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CapitalPress.com
July 3, 2015
Drought
Drought reduces hydroelectric output
By ZANE SPARLING
Capital Press
A drought doesn’t just mean less
water. It also means less power.
On the Columbia and Snake rivers,
where infrequent rains and an almost
nonexistent snowpack have led to
parched waterways and dangerous fire
conditions, the amount of hydroelectric
energy generated by government dams
has dropped by almost one-third.
Last May, 23 dams on the Columbia
and its major tributaries produced 8.59
million megawatts of power, according
to data from the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers.
This year, during the same time-
frame, the dams generated just 5.78
million megawatts.
“Water is our fuel on the hydro sys-
tem, and there’s just less of it,” Bonne-
ville Power Administration spokesman
Joel Scruggs said. “We’re prepared to
handle the dry year and we’re hopeful
that we’ll see more water. Otherwise
we’ll manage accordingly.”
The BPA, a federal agency in charge
marketing electricity produced by the
dams, provides almost 35 percent of
the power in the region.
The system’s portfolio includes ma-
jor producers such as the Dalles Dam
on the Columbia, where the water flow
has dropped to roughly 145,000 cubic
feet per second, from 235,000 cubic
feet this time last year.
That’s primarily due to the lack of
snowfall, according to Bill Proctor, chief
of hydrologic engineering and power for
the northwestern division of the Corps.
It’s not the snow you see on peaks
— that sort of glacial ice is around all
year. Instead, Proctor said, rivers are fed
by runoff, usually rain or melted snow.
And while precipitation fed the Pacific
Northwest river system in the spring,
the lack of snowfall at lower elevations
has created the second worst runoff sit-
uation here in the last 55 years.
On the Snake, one of Columbia’s
major tributaries, streamflow has
dropped to an estimated 25,000 cubic
feet per second, compared to a normal
flow of 54,000. It’s expected to stay that
way through the end of the summer.
Both the Corps and the BPA say the
drop in power production won’t lead to
an immediate rate increase for consum-
ers and businesses.
“The BPA doesn’t change rates ev-
ery day,” Proctor said. “Their purchase
price doesn’t affect your price today.
But the rates you’re paying now will af-
fect the rates in the future… when (the
BPA) recalculates rates.”
Karl Kanbergs, team leader for the
reservoir control center, agreed.
“When resources are scarce, the
price goes up. That’s true for anything.”
Scruggs, the BPA spokesperson,
said the agency sets rates every two
years. He said a prolonged, multiyear
drought is a possibility, not a certainty.
“I don’t think we want to play with
hypotheticals. We’re concerned with
managing the system right now,” he
said. “When you’re dependent on the
weather, there’s always a lot of uncer-
tainty.”
Drought conditions take hold in W. Washington
Hydropower
of state
challenge could One-third
in ‘severe drought,’
impact irrigators including Olympic
Oral arguments held
in legal battle over 14
Northwest dams
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
The federal government’s
operation of Northwest hydro-
power dams is again under at-
tack for allegedly jeopardizing
fish, potentially impacting irri-
gators who rely on the Colum-
bia and Snake rivers.
The most recent “reason-
able and prudent alternatives”
aimed at mitigating risk to
threatened and endangered
fish, issued by the National
Marine Fisheries Service last
year, were challenged as un-
lawful during a recent court
hearing.
Critics of the agency’s plans
claim that it’s overly confi-
dent about the positive effects
of restoring tributaries while
downplaying the hazards of hy-
dropower facilities in the main
river channels.
“We’re always looking to
the future for benefits that ha-
ven’t yet materialized,” said
Stephanie Parent, an attorney
representing the State of Ore-
gon, during oral arguments in
Portland on June 23.
The plaintiffs also fault-
ed the federal government for
being ambiguous in its goals
and time frames for increasing
salmon and steelhead popu-
lations, which they claim are
killed at unsustainable levels
as they pass through 14 hydro-
electric dams.
These species are still at risk
of getting wiped out by a ca-
tastrophe even if their numbers
have improved due to natural
conditions in recent years, ac-
cording to the plaintiffs, which
include tribes and environmen-
talists.
“A growing species is not
the same thing as a recovered
species,” said Todd True, at-
torney for the Earthjustice law
firm.
If the case results in fur-
ther revisions to the hydro-
power system’s operations,
it could affect irrigators on
multiple fronts, said Darryl
Olsen, board representative
of the Columbia-Snake River
Irrigators Association, which
has been involved in the liti-
gation.
Environmental groups want
to reduce water levels in stor-
age reservoirs, arguing this will
improve flow rates and thus en-
hance fish survival, he said.
The federal government has
rejected this claim, finding that
the main factor in fish surviv-
al is temperature, which isn’t
affected by lowering reservoir
levels, Olsen said.
