Ridenbaugh Press/Water Rights

With a deadline looming on January 3rd , Sierra Club volunteers and friends of Bumping Lake are today mailing 400 citizen comments opposing new dams in the Yakima River Basin to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (BuRec) and Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology).

“People don’t want new dams that cost taxpayers billions, drown ancient forests and endangered species habitat, and force families from lakeside cabins,” said David Ortman of Sierra Club’s Columbia River Future Projects. “People want agriculture’s water waste in the Yakima Basin to end – and they support water conservation. They also support passage for salmon at BuRec’s dams on the Yakima River. But new dams? No.”

The main points from the comments are:
People oppose new dams that will drown magnificent ancient forests and endangered species habitat at Bumping Lake within the Wenatchee National Forest (nearly 2000 acres), as well as shrub steppe habitat (the Wymer Dam).
Wasteful water practices by the agriculture industry in the Yakima must end, and people support water conservation.
Existing BuRec dams on the Yakima River were built without passage for salmon, and people support salmon passage at the BuRec’s dams.
The Teanaway River deserves protection from real estate developments, but NOT as mitigation area for destroying ancient forests and endangered species habitat.
This $5 billion proposal lacks a benefit-cost analysis and does not present a range of alternatives. People are requesting that the BuRec and Ecology withdraw the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Yakima Integrated Water Resource Management Plan.
A number of organizations, including the Alpine Lakes Protection Society, Endangered Species Coalition, Federation of Outdoor Clubs, Kittitas Audubon, North Cascades Conservation Council, Sierra Club, Western Lands Projeyct, and Western Watersheds Project will be submitting detailed comments on the proposed “Integrated Plan,” which includes billions of dollars for new Yakima River basin dams, including a new Bumping Lake Dam and a Wymer Dam on Lmuma Creek.

“The Bumping Lake Dam, would wipe out a spectacular and rare Ancient Forest of huge trees which is the habitat for spotted owls and bull trout,” noted Brock Evans, president of the Endangered Species Coalition based in Washington, D.C. “The Wymer Dam would wipe out a substantial amount of shrub-steppe habitat for sage grouse.”

The 45-day public comment period is for the proposed Yakima “Integrated Plan”. BuRec and Ecology denied written requests from national, state and local environmental groups to extend the public comment period beyond the holidays.

Opposition to a new round of fiscally irresponsible and environmentally dam-building by the Bureau of Ecology and Washington’s Department of Ecology continues to grow. “These dam proposals don’t make either fiscal or environmental sense,” said Ortman. “Is it any wonder the agencies are contorting the public process to make public scrutiny as difficult as possible. The public needs to weigh in.”

Comments on the PDEIS may still be sent to the Bureau of Reclamation by January 3rd at: yrbwep@usbr.gov

The Sierra Club on behalf of a broad coalition of state, local, and national conservation groups, delivered a strong message to Congress and the Obama Administration in meetings this week in the nation’s capital: conservationists will vigorously oppose two new dams proposed for the Yakima River Basin. The groups include Alpine Lakes Protection Society, California Water Impact Network, Endangered Species Coalition, Federation of Western Outdoor Clubs, North Cascades Conservation Council, Sierra Club’s Washington State Chapter, Western Lands Project, and Western Watersheds Project.

“While there could be some aspects of the proposal we might be able to support, we remain totally opposed to two new dams at Bumping and Wymer in the Yakima River Basin because of their enormously destructive impact on endangered species and ancient forests,” said Brock Evans, president of the Endangered Species Coalition.

On September 17 political leaders that included Interior Secretary Kenneth Salazar, Reclamation Commissioner Michael Conner, and Governor Christine Gregoire helped to lead the celebration marking the removal of two dams on the Elwha River that flows from the Olympia National Park. The very next day, they reconvened in Yakima to discuss how to implement a proposed water plan that includes two new dams at Wymer and Bumping (adjacent to the William O. Douglas Wilderness).

