Plan For Turbines At Dam Delayed Critics Worry Project Will Harm Lake Roosevelt Sport Fishing

Plans to install hydropower turbines at a Canadian dam were put on hold Tuesday, just as people downstream in Washington were asking whether the project might harm sport fishing in Lake Roosevelt.

The upgrade of the Keenleyside Dam is far from canceled, however.

Its supporters in British Columbia continue to seek environmental permits for the project, which could affect one of the last free-flowing stretches of the Columbia River.

Construction can’t begin until there’s a long-term buyer for the power, project officials said.

“If (power) prices stabilize, it could happen tomorrow. My guesstimate is that it will take three-plus years for them to stabilize,” said Josh Smienk, chairman of the board of the Columbia Basin Trust.

The trust was created last July to compensate British Columbia residents for losses they suffered when hydropower dams flooded the land. Over time, the fund will receive $1 billion from power sales to invest in economic development.

That includes several power projects such as Keenleyside Dam, which regulates water headed downstream to Grand Coulee Dam.

Lake Roosevelt is the reservoir that backs up behind Grand Coulee. Between the lake and Keenleyside is 50 miles of freeflowing river.

It is one of the last stretches of big river in the West where fly fishermen go for big rainbow trout, said outfitter Greg Mallette.

It is also where rainbows, walleye, kokanee, whitefish and possibly even sturgeon go to spawn.

“If you don’t protect that river reach, you won’t have naturally sustaining populations in Lake Roosevelt,” said Mallette, who represents the British Columbia Wildlife Federation.

It was Mallette and other Canadian conservationists who called the project to the attention of the Lake Roosevelt Forum.

The forum deals with lake management issues. Its members include local governments, federal agencies businesses such as marinas, and tribes keenly interested in anything that would interfere with efforts to bring in fishermen and their dollars to north-central Washington.

“If there’s something that could potentially be harmful, we’d like to know about it,” said forum executive director Terry Knapton.

The two biggest reasons to worry have been eliminated, according to environmental officials in British Columbia.

Plans to dredge Tincup Rapids during construction were dropped early on.

And in the past week, the province’s Columbia Power Corporation agreed that Keenleyside would not dramatically fluctuate water through the free-flowing stretch of river. That means fish eggs, and young fish, won’t be left high and dry when water is being held back for later power generation.

Biologists remain concerned that hydropower operations would change water temperatures, or that fish will be sucked into the turbines, said Jay Hammond of BC Fisheries.

Public comments on the proposal will be accepted until Feb. 9. They should be sent to Derrick Griffin, Environmental Assessment, Second Floor, 836 Yates St., Victoria, BC, Canada V8V1X4.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: WHAT’S NEXT? The Keenleyside Dam project will be discussed at 1:30 p.m. today, during the Lake Roosevelt Forum meeting at the Spokane Indian Tribal Longhouse in Wellpinit.