“Much of our water man-
agement has nothing to do with
empirical reality,” he said.
Water rights may also be af-
fected by the litigation.
The flow rates in the Co-
lumbia and Snake rivers al-
ready preclude any new water
rights from being assigned, but
an eventual ruling could require
even greater pressure to leave
water in-stream, Olsen said.
Also, any mandate that
NMFS revise its plans for the
hydropower will also be ex-
tremely expensive and effec-
tively raise the costs of electric-
ity for pumping, he said.
The recent court battle is
part of an ongoing legal cam-
paign against the hydropow-
er system’s management that
stretches back to 2001.
A potentially important dif-
ference is that the litigation is
now overseen by a new federal
judge, Michael Simon.
U.S. District Judge James
Redden, who previously pre-
sided over the case, repeatedly
found the federal government’s
operation plans to be inade-
quate and remanded them for
changes.
After recusing himself from
the lawsuit, Redden said he be-
lieved the government should
require the removal of four hy-
droelectric dams on the Snake
river to improve fish passage.
Another contentious point
is how much water should be
spilled over dams to prevent
fish from passing through tur-
bines, with the plaintiffs press-
ing for increased spills.
During the recent oral ar-
guments, plaintiffs alleged that
NMFS set a lenient standard for
overcoming the “jeopardy” that
hydropower operations impose
on fish.
The agency was also fault-
ed for failing to explain how it
arrived at certain conclusions
about fish survival.
“It’s impossible to follow
the train of reasoning,” said
True.
The federal government
argues that its “jeopardy” anal-
ysis complies with the Endan-
gered Species Act, which gives
agencies with discretion in de-
termining a species’ chances of
survival and recovery.
It also rejected claims that the
“reasonable and prudent alterna-
tives” were lacking, arguing that
the plaintiffs cannot overrule the
agency simply because they fa-
vor a different policy.
“The best available science
shows that removing tributary
habitat constraints through res-
toration actions is reasonably
certain to increase fish abun-
dance and productivity,” NMFS
said in a court document.
Peninsula
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
The drought worsened
Thursday in Washington, with
18 eastern counties declared
federal disaster areas and the
drought officially becoming
more widespread and severe
on the westside.
The U.S. Drought Mon-
itor reported for the first
time that drought conditions
prevail throughout Western
Washington, with the Olym-
pic Peninsula in a severe
drought.
Hot and dry weather —
combined with the complete
absence of melting snow —
drove the percentage of the
state in a moderate or severe
drought from 63 percent to
90 percent over the previous
week.
The percentage in a severe
drought increased from 25
percent to 32 percent, accord-
ing to the Drought Monitor, a
partnership between the U.S.
Department of Agriculture,
the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration
and the University of Nebras-
ka-Lincoln.
Drought conditions spread
and grew more severe pri-
marily west of the Cascades.
A large swath along the Inter-
state 5 corridor from Oregon
to Canada was categorized
for the first time as being in a
moderate drought.
Meanwhile, the drought
status of all or parts of four
westside counties — Clallam,
Jefferson, Grays Harbor and
Mason — were revised from
moderate to severe.
As a result, more counties
August comes early
for rivers and streams
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
A sharp, sudden and un-
expected drop in rivers and
tributaries are causing unprec-
edented state-ordered shutoffs
in June and July to hundreds of
irrigators in Western and Eastern
Washington.
The Washington Department
of Ecology says it has a legal ob-
ligation to cut off farmers with
junior water rights to preserve
minimum flows for fish and irri-
gators with senior rights.
Some of the irrigators have
lost their water before, but not
until late in the growing sea-
are on track to become federal
disaster areas.
The USDA on Wednesday
declared a federal drought
disaster in 18 Washington
counties, the first such desig-
nations in the state.
“Our hearts go out to those
Washington farmers and
ranchers affected by recent
natural disasters,” Agriculture
Secretary Tom Vilsack said in
a written statement.
Eight south-central and
southeast counties — Adams,
Benton, Columbia, Franklin,
Grant, Klickitat, Walla Wal-
la and Yakima — drove the
declaration. They had been
in a severe drought for eight
weeks, the threshold for disas-
ter designation.
Because the drought has
coincided with the grazing
season, ranchers in those
counties are eligible for pay-
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son. Rivers have fallen to levels
typical of August or September,
ecology officials say.
“It’s just been a real dra-
matic drop in the last week,”
DOE spokeswoman Joye Red-
field-Wilder said. “It’s just so
widespread and indicative of a
new day out there.”
Beginning Monday, about
260 irrigators on the Methow,
Colville and Little Spokane
rivers will have their water shut
off. They can call a DOE phone
number daily to check whether
the restriction has been lifted,
but the answer will be no for the
rest of the summer unless there’s
enough rain to cause river levels
to spike, Redfield-Wilder said.
