Corps Noncommittal On Lake Pend Oreille Level Higher Level At Pend Oreille Would Help Dwindling Kokanee

Like an hourglass draining away time, the level of Lake Pend Oreille is dropping toward a deadline for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

By Nov. 1, the lake will be about three feet above its normal wintertime level. That’s where it should stay, according to the Northwest Power Planning Council, which has approved a lake-level experiment to help the lake’s dwindling kokanee population.

The corps, which controls Albeni Falls Dam and thus the lake level, isn’t saying what it will do.

“No decision has been made yet,” spokeswoman Diane Lake said Tuesday.

A decision will probably have to be made by mid-October, said Todd Maddock, an Idaho member of the power council.

The council is working with the corps and Bonneville Power Administration to find a way of paying for power from other sources - power that would replace what is not generated at downstream dams, in the event that less water is released from Lake Pend Oreille this winter.

“We haven’t given up on it this year, but it’s still an open question,” Maddock said. “Obviously, our time’s running out.”

The uncertainty is hard on lakeside businesses and anglers. The kokanee is not only the most popular sport fish, but also provides food for trophy fish such as rainbow and bull trout.

“We lose those kokanee, we lose our tourist economy,” said Hobart Jenkins, who represents a coalition pushing for the change.

State biologists say the extra winter water is needed to cover shoreline gravel, giving kokanee more places to lay their eggs. The experiment would keep the lake three feet higher this winter, four feet higher in 1996, and five feet higher in 1997.

Idaho Fish and Game Commissioner Richard Hansen, who lives above the lake at Bayview, last week accused the corps of stalling.

Releasing less water from the lake means selling less energy in the winter, when it is most valuable.

, DataTimes