Frothy Water Spawns Fish Danger Groups Sue Over Buildup Of Gases That Exceed Standards; Solutions Expensive

Like over-eaters at a chili feed, the Columbia and Snake rivers are bloated with gas.

It’s fish that are suffering now, and electric ratepayers who may suffer later.

Water becomes super-saturated with atmospheric gases like nitrogen when it plunges over waterfalls or dams.

The problem is so bad on the Northwest’s two workhorse rivers that they exceed Clean Water Act standards. There are more than 200 dams in the Columbia and Snake River basins and the gas has little opportunity to dissipate between the dams.

A coalition of environmental groups is suing over Clean Water Act violations on the Snake River. They’d like to see the government solve the problem by removing the river’s four dams in Washington, a salmon-restoration possibility that’s become a heated regional debate.

High levels of dissolved gas give fish a condition similar to the bends. During spring runoff in 1996, more than 2,000 steelhead died at a commercial fish farm 16 miles downstream from Grand Coulee Dam.

Scientists say the gas has the same effect on endangered runs of wild salmon and steelhead, as well as popular game fish like trout and kokanee salmon. Exactly how many fish are killed - and how many become so weakened they later fall prey to predation - is impossible to tell.

The problem is especially perplexing because spilling water over dams often is done in an attempt to flush migrating salmon smolts to the ocean. Even taking into account the risk of dissolved gas, experts think that’s safer than another option: sending immature fish through dam turbines.

Long before the suit was filed, solving the dissolved gas problem had become a top federal priority.

But the fix may give Bonneville Power Administration ratepayers a shock. BPA foots the bill for most dam modifications and salmon-saving efforts, and passes on those costs to customers.

A recent memo from staff at four federal agencies concluded the cost of abating gas at 10 federal dams could hit $2.4 billion.

While other information in the memo is stirring controversy, no one’s disputing the gasabatement figures, although experts say they reflect the highest likely cost. The numbers came from studies by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which operates nine dams on the lower Snake and Columbia, and the Bureau of Reclamation, which operates Grand Coulee.

“If there were a range of costs, we took the higher costs,” said Mary Lou Soscia, one of the authors of the 15-page memo. “It’s all very speculative. But it’s a very expensive problem.”

Relatively inexpensive fixes have already been found at John Day Dam on the Columbia and Lower Monumental Dam on the Snake.

From 1996 to 1998, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers spent $19.5 million attaching water deflectors called “flip-lips” at the base of those dams’ spillways. The deflectors prevent the falling water from plunging deep into pools at the base of the dams.

By comparison, the memo suggests fixes may cost $740 million at McNary Dam, $706 million at Bonneville Dam, $410 million at Lower Monumental Dam and $300 million at Grand Coulee.

But there may also be a far cheaper and simpler solution at Grand Coulee, the nation’s most productive hydropower dam.

Some scientists and engineers suggest sending all the water that reaches Grand Coulee through its turbines, rather than sending some over the top of the dam.

“That’s completely possible because of the colossal size of Grand Coulee,” said Mark Schneider, part of a team of U.S. and Canadian officials looking for ways to solve the river’s gas problem. “It can handle the entire Columbia River, even during spring runoff.”

And since the dam has no fish ladders allowing mature salmon to migrate upstream, there are no immature salmon to benefit from the spilled water anyway, said Schneider, a dam expert for the National Marine Fisheries Service in Portland.

During spring runoff, some water is sent over the top of the dam because the turbines otherwise would produce more power than the system could handle.

The solution, said Schneider, is to spill all the water over the top of the next dam downstream, Chief Joseph. That federal dam then would generate no power, making up for the excess produced at Grand Coulee.

Adding a flip-lip to Chief Joseph “would be a whole lot less costly than at Grand Coulee,” he said.

There’s some good news upstream from Grand Coulee, as well.

The Columbia Basin Trust in Canada is spending $250 million to install turbines at Hugh Keenlyside Dam, which now is used only for water storage. All the water behind the dam eventually flows over the top, trapping large amounts of dissolved gas.

When the turbines start turning in 2003, dissolved gas will be reduced beneath the dam by 10 percent to 40 percent, depending on river flows, said Josh Smienk, board chairman for the trust.

The dam will produce 175 megawatts of power and $50 million in annual profits. After paying for the project, Canadian law requires the trust to use the money on social, economic and environmental projects in southeastern British Columbia.

The trust may also launch similar projects at other nearby dams, said Smienk. Each will be engineered so that fish ladders can later be added if they ever become needed, in the hope that Americans eventually find a way to help salmon around Grand Coulee.

`It’s been some 70 or 75 years since (salmon have) been in this region,” said Smienk.

“The people of southeast British Columbia have not given up the hope that they’ll one day return.”