“The draft EIS has not even been released for public comment, and the Bureau of Reclamation’s self-selected work group has already approved a $20 million fund request, with over $3 million for continued planning for new dams,” said David Ortman, a Sierra Club volunteer who has fought to protect the famous Bumping Ancient Forests for over three decades.

Conservationists highlighted the following points with Congress and the Obama Administration:

At least 170,000 acre feet of water is available through conservation, including investing in the water wasteful Wapato Irritation District operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Eliminating wasteful agricultural water use in the Yakima basin will significantly improve water supply. New dams – if ever built – should be the very last option.

In 2008 the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation rejected the new dam at Bumping Lake in part because of the overwhelming wildlife and ancient forest values.

Also in 2008 the Bureau rejected the Wymer dam (a “pump storage” project on a side-channel of the Yakima River) because of abysmal economics, also noting the area is shrub steppe habitat with important wildlife values.

Checkerboard lands in the Teanaway River (over 40,000 acres of private lands intermingling with National Forest lands) – should be purchased directly with Land and Water Conservation Funds or other funding source, and not as part of a deal with irrigators that sacrifices Bumping Ancient Forests and Wymer shrub steppe.

Condit Dam above the White Salmon River was breached a little after Noon on Wednesday, October 26, 2011. During the event approximately 750 acre feet of water was drained into the White Salmon River downstream of the dam and into the Columbia River. Flows from the breach of the dam are anticipated to transport a plume of accumulated sediment from the reservoir causing turbid water.

Over the course of the next 10 months, dam removal will be conducted and restoration of the former reservoir area completed.

The Condit Hydroelectric Project is located 3.3 miles upstream from the confluence of the White Salmon and Columbia Rivers. Constructed between 1911 and 1913 by Northwestern Electric Company it has been operated by PacifiCorp since 1947. PacifiCorp has chosen to remove the dam rather than seek fish passage required under a new federal dam license.

The Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology) conducted necessary environmental reviews and issued regulatory approvals associated with the project, including granting a Section 401 Water Quality Certification. The 401 certification under the federal Clean Water Act certifies that water quality standards and other water-protection regulations are met during dam removal and subsequent restoration. The 401 outlines the steps PacifiCorp must take to protect water quality during dam removal.

A muffled roar and a puff of pulverized concrete preceded a rush of water at the dam, about three miles upstream from the White Salmon’s confluence with the Columbia River. Immediately after today’s 12:11 p.m. detonation, the waters of Northwestern Lake immediately began pouring through a tunnel created in the dam’s 90-foot wide base during August and September. PacifiCorp and prime contractor JR Merit of Vancouver, Wash., along with the detonation crew from Kiewit Infrastructure West, also of Vancouver, surveyed the blast zone, took readings from sensing devices on the dam and flew over the area in a helicopter before declaring the breach event a success and the remaining structure safe.

“Condit has served our customers very well for nearly a century,” said Micheal Dunn, president and chief executive officer of PacifiCorp Energy, which operates 46 hydroelectric facilities in the West. “We are sad to lose this emission-free source of power. But we made a decision to work with our settlement partners to come to the most reasonable solution for everyone involved, especially the cost to our customers. For the next 11 months, we will proceed with the safe dismantling of the dam structure and work toward restoring the natural streambed of the area.”

Dam removal was determined to be less costly to PacifiCorp customers than the fish passage that would be required for dam operation to be granted under a new federal hydroelectric power license. The cost of decommissioning and removing Condit is currently estimated at about $33 million, including funds already spent during the planning process over the 12 years since the settlement was originally announced.

About 150 representatives of the settlement parties, contractors and local leaders gathered a safe distance away from the dam to watch a live webcast of the final blast. The gathering also was used to acknowledge the efforts of all parties to the decommissioning settlement agreement. “Getting to this point took a long time and a focused work effort,” said Todd Olson, program manager for PacifiCorp Energy. “Many people have worked to get the project to this point and PacifiCorp recognizes their contribution.”

