Becky Kramer

The Bonneville Power Administration has temporarily shelved its request to raise and lower Lake Pend Oreille by up to 5 feet this winter, with agency officials saying they will study how fluctuating lake levels affect waterfowl habitat, shoreline erosion and boat docks. To help meet peak electrical demands, BPA had proposed running more water through Albeni Falls Dam, which is part of the federal Columbia River power system. About 16 hours after water flows through Albeni Falls Dam, it reaches the reservoir behind Grand Coulee Dam, said Michael Milstein, a BPA spokesman.

The U.S. Forest Service is getting an additional $14 million to fight a bark beetle outbreak in Idaho that has left mountainsides covered with dying, red-needled trees. The tiny beetles have chewed their way through nearly 1.3 million acres in the state, denuding trees from Lolo Pass to Lookout Pass along the Idaho-Montana border. At Bald Mountain in Sun Valley, the sheer volume of beetle-killed trees is creating a wildfire danger for the town of Ketchum. Beetle attacks are also killing off rare whitebark pines, whose fat-laden seeds provide high calorie snacks for grizzly bears.

The U.S. Forest Service will get an additional $14 million to battle bark beetles in Idaho, where the bugs have chewed through 1.3 million acres, leaving mountain sides covered with red and dying trees.

El Niño isn’t doing much for the Pacific Northwest’s mountain snowpack. Snow accumulations that broke records in parts of Washington during November are melting under an onslaught of mild January temperatures, which are 3 to 6 degrees warmer than average.

Avista Corp. plans to drop a monthly surcharge paid by its 232,000 Eastern Washington electric customers that dates to the 2001 West Coast energy crisis. The 7 percent surcharge costs $5.35 per month for a household using an average of 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity. In a Monday filing, the Spokane-based utility asked state regulators for permission to drop the surcharge by Feb. 12. If the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission approves the request as expected, the average residential customer’s monthly electric bill would drop from $77.14 to $71.79.

Avista Corp. plans to drop a monthly surcharge paid by its 232,000 Eastern Washington electric customers that dates to the 2001 West Coast energy crisis.

Russell Glen Frachiseur was drinking coffee with his wife and in-laws when a wolf trotted up the driveway of his rural home south of Priest Lake. The 75-pound male wolf paced up and down and circled the house before ambling off. A short time later it was back, watching Frachiseur’s blue heeler through a window as the dog growled. Frachiseur eventually shot the wolf from his deck with a hunting rifle.

Snow that piles up on streets, shuts down schools and immobilizes communities could be a distant memory in Spokane and Coeur d’Alene by the end of the century. But wildfire seasons will probably last a month longer by 2100, with catastrophic fires occurring at more frequent intervals. And a drier climate could turn forests in the Northern Rockies into net emitters of carbon dioxide – the key greenhouse gas associated with global warming – instead of carbon sinks.

The sluggish economy is affecting Inland Northwest residents’ ability to heat their homes. Utilities are reporting higher rates of delinquent payments and shut-offs. And entities that provide energy assistance have been besieged with pleas for help.

Effective Jan. 1, energy costs are going up for Avista Corp.’s Eastern Washington customers. On Tuesday, the state Utilities and Transportation Commission gave the Spokane-based utility approval to charge more for electricity and natural gas. But the three-member commission decided that Avista can only collect a fraction of the amount it requested in a rate case filed last January.

Only a few rogue snowmobilers willfully ride into off-limits areas of protected Selkirk caribou habitat, organized snowmobile groups say. But the actions of a few are jeopardizing access for the law-abiding majority.

A bankrupt company that controls the lease for the historic Sunshine Mine will be sold at a Feb. 1 auction. Sterling Mining Co. expects to raise at least $12.5 million through the sale – enough to repay secured creditors, but leaving only about $500,000 for dozens of vendors owed at least $6 million, Sterling officials wrote in the company’s Chapter 11 reorganization plan.

Asarco Inc. will pay $436 million to cleanup decades of mining waste in the Coeur d'Alene Basin, officials from the U.S. Department of Justice announced Thursday.

Lake Pend Oreille’s water levels could fluctuate by up to five feet this winter. The change would allow Albeni Falls Dam to produce more electricity, but it also is likely to erode shorelines, shift docks and damage habitat for waterfowl.

Spokane’s antiquated sewer system is pumping polychlorinated byphenyls, or PCBs, into the Spokane River, contaminating the river’s fish and violating the federal Clean Water Act, the Center for Justice said Tuesday in a 60-day notice of intent to sue the city over PCB releases. Rick Eichstaedt, an attorney for the public interest law firm, called the notice a “regrettable but necessary step.” He said the city should be working harder to reduce the discharge of PCBs, which accumulate in fish tissue and have been linked to cancer and other human health problems.