Corps Sued Over Pend Oreille Drawdown

Bonner County residents who want more water - and kokanee salmon - left in Lake Pend Oreille filed a lawsuit Thursday against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The Lake Pend Oreille Idaho Club, which boasts 465 members, filed the suit in U.S. District Court in Coeur d’Alene.

The club claims the lake’s annual 12-foot drawdown is wiping out the kokanee population for the sake of power generation.

“The Corps operating statement talks about recreation, fishing and power. There has to be a balance of those,” said Bruce Anderson, an attorney representing the club.

“Right now, it appears the dam operation is based on power concerns and the dollars that can be generated to the detriment of the fish and recreation.”

The club wants the lake level to remain five feet higher in the winter to improve fish spawning beds, allow for a longer boating season and beautify the area.

When the level is dropped now, spawning beds and fish eggs are left high and dry. So are docks and boat ramps around the lake - leaving shoreline residents with views of mud flats instead of expensive waterfront.

The Corps had hoped to raise the level several feet over the next three years to see if it would boost the kokanee population. The experiment was supposed to start this year, but it was scuttled at the last minute after power companies complained of $15 million in projected losses.

Club members and fish biologists said a higher water level is critical this year for the kokanee. There are so few remaining now, that another poor spawning year could doom the fish population.

“There are a number of residents here who are disturbed that the Corps has promised for some time to raise this lake level and are reneging on that promise,” Anderson said. “Maybe they need a little prodding along and this (lawsuit) will help make it happen.”

Corps officials had not yet received the lawsuit and declined to comment Thursday.

But Jeff Laufle, a fish biologist in the Corps Seattle office, said the lake-level experiment is back on the drawing board.

“We are still planning to raise the lake level next winter,” he said. “I can’t promise that it will happen, but we are going to bring it to the table.”

In the lawsuit, the club claims the Corps has not abided by an agreement signed before Albeni Falls Dam was built in the 1950s. The dam controls the level of Lake Pend Oreille.

It was built for flood control, and the Corps agreed to operate it to benefit recreation and wildlife, and generate power.

“We feel they are giving more weight to power companies and are not keeping the fishery and recreation in mind,” said Bill Schaudt, president of the Lake Pend Oreille Idaho Club.

“We just want them to honor their original agreement with the people of Bonner County and operate they way they said they would.”

, DataTimes