Demolition of the remaining portion of the dam is scheduled to begin in spring 2012 and be completed by August 31, 2012. Restoration work throughout the former reservoir area is planned to be completed by the end of 2012.

Throughout this restoration, the former reservoir area and project area will remain closed to the public. PacifiCorp will continue to work closely with county officials and local residents on access restrictions and other safety measures as the project progresses.
PacifiCorp is one of the lowest-cost electricity producers in the United States, serving more than 1.7 million customers in the West. PacifiCorp operates as Pacific Power in Oregon, Washington and California, and as Rocky Mountain Power in Utah, Wyoming and Idaho. With a generating capability of more than 10,620 megawatts from coal, hydro, gas-fired combustion turbines and renewable wind and geothermal power, the company works to meet growing energy demand while protecting and enhancing the environment.

The project is located approximately 3.3 miles upstream from the confluence of the White Salmon and Columbia Rivers. Project facilities consist of a 125-foot high, 471-foot long concrete gravity diversion dam, and an intake structure that directs water into a 13.5-foot diameter by 5,100-foot long wood stave flow line.
Removal will open approximately 33 miles of new spawning and rearing grounds for steelhead and 15 miles for salmon in the White Salmon River basin. Before the breach, fish biologists moved more than 500 salmon above the dam, which are already spawning in new habitat. The juveniles from these eggs will descend the White Salmon unimpeded by the dam.

The powerhouse, which was permanently turned off just before the blast, contains two double horizontal Francis turbines with an installed capacity of 13.7 megawatts (enough to power about 7,000 average homes for a year). There are no plans to dismantle the powerhouse.

The project created a reservoir, Northwestern Lake, which extended 1.8 miles upstream of the dam and covered approximately 92 acres. It is expected to drain in roughly six hours.

In 1999, the Condit Settlement Agreement was signed by PacifiCorp and project stakeholders. The settlement agreement was amended in 2005 to extend the dates for project removal.

Settlement parties include: American Rivers, American Whitewater, Columbia Gorge Audubon Society, Columbia Gorge Coalition, Columbia River United, Federation of Fly Fishers, Friends of the Columbia Gorge, Friends of the Earth, Friends of the White Salmon, The Mountaineers, Rivers Council of Washington, The Sierra Club, Trout Unlimited, Washington Trout, Washington Wilderness Coalition, the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission , the Yakama Nation, the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Department of the Interior, the National Marine Fisheries Service, the Washington Department of Ecology, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and PacifiCorp.

An advocacy group seeking a free-running Eel River in northern California has filed a lawsuit at the state’s water rights governing board, hoping to force the Pacific Gas & Electric Company to tear down two dams it said are archaic.

The Epoch Times in California reported that “Peter Moreno of PG&E said they have not yet reviewed Friends of the Eel River’s petition but that the water licensing process is very thorough and all stake holders and interested groups are consulted in the process. Flow adjustments at Potter Valley have been made in the past, he said.” The company did not otherwise make a comprehensive statement on the subject.

The Friends of the Eel River said it:

… brought legal action before the State Water Resources Control Board, in an attempt to stop Pacific Gas and Electric Company, from destroying two northern California rivers essential to the restoration of California’s once-vibrant billion dollar salmon industry.

The FOER legal action challenges the diversion of almost all of the flow of the Eel River to PG&E’s Potter Valley hydroelectric project (PVP), consisting of two dams and a diversion tunnel. During the dry season, almost 98% of the Eel River flows are diverted into the Russian River. “The State Board has an obligation to ensure that PG&E’s use of water is reasonable and does not harm public trust resources in the Eel River,” noted environmental attorney Ellison Folk, with the law firm Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger. PG&E’s Potter Valley Project, however, is damaging the public trust resources by threatening the survival of the remaining populations of the state and federally listed endangered salmon and steelhead, in exchange for a negligible amount of energy it produces. Continue Reading »

A dam on the Klamath River

When the sponsor of Senate Bill 76 stood up in the Oregon House today, an obvious question arose immediately. The sponsor was Representative Ben Cannon, a Portland Democrat. The bill has to do with removal of four dams on the Klamath River, about 300 miles south from Portland. So why Cannon and not someone more local?

