Eugene weekly., January 30, 2014, Page 13, Image 13

THE TROUBLE WITH DAMS
Dams can provide flood control, hydro
power, irrigation and recreation, but dams
get old, are expensive to repair under new
rules and are under increased scrutiny as
biologists, engineers and other experts
refine their understanding of what happens
when the natural flow of water is impeded:
• Dams can fail with age, earthquakes or
sabotage — with potentially catastrophic
results downstream.
• Migrating fish passage is reduced or
eliminated, affecting the entire ecosystem
and its nutrient cycle. Insects, birds and
mammals are also affected.
• Dams can also affect Native American
sacred sites and traditional fishing practices.
• Miles of natural gravel spawning beds
are no longer accessible above the dams,
and spawning beds below the dams suffer
from lack of fresh gravel, woody debris and
nutrients. Diminished spawning beds can
hurt commercial and recreational fishing,
both in rivers and in the ocean.
• Dams can conflict with newer state
and federal mandates regarding native fish
restoration. Trapping and trucking salmon
around dams on their up-river journeys
is difficult and expensive, and dams
can interfere with smolts trying to swim
downstream to the ocean. Remediation
projects, such as elaborate floating fish
traps above dams, can cost millions to
design, build and maintain.
PacifiCorp conceded that the “watershed analysis
concluded that the best way to benefit native anadromous
fish near the North Umpqua project was to remove Soda
Springs Dam,” wrote project manager Monte G. Garrett in
a statement published in 2010 on RenewableEnergyWorld.
com. “Removing the dam, however, would require
PacifiCorp to provide the dam’s re-regulating function in
another manner or discontinue the valuable peaking nature
of the project.” Peaking refers to the ability to meet high
demands for the sale of electricity.
In other words, dam removal didn’t pencil out for the
multi-billion dollar corporation. But keeping the dam has
turned out to be very expensive, compared to the estimated
$5 million to $10 million to remove it. And PacifiCorp had
earlier estimated the $60 million fish ladder would only cost
about $12 million. Garrett said the company expects to lose
about $370 million during the 35 years of this license “due
to increased bypass flows, as well as $125 million in capital
construction projects.” PacifiCorp has estimated the project
will result in a 1 percent rate increase.
Several groups who felt snubbed in the settlement
process, including Audubon and Steamboaters, filed a
lawsuit to try to stop the relicensing agreement. “The lawsuit
was totally not worth it,” Vejtasa says. “Even if we had won,
it did not guarantee the removal of the dam. It only required
the Forest Service to do their own Environmental Impact
Statement of the project. It just gave PacifiCorp two more
years to operate the hydro project without any mitigation.”
The relicensing agreement did force PacifiCorp to
commit to about $125 million worth of modifications
throughout its North Umpqua hydro system over the next
decades. The system includes multiple dams and generators
and 44 miles of canals and flumes. So far, elaborate screens
have been installed to keep small fish from getting sucked
into turbines, a huge tailrace barrier was installed at the
Slide Creek powerhouse upriver from Soda Springs to
keep fish from getting injured in turbine outflows, water
flows have been increased at other bypasses, thousands of
tons of gravel have been added to enhance spawning beds
downstream, logs have been installed across the riverbed
to slow gravel erosion, leaky canals have been fixed, some
wildlife passages were built over canals and escape steps
were built to reduce the number of deer and elk that get
trapped and die in the canals each year.
Getting regional attention
The fight over relicensing went mostly unnoticed in
media outside of Roseburg, but it did get the attention of
environmental groups around the Northwest, and at least one
group went looking to twist the arms of people in high places.
“We were involved early in the relicensing but we pulled
out when it was clear that dam removal was not an option,”
says John Kober, executive director of Pacific Rivers Council
(PRC). “We did, in fact, make a last-ditch effort to reach out
to Warren Buffett prior to the building of the enormous fish
passage facility. We had a connection to a woman who is his
bridge-playing partner, but alas he was not receptive to our
overtures.” (Buffett bought controlling interest in PacifiCorp
from Scottish Power in 2005 for $5.1 billion.)
Kober says PRC is “highly skeptical of the bypass
and still believes the Soda Springs Dam should have
been removed. Nonetheless, our focus will be to track the
performance of the bypass, and we will insist that they fulfill
their obligations under their new license.”
PacifiCorp has shown some cooperation, says Kober.
“I have high regard for their fish biologist, Rich Grost,
who serves with me on the board of directors of the North
Umpqua Foundation. I believe he is doing everything he can
to make sure they are doing what they promised.”
Penny Lind, executive director of Umpqua Watersheds,
wrote an op-ed in the Roseburg News-Review during the
relicensing process, saying, “It will be in the many details
that we determine how ‘innovative, historic, balanced and
victorious’ this agreement is. The claim that balance has
been struck with this agreement appears to be displayed
through dollars for access and continued use.”
Lind continues, “Scottish Power/PacifiCorp retains
their generating capabilities, exports the energy to the
highest bidder, not local residents, and the profits go to a
multinational corporation. What a deal!”
• Some smaller dams can accommodate
fish ladders, but many large concrete and
rockfill dams that provide irrigation, such
as Hills Creek and Cougar, cannot due to
fluctuating reservoir levels of up to 100
feet. Fall Creek Dam is unique in that the
reservoir can be drained entirely through
a gated spillway when smolts are ready to
go downstream to the ocean. But returning
salmon need to be trapped and hauled
around the dam by truck.
• Water flows and temperatures are
altered, with impacts on sensitive species.
Towers in reservoirs can be used to control
water temperature outflows, but are
expensive.
• Massive sediments build up behind
dams and eventually reduce their holding
capacity. When dams are breached, the
rapid erosion of reservoir sediments can
be very destructive downstream. National
Geographic has a video of the 100-year-old
Condit Dam being breached at wkly.ws/1og.
The fish ladder at Soda Springs Dam has 59 steps and pools
eugeneweekly.com • January 30, 2014
13