$500 Million Fund Urged For Salmon Recovery Effort

The Clinton administration should create a $500 million emergency fund to hold down salmon recovery costs for the Bonneville Power Administration and its customers in the Pacific Northwest, Sen. Max Baucus said Thursday.

The Montana Democrat and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., have sent a letter to President Clinton suggesting such a fund.

The senators praised a proposed agreement in the energy and water appropriations bill that would require BPA to spend about $435 million annually over the next six years to help revive populations of wild salmon in the Columbia River basin.

But the cost should go no higher, they said.

BPA is a federal agency that operates hydropower dams along the river system and sells power to regional utilities.

The salmon recovery plan, released in March by the National Marine Fisheries Service, requires the BPA to use more water for flushing young salmon downstream and less for power production in the spring and summer.

Lost power generation and other recovery efforts account for the BPA’s cost.

Their letter came as Northwest Republicans pushed a proposal in Congress to cap fish spending by BPA at a level yet to be negotiated, waiving requirements that the BPA meet the Endangered Species Act, Northwest Power Act and other laws protecting dwindling salmon stocks.

Environmentalists have said the $435 million isn’t enough to save several threatened and endangered salmon species from extinction. A regional alliance of irrigators, shippers and industries dependent on the dam’s cheap electricity wants salmon spending capped at $300 million a year.

Baucus and Murray said the agency has agreed it can afford the $435 million price tag, but any greater expense would mean the BPA could no longer offer competitive rates.

They also expressed concern about Northwest electric ratepayers having to pay much more to finance salmon recovery.

With a $500 million contingency fund to handle any emergencies over the next six years, BPA would be assured its costs will not exceed $435 million a year, Baucus and Murray told Clinton.

A White House official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said, “We are discussing it. There have been no decisions. We are taking it very seriously.”