After all, the bill was described as (this is from the official House Democratic description) “the product of a negotiated agreement between Oregon, Washington, California, the federal government and PacifiCorp. It is supported by over two dozen groups including agriculture interests, conservation groups, utility companies, Native American tribes and other affected participants who developed the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement.”

Sounds pretty sweeping. And Cannon was a capable floor sponsor. But the rest of the story emerged right after, as the representative from the Klamath Falls area (his district covers the river basin area in question) stood to speak against the bill. That was Bill Garrard, R-Klamath Falls, who offered an impassioned argument against the bill.

There’s a long history here, as anyone who’s followed the Klamath debate knows, ranging from water shutoffs to full flows, variously helping and hurting fish, farmers and other interests. There have been high-profile protests and much more.

The recent settlement, from last year, appeared to bring an end of much of this – at least put an end in sight, with proposed demolition (years from now, probably after 2020) of four dams and a string of concessions to various parties. On the surface, it looked like a deal (somewhat resembling in construct the Nez Perce/Snake River deal in Idaho a few years back). However. Continue Reading »

Water rights in the bitterly-fought Klamath River basin will go to the Oregon Supreme Court for partial settlement, the high court said on January 29.

The case does not arrive in the usual way as an appeal within the state’s own court system, however. It is a referral from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which had been considering water right claims filed under federal law. Federal agencies said that all the water available under those provisions were appropriated in 1905. The federal court asked the state court to determine if more rights, and if so what rights those might be, were available under state law.

Threatened for many years, the state of California on December 1 came through with the ruling: The State Water Resources Control Board has formally pulled water rights long held by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation for purposes of building a new dam near Auburn.

The bureau has had the right since 1970. It has proposed to build a dam that would store about 2.2 million acre-feet of water, but it never has undertaken serious work on the project. State staff said that no effective work on the dam had been done since 1975.

Tim Woodall, president of Auburn’s Protect American River Canyons, was quote as saying, “While it became increasingly apparent over the years that Auburn dam was an obsolete project that would never be revived, there were some die-hard dam supporters who refused to accept that reality. This decision ends the debate, because without the permits, there is no project.”

[see Folsom (CA) Journal, December 2]

Governor Chris Gregoire in March signed legislation today that will release the largest delivery of new water to towns and farms in the Columbia Basin, and for endangered salmon, in three decades.
Thanks to a historic partnership among state, federal and tribal governments, the new law will allow up to 82,500 acre feet of water to be withdrawn from Lake Roosevelt behind Grand Coulee Dam beginning this year — and up to 132,000 acre feet of water in drought years.
Under the agreement, the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation and the Spokane Tribe of Indians will receive an annual payment of approximately $3.75 million and $2.25 million respectively, adjusted for inflation. The funding doesn’t purchase water or water rights from the tribes but is being provided to enhance fisheries, protect the environment, preserve cultural resources and other activities.
Local governments around Lake Roosevelt will receive $2 million to address impacts from the release of the new water. The additional water will bring stability to areas affected by the dwindling Odessa aquifer, which has been dropping at an average rate of 7 feet per year. Had this legislation not been enacted, loss of irrigation water in the area could have cost the agricultural region $600 million a year in lost revenue and the elimination of 7,500 jobs. The Lake Roosevelt releases, which will lower lake levels no more than an additional 1.5 feet below current operations, will:
? Supply additional surface water to irrigators of 10,000 acres of land east of Moses Lake
? Offer more certainty to those who have interruptible water rights in times of drought
?Provide new water supplies to municipalities with pending water right applications
? Help ensure the survival of salmon by increasing stream flow in the river in late summer, when fish need it most.
The state will also avoid purchasing water at current market rates, which would be cost- prohibitive for a quantity similar to that coming from Lake Roosevelt. The Washington Department of Ecology is on track to issue new water permits as early as fall 2008.
March 20 Media Contact: Dan Partridge, Department of Ecology, 360-407-7139; e-mail: dpar461@ecy.wa.gov For more information: http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/wr/cwp/cr_lkroos.html ?Ecology’s Web site: http://www.ecy.wa.gov

