its tools for predicting the weather and flood risk. This would allow reservoir operators to leave more water behind the dams during periods when the Northwest faces risks stemming from too little water, not too much. Modeling by experts at the Columbia River Intertribal Fish Commission indicates that modified flood-control operations by the Corps could increase summer flow in the Columbia by up to 18 percent.
Limiting water that is taken out of the system also can increase summer flows. During low water years, farm irrigators in the Northwest deplete summer flows by up to 22 percent in the Columbia River and by up to 41 percent in the Snake River. Though agriculture in general is a key part of the region's economy, a good deal of the water diverted away from both power turbines and salmon goes to produce very low value crops, such as alfalfa. Simply leaving this water in the river would produce many times that value in increased electrical generation, while at the same time benefitting migrating salmon.
The federal Bureau of Reclamation supplies irrigators with vast amounts of water at heavily subsidized prices. It is time to rethink whether the region's salmon and power system can afford such practices on so grand a scale, particularly at times like this.
On the financial side of the equation, significant BPA rate increases imperil the regional economy and diminish BPA's ability to pay for salmon protection. Ominously, however, the agency has made clear that its rates it charges for electricity may double beginning this fall.
In the face of this dire situation, Northwest aluminum smelters, collectively among the region's largest power users, want continuation of a sweetheart financial deal that has already netted the smelters a $1.2 billion windfall while other power users suffer. Over opposition from both BPA and fish advocates, aluminum companies want new power contracts that would, in effect, require all other BPA customers to shoulder much larger rate increases in order to subsidize the smelters' lower energy costs.
The response to this audacious and one-sided proposal should be an emphatic "no."
Implementing these steps to secure additional water and minimize increases in electric rates will not take place without regional dialogue, creativity and willingness to make sometimes painful tradeoffs between alternative uses of the Columbia hydrosystem's scarce resources. But the Northwest should not miss the opportunity for serious discussion of these measures by emphasizing conflicts rather than common interests between salmon and power generation.