River Managers Reach Consensus
On Montana reservoir/flow augmentation operations for fish
by The Columbia Basin Bulletin
July 15, 2008
Salmon and hydro managers reached a rare consensus this week at the "technical" level on Libby and Hungry Horse dam summertime operations that aim to better meet the needs of resident fish while still providing flow augmentation for migrating salmon far downstream in the Columbia River.
"This is the first year without a dispute over Libby and Hungry Horse that was elevated to IT," consultant Jim Litchfield marveled after state and federal officials all signed on to the operational plan. Litchfield represents the state of Montana on the Columbia basin Regional Forum's
Technical Management Team and Implementation Team.
The forum was established via past NOAA Fisheries Service biological opinions on the Federal Columbia River Power System. Its goal is to gather input from federal, state and tribal entities on federal dam operations that might benefit basin salmon and steelhead stocks that are listed under the Endangered Species Act.
Issues in dispute at the technical level can be "elevated" to the more policy oriented IT and, ultimately, to the Federal Executives - the top regional officials of NOAA Fisheries Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Bureau of Reclamation and the Bonneville Power Administration.
Guided by language in the 1995 FCRPS BiOp, the practice has been to draw down the two northwest Montana reservoirs 20 feet below full pool by the end of August in a two-tiered approach -- a sharper decline in July followed by a lessening of outflows from the dams in August.
Montana has long protested the approach, saying the deep drawdown and double peak strategy disrupt productivity for fish and their food chain in the reservoirs and the rivers below the dams -- the Kootenai and South Fork of the Flathead.
In each of the past three years, the issue has been raised by Montana to the IT and Federal Executives. But the request for a more prolonged, steady and shallower drawdown has been denied, with federal agencies' hands tied by BiOp language and ongoing litigation related to the ESA strategy.
A new BiOp, adopted in May, acknowledges more recent scientific assessments that say the salmon survival benefits, if any, resulting from the Montana augmentation are so small they can't be quantified. The 2008 strategy calls for an "experimental" drawdown of the reservoirs by 10 feet stretched through September - a strategy long endorsed by Montana.
But an agreement adopted as a court order calls for a rollover of operations implemented last year. The new 2008 Libby and Hungry Horse plan mirrors in many respects 2007 operations.
The agreement reached this week following a TMT meeting last week and an e-mail exchange of counter proposals represents a compromise of the old and the new - a 20-foot drawdown by the end of August but at a constant rate that Montana officials say will help provide stability and enhance productivity in the reservoirs and the rivers below.
The agreed-upon plan calls for a continuation of a 17,000 cubic feet per second outflow from Libby until July 12. Outflows would then be dropped to 13 kcfs - the estimated rate needed to drop the reservoir to 2,439 feet elevation (20 feet below full pool) at the end of August.
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THE COLUMBIA BASIN BULLETIN:
Weekly Fish and Wildlife News
Issue No. 445
July 11, 2008
www.cbbulletin.com
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