Utility granted license to run Box Canyon Dam

Following a 10-year process that cost more than $10 million, the Pend Oreille Public Utility District in northeastern Washington has been granted a new license to operate the Box Canyon Dam.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission voted Thursday to issue the 50-year license but has not revealed the requirements it will place on the utility district — issues over which stakeholders have battled for years. They include concerns about tribal cultural resources, fish passage and habitat, water quality and recreational improvements.

Though the actual order isn’t due to be released until next week, the utility district’s manager is already anticipating appealing some of the conditions.

“I guess I’m not seeing the light at the end of the tunnel yet,” said Bob Geddes. “There’s going to be some appeal process. The good news is there will be some things we get to start working on.”

Historically, the Pend Oreille Utility District has had some of the lowest electricity costs in the nation, ranging from 2 to 3 cents per kilowatt-hour. (An average household uses about 1,000 kilowatt-hours per month.) The district serves 7,500 customers in Pend Oreille County, including Ponderay Newsprint, which accounts for 75 percent of demand and employs 200 people.

The district’s license expired in 2002 and, as the relicensing process has dragged on, the dam has operated on annual licenses. Hundreds of the utility’s customers have written letters and attended public meetings to protest conditions they felt would be too costly for ratepayers to bear. The 72-megawatt hydroelectric dam is on the Pend Oreille River.

“If I walk down the street here, that’s still the No. 1 topic people will stop me and ask about,” Geddes said.

A representative of the Kalispel Tribe of Indians said he’s pleased to finally see a license because it means financial resources will be committed to protecting the environment. Deane Osterman, director of the tribe’s natural resources department, said the utility district has worked to delay the issuance of a new license.

“Everybody thinks we have this inalienable right to absolutely the cheapest power possible,” Osterman said. “But we are paying a cost. It’s in environmental damage and destruction of habitat.”

Federal law calls upon certain agencies to set conditions designed to help offset the environmental and social impacts of dams. For example, when Avista Utilities relicensed its Clark Fork River dams, it agreed to spend $225 million over 45 years to help endangered bull trout. Avista now is in the process of relicensing its Spokane River dams.

A news release issued by FERC late Thursday said the new license “balances the strong need for electricity in the region with measures to protect the environment.” The license requires the utility district to take measures to improve water quality, protect fish, improve recreational amenities and protect historic and archaeological resources, the release said. That includes expanding a boat launch and installing equipment on two of the dam’s four turbines to allow for safer fish passage.

Some agencies, including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, have the right to impose mandatory conditions on the license beyond what FERC requires. The Fish and Wildlife Service will require additional features for fish passage upstream and downstream of the dam, said Rick Donaldson, an agency biologist.

“We’re trying to seek recovery of bull trout. We’re also trying to prevent a listing of westslope cutthroat trout and maintain a viable population of mountain white fish,” Donaldson said. However, Donaldson also said he couldn’t comment specifically on the new license until he sees FERC’s order.

Doug Robison, a biologist with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, said it appears initially that many of the issues his agency was concerned about were addressed in the license, including desired improvements to fish habitat and spawning grounds.

“We’re hopeful all of those involved can work together in implementing the new license in the future,” Robison said.