ORCHARDS, NUTS & VINES SPECIAL SECTION INSIDE
FRIDAY, APRIL 14, 2017
VOLUME 90, NUMBER 15
WWW.CAPITALPRESS.COM
$2.00
$1 BILLION
QUESTION
Oregon wants to reintroduce threatened fi sh upstream of the Hells Canyon dams,
but Idaho offi cials and irrigators don’t want to be stuck with the bill
Fish passage dispute
Idaho agricultural leaders are reacting to Oregon’s plan to reintroduce
endangered steelhead and salmon above the Hells Canyon Complex
of dams as a condition of relicensing of the project.
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.
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HELLS
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Ida
H
ELLS CANYON — Idaho farmers who rely on Snake River water for irrigation fear they
could one day be stuck with a $1 billion-plus bill for a plan by the State of Oregon to help
endangered fi sh.
As a condition of relicensing Idaho Power Co.’s three Hells Canyon dams on the Ida-
ho-Oregon border, Oregon leaders have proposed reintroducing endangered steelhead trout and salmon
into Pine Creek, which originates in Oregon
and spills into the Snake River upstream of
Hells Canyon Dam. Under Oregon’s draft
Clean Water Act certifi cation proposal, Ida-
ho Power would be expected to trap the fi sh
upstream of the dam and truck them for re-
lease downstream, enabling them to migrate
to the Pacifi c Ocean.
Marilyn Fonseca, hydropower program
coordinator for the Oregon Department of
Environmental Quality, said her state has de-
veloped a phased-in fi sh reintroduction plan
spanning two decades and would expand
into other tributaries based on the experience
at Pine Creek. Fonseca said Oregon con-
siders fi sh passage to be an integral part of
meeting the state’s own U.S. Environmental
Courtesy of Idaho Power
Protection Agency-approved water-quality
Water fl ows from Hells Canyon Dam on March 27. Idaho Power is seeking a
standards.
new federal license for its three dams in the Hells Canyon complex on the Ida-
Should Oregon eventually reintroduce
ho-Oregon border, but the utility is caught in the middle of a fi ght between the
steelhead and salmon in tributaries upstream
states over Oregon’s plan to reintroduce endangered steelhead and salmon
of the nearby Brownlee Dam, endangered
upstream of Hells Canyon.
fi sh would have access to a broad reach of
the Snake River through Idaho, forcing the
state to manage the system for the new endangered species. That would raise the bar on water-quality
standards and place additional demands on the river’s fully allocated storage and natural-fl ow water
rights. Snake River water users upstream predict they’d face a cascade of new expenses and regulations.
“It’s not a reach to say this could potentially impact every use of water in Southern and Eastern
Idaho,” said Norm Semanko, the outgoing executive director of the Idaho Water Users Association.
Riv
er
Capital Press
Sn a
ke
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Ida
N
5 miles
Alan Kenaga/Capital Press
Turn to FISH, Page 14
Courtesy of Idaho Power
Idaho Power works
on its Bayha Island
project last October,
testing the concept of
narrowing and deep-
ening a 30-mile stretch
of the Snake River to
accelerate fl ows and
cool water as part of its
mitigation package for
relicensing the Hells
Canyon dams.
Federal water boost comes late in the season for valley growers
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
SACRAMENTO — San Joaquin
Valley growers certainly aren’t com-
plaining after their Central Valley
Project water allocation was boosted
to 100 percent of requested supplies
for the fi rst time since 2006.
But such a bonanza after years
of little or no surface water would
have been more helpful if it were
announced two months ago, industry
and university offi cials said.
Growers of annual crops are long
past the point when they had to make
planting decisions based on the water
they expected to receive, said Ryan
Jacobsen, chief executive offi cer of
the Fresno County Farm Bureau.
“It’s great news that’s come two
months too late,” Jacobsen said. “As
far as immediate economic activity,
additional planting is not likely to
happen ... It allows obviously for
additional water for those perma-
nent plantings and the current annual
crops that are in the ground.
“At this point, the most we can
hope for is some additional planting in
the fall and winter and ... carrying that
water over until next year,” he said.
However, if a farmer decides not
to use some of his or her allocation in
an attempt to carry it over until next
season, it could be a roll of the dice.
Carryover supplies in the San
Luis Reservoir from last year enabled
the Bureau of Reclamation to issue
the 100 percent allocation, agency
spokesman Louis Moore said.
If districts have leftover water af-
ter this season, their ability to draw
on it next year would be “a negotiat-
ed action” between them and Recla-
mation, Moore said. What the bureau
would really like is for growers to
use surface water this year and leave
their wells alone as much as possible
so that the aquifers can be recharged.
“Our goal is to provide as much
water as possible,” he said.
Ironically, growers might have a
better chance of accessing leftover
water if next year is dry than if it
is wet. That’s because the San Luis
Reservoir is already full and more
runoff is coming, so there might be
nowhere to physically put water if it
starts raining early next winter, said
Bob Hutmacher, director of the Uni-
versity of California’s West Side Re-
search and Extension Center.
For instance, the Westlands Water
District will allow customers to do
carryover water “to a degree,” said
Hutmacher, who is based in Five
Points, Calif.
Turn to WATER, Page 14
Report: Oregon’s wolf population growth ‘weak’ in 2016
By ERIC MORTENSON
Capital Press
Courtesy Baker Aircraft; ODFW
After radio-collaring a subadult female of the Chesnimnus
pack, an ODFW biologist double-checks the fi t of the GPS
radio-collar. The wolf was captured Feb. 23 in northern
Wallowa County.
SALEM — Oregon had only
two more confi rmed wolves at
the end of 2016 than it did the
year before, a growth rate the
state wildlife department de-
scribed as “weak” and a sharp
drop from the 27 to 36 percent
growth rates the previous three
years.
The state visually document-
ed 112 wolves at the end of 2016,
according to ODFW’s annual re-
port. At the end of 2015, Oregon
had 110 confi rmed wolves.
Department spokeswoman
Michelle Dennehy acknowl-
edged the low population gain
but said ODFW is not con-
cerned.
“It’s one year, one data point,
“It’s not the actual population, but the actual
minimum. You know there can’t be fewer.”
Russ Morgan, ODFW’s wolf program manager
based on what we saw,” she said.
“It’s not a trend of growth rates
decreasing.”
Russ Morgan, ODFW’s wolf
program manager, said the weak
population gain is a “byproduct
of our counting methodology,”
in which wolves aren’t counted
without a confi rmed sighting.
He called that method “very
conservative.”
“You get what you get,” he
said. “It’s not the actual popu-
lation, but the actual minimum.
You know there can’t be fewer.”
In the future, the department
may rely more on pack counts
than on breeding pair counts,
he said, and include population
estimates based on known birth
rates and other information.
Oregon Wild, a conservation
group long involved in wolf
management issues, holds an
opposite view.
In a prepared statement, Con-
servation Director Steve Pedery
noted the report shows popula-
tion growth is “stalled” and
the number of breeding pairs
and packs declined from
2015.
Turn to WOLF, Page 14