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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Water Over The Dam: Batt Authorizes Spill Water From Dworshak Will Help Salmon Smolts Reach The Sea

Associated Press

Gov. Phil Batt late Friday authorized an extension of up to 15 days of the variance that will allow more water to be spilled from North Idaho’s Dworshak Reservoir to speed migrating salmon smolt to the ocean.

“Idaho is at the beginning of a very good water year,” Batt wrote in a letter to William Stelle, regional director for the National Marine Fisheries Service. “That fact, together with this year’s comparatively large class of migrating salmon smolts, leads me to take the actions I outline.”

Specifically, Batt essentially waived the regulation that limits the total dissolved gas in the water below the dam. The dissolved gas increases in water as more is dumped from an elevation into the stream below. At excessive levels it can kill fish by depriving them of needed oxygen.

Federal officials and conservationists had sought extension of the waiver that would have otherwise expired on Friday because cool weather has slowed the spring snow melt that is being counted on to speed the salmon migration.

The continued Dworshak spill is intended to keep flows high until the spring melt takes over.

But in authorizing the extension to May 20, Batt demanded that Dworshak Reservoir, which was drawn down below usable recreational levels a year ago, be kept at full pool from June 20 through Labor Day so that businesses in the Orofino area that rely on reservoir users are not financially penalized as they were last year.

Under the federal Columbia River Basin operating plan, migrating smolts will be flushed down the river and over the Bonneville Power Administration dams as long as river flows are at 100 cubic feet per second or higher. Below that rate, they will be barged around the dams - a process that has been used for two decades as the runs have deteriorated to the verge of extinction.

Advocates of restoring the runs maintain that keeping the fish in the river gives them a much higher chance for survival than barging.