Avista files two applications for operation of five dams

Barring a last-minute settlement, the conditions that guide operation of five hydroelectric dams on the Spokane River are now in the hands of the federal government.

Following a three-year, $10 million process that involved hundreds of participants, Avista Corp. on Thursday filed applications with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to operate dams in Post Falls, at two spots in downtown Spokane, and at Nine Mile and Long Lake.

In a much-contested decision, the Spokane energy company decided to file two separate license applications – one for Post Falls and one for the other four dams – because of extreme disagreements about the operations of the Idaho dam. With the Post Falls dam controlling flows from Lake Coeur d’Alene into the Spokane River, interested parties have faced off over the benefits of higher lake levels versus higher river flows.

Representatives from the Coeur d’Alene Indian Tribe, the Sierra Club, the Lands Council, recreational groups, and state and federal agencies have attended hundreds of meetings over the course of three years, trying to reach a settlement that would be acceptable to all. However, that now seems elusive, especially due to the decision to separate the licenses.

The director of the Lands Council, a Spokane environmental group, said splitting off the Post Falls dam is extremely troubling.

“I think they’re making some steps to walk away from the Post Falls dam,” said Mike Peterson, the council’s executive director. “It’s very controversial. What’s good for downstream users is not good for lake users.”

An Avista spokesman said the company would consider selling or decommissioning the dam if it becomes too expensive to operate.

“That’s a possibility,” said Hugh Imhof. “If we can’t run it economically, it doesn’t make sense.” But, he said, “We would hope that is never the case.”

Any expenses the company incurs from relicensing and from additional measures it must take to run the dams will eventually be passed on to customers in the form of rate increases, Avista officials have said. Spokane River Relicensing Manager Bruce Howard said, for example, that one party to the relicensing would like Avista to pay for all erosion damage to Lake Coeur d’Alene. That’s despite the fact that numerous other factors have contributed to erosion over the years, including boating, logging and home construction, he said.

“Part of our obligation in this whole thing is to try to keep the costs of our relicensing reasonable,” Imhof said. “Any time somebody puts some onerous conditions on there, that’s something that’s being thrown in the face of the ratepayers.”

However, Howard Funke, an attorney for the Coeur d’Alene Tribe, which owns the lower third of the lake, said separating the licenses allows Avista to protect revenues generated by the four Washington dams from being used to address impacts on Lake Coeur d’Alene.

“Water from Lake Coeur d’Alene is maximizing generation at each of those dams, so each of those dams should be responsible for the impacts on Lake Coeur d’Alene,” Funke said.

Rick Donaldson, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said the Spokane River is a single ecosystem and should be treated as such.

“We like to look at it as one complete project, instead of a piecemeal effect,” Donaldson said.

The current license for the dams doesn’t expire until 2007, so FERC will have two years to review the applications, collect public input and decide on the provisions to be included in a new 30- to 50-year license. It is likely that FERC will hold public hearings in the region at some point in the future, Avista officials have said.

In addition to splitting the license in two, Avista also proposes to:

•Spend $1.7 million per year on environmental impacts related to the Post Falls dam and $1.5 million per year for impacts related to the four Washington dams;

•Increase flows over the Post Falls Dam both for environmental, recreational and aesthetic purposes;

•Increase flows over the Spokane River falls in two locations in downtown Spokane;

•Take additional steps to protect fish populations in Lake Coeur d’Alene, Long Lake and the Spokane River;

•Build additional recreational amenities, including boat-in campgrounds at Long Lake;

•Extend the Centennial Trail beyond Nine Mile and Sontag Park.

Several agencies, including the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Department of the Interior, state water quality agencies in Washington and Idaho, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, have the right to impose mandatory conditions on the license.