Utilities Kill Plan To Try To Save Salmon Dam Managers Say Plan Helps Marina Profits More Than It Helps Fish

A utility company manager suggested Friday that marina profits and property values are behind a proposed experiment to help Lake Pend Oreille’s dropping kokanee population.

Idaho state biologists wanted the experiment to begin this fall. But the test was scuttled because five utilities that own downstream dams would not agree to it.

Among those objecting was the Pend Oreille County Public Utility District, which owns Washington’s Box Canyon Dam.

“In my opinion this is not driven by fish, but by marina and lakeshore issues,” said Larry Weis, general manager of the Newport-based utility.

“It would definitely cost Pend Oreille PUD a lot of money,” he added.

Idaho Fish and Game Commissioner Dick Hansen, who owns a marina on Lake Pend Oreille, said there’s nothing wrong with lakeshore property owners wanting the water kept a few feet higher like it used to be.

But he blasted the suggestion that the experiment is anything but a desperately needed move to save the kokanee.

“I’m sick,” he said about the utility company objections. “We just got blindsided by the PUDs. I can’t imagine the degree of corporate greed that drives this system.”

The proposed experiment would keep the lake level higher for three winters, to provide more shoreline spawning areas for the kokanee.

That means less water would be available to turn turbines at downstream dams at the time of year when it’s most valuable.

The Northwest Power Planning Council approved starting the experiment with a 3-foot lake level change this winter. After intense negotiations, it got agreement from the Bonneville Power Administration, which sells power from affected federal dams, and the Army Corps of Engineers, which operates the river system.

According to an earlier analysis, a 5-foot change might have cost the Pend Oreille PUD $200,000 in one year. That’s 2 percent of an estimated $10 million of potential lost revenue at 16 downstream dams. The owners of all of those dams would have to agree to any changes in water releases.

Actual lost revenue would depend on the amount of water available in the river system during a given year. Losses would be higher in dry years, according to Idaho power council member Mike Field.

Field said this week that Idaho officials would not give up their effort to start the experiment.

Weis is among those who are unconvinced that the experiment would help the fish. Some tribal biologists, and at least one power council member, are also skeptical.

Communities around the lake, including Sandpoint and Bayview, depend heavily on the money that anglers spend catching kokanee. The land-locked salmon is also eaten by bigger fish such as bull trout.

“It may very well be the end of the kokanee,” said Marilyn Jenkins, a Bayview resident whose husband, Hobart, has been a major advocate for the experiment. “It’s depressing.”

, DataTimes