Another 80 irrigators in the
Okanogan and Similkameen
watersheds in north-central
Washington were cut off June
23, while more than 40 irriga-
tors on the Wenatchee River lost
water June 15.
In Western Washington,
DOE plans to deliver shutoff
notices by mid-July to about 70
irrigators in the Chehalis River
Basin, an agricultural area in
Southwest Washington. Those
irrigators were last shut off in
2006, but not until September.
Officials in the spring said
Washington was experiencing
a “snowpack drought.” Re-
cord-breaking heat and an al-
most complete absence of rain
this month have made that de-
scription incomplete.
South-central
Washington
farmer Neal Brown said Friday
that a week ago he still hoped his
spring wheat would yield an aver-
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at Joyce Capital, Inc.
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(208) 338-1560 • Boise, ID
joe@arrien.biz
Don Jenkins/Capital Press
Hay bales sit in a field in Lewis County in southwest Washington June
25. Almost all of Western Washington is in a drought and several coun-
ties are in severe drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
Ecology to cut off irrigators in
Western and Eastern Washington
Joyce Capital, Inc.
• Term agricultural loans
(purchases & refinances)
Don Jenkins/Capital Press
A sprinkler waters a field in Lewis County in southwest Washington June 25. Almost all of Western Washing-
ton is now in a drought and several counties are in a severe drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
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PORT OF GRANDVIEW REQUEST for PROPOSALS
The Port of Grandview invites proposals from persons or businesses
interested in starting a business in the Ports Business Incubator
Building located at 683 Wallace Way, Grandview, WA. The purpose
of this RFP is to determine interest in locating and starting new
businesses in the building. The type of business proposals selected
will determine the interior construction required, rental rates and
occupancy dates.
All proposals shall include:
• The type of business (manufacturing, wholesale or retail)
• The area required (sq. footage)
• Volumes of water and sewer necessary.
• Natural gas and power requirements
• Product(s) to be manufactured or created
• Specific building requirements
• Anticipated number of employees
• Names and contact information of principals
• Personal or business references.
Persons interested in viewing the building or having questions
should contact: Jessica Hansen, Executive Director, Port of
Grandview, 509-882-9975 or jessica@portofgrandview.org. Proposals
in sealed envelopes marked “Incubator Proposal” should be
postmarked not later than Tuesday, July 28, 2015 and addressed to:
Port of Grandview, PO Box 392, Grandview, WA 98930 Legal-25-4-2/#4
ments equal to 60 percent of
their monthly feed costs, ac-
cording to the USDA’s Farm
Service Agency. Applications
are due to the agency by Sept.
30.
Producers in another
10 counties are eligible for
low-interest loans because
they border the most severely
affected counties. The contig-
uous counties are Douglas,
Garfield, King, Kittitas, Lew-
is, Lincoln, Okanogan, Pierce,
Skamania and Whitman.
Five northeast Washington
counties have been in a severe
drought since May 19. Unless
the weather changes, they will
become eligible for disaster
relief in July.
Loans may be used to
restore or replace essential
property, pay production costs
and essential family living
expenses, and reorganize a
farming operation or refi-
nance certain debts.
Farmers have eight months
from the date of the designa-
tion to apply for emergency
loans to help cover part of
their actual losses.
aged-sized crop. Amid a triple-dig-
it heat wave and month-long dry
spell in Klickitat County, he’s
slashed his expectations in half.
“It’s really quite remark-
able,” he said “It’s degrading
rapidly.”
The Chehalis River relies
on rain, not snow. DOE’s water
resource manager for South-
west Washington, Mike Galla-
gher, said that two weeks ago
he wouldn’t have predicted the
basin’s irrigators would be shut
off.
“There’s been a remarkable
drop in the last two or three
weeks,” he said. “This is un-
chartered territory for all of us.”
Gallagher said water could
be restored if there’s enough
rain. But he said the chances ar-
en’t good for relief this summer.
“We need a wet and snowy win-
ter,” he said.
So far, only the Chehalis Ba-
sin has been targeted for shut off
notices on the westside. But oth-
er Western Washington rivers
are being monitored. “All across
Western Washington, we’re
seeing flows typical of August
and September, not June,” DOE
spokesman Chase Gallagher
said.
LEGAL
SECRETARY OF STATE NOTICE
OF PROPOSED RULEMAKING
Oregon Department of
Agriculture, Plant Program,
Administrative Rules Chapter
#603, Sue Gooch, Rules
Coordinator, (503) 986-4583.
Amend: OAR 603-052-1300
RULE SUMMARY: Adds several
species to the list of approved
terrestrial invertebrates and
removes the Monarch butterfly
from that list. Last day for public
comment is July 22, 2015.
27-2/#4