The Bureau of Reclamation in November announced the release of the National Academy of Sciences’ final review of two water-relted studies: Reclamation’s Klamath Project Natural Flow Study and Dr. Thomas Hardy’s Phase II Flow Study.
Reclamation is evaluating the findings of the NAS to determine how these studies could contribute to future resource management decisions. Reclamation will continue to work with stakeholders to apply the full suite of available science to management of the Klamath Project.
The NAS found that both studies are noteworthy in some regards but have flaws as well. Further, the NAS concluded that the Klamath Basin is in need of an independent and comprehensive analysis to identify the most urgent science needs to inform management decisions.
The NAS also provided recommendations for improvement of the two studies should a basin-wide review of the science determine it is warranted.
The NAS also recommended _an adaptive management approach whereby decisions are played out in water management with monitoring and constant assessment and with periodic informed adjustments in management strategies._
Consistent with these findings, Reclamation will continue to pursue adaptive, basin-wide solutions with our stakeholders.
The NAS review is available on Reclamation’s website at: http://books.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12072#toc . Should you encounter problems accessing documents online, please contact Ms. Lynnette Wirth at 916-978-5102 or lwirth@mp.usbr.gov.
For additional information or to request a copy of the document, please contact Ms. Christine Karas at 541-880-2555 or ckaras@mp.usbr.gov.
Mid-Pacific Region; Sacramento; Contact: Jeffrey McCracken 916-978-5100 November 28

A researcher from Bowling Green State University has completed a 12-year follow-up study to the effects of the 1994 failure of the IVEX Dam on the Chagrin River (northeastern Ohio). The study documents long-term changes that occur as a river adjusts to the removal of a dam.
There are presently 632 dams in northern Ohio on tributary streams flowing into Lake Erie. Because many of these dams are aging and would require extensive repairs to maintain public safety, there is a growing trend to remove old dams that no longer fulfill a useful purpose.
If dams are not maintained, they can fail during a flood event. This is what happened in 1994 to the IVEX Dam, which was breached and released over 10 million gallons of water and sediment within a few minutes.
The study used surveying and sediment coring over a 12-year period to document ways the river responded to removal of the dam. The initial response was the release of mud-sized material from the former reservoir, as the Chagrin River re-established its channel. However the major effect occurred over a period of years, as the new channel stabilized, and as sand and gravel began to move downstream of the former dam site.
The study presents a modified model that can be used to anticipate the long-term changes that will occur after a dam is removed.
Results of this study “Sediment Impacts of the 1994 Failure of IVEX Dam (Chagrin River, NE Ohio): A Test of Channel Evolution Models,” are reported by James E. Evans in the latest issue (Volume 33, SI2, pp. 90-102) of the Journal of Great Lakes Research, published by the International Association for Great Lakes Research, 2007.
Contacts For more information about the study, contact James E. Evans, Department of Geology, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH 43403; evansje@bgsu.edu, (419) 372-2414.
For information about the Journal of Great Lakes Research, contact Marlene Evans, Editor, National Water Research Institute, 11 Innovation Boulevard, Saskatoon, SK, S7N 3H5, Canada; editor@iaglr.org; (608) 692-1076.
Links:
The Article (abstract)
Vol. 33(SI2) Table of Contents
Searchable JGLR Archive
IAGLR Web Site