Oregon Water Online
© Oregon Water CoalitionAnalysis complete for more Lake Roosevelt releases
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation last week completed the environmental analysis it feels necessary to release additional water from central Washington’s Lake Roosevelt in summer and early fall for cities, farms and fish.
The agency on June 12 released its final environmental assessment (EA) and “Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI)” for implementation of the Lake Roosevelt Incremental Storage Releases project.
The document prepared by the bureau concludes that the drawing down of the reservoir by an additional 12 to 18 inches each year would not significantly impact the quality of the human environment or the natural resources in the affected area.
“This completes the environmental work,” said Bill Gray, the Bureau’s assistant area manager and Ephrata Field Office manager. The agency is now working with the state and the East Columbia Basin Irrigation District to develop contracts for allocating the water.
The purpose of the project is to improve water management in the Columbia River Basin by releasing additional water from Lake Roosevelt to meet objectives established by the state Legislature’s Columbia River Water Management Act of 2006. The EA and FONSI can be found at usbr.gov.
The EA analyzes the withdrawal of additional water beyond current operations from Lake Roosevelt to provide drought relief, boost municipal and industrial supply, provide a replacement for some of the groundwater used by irrigators in the Odessa Subarea and to improve in-stream flows below Grand Coulee Dam for fish.
The goals are to provide more water in an area where the demand is much greater than the supply; provide a benefit for, particularly, migrating salmon and steelhead and take the pressure off a severely depleted Odessa aquifer. The plan was vetted by both the state Department of Ecology and the bureau.
Under the proposed action 25,000 acre-feet would be available annually for additional municipal and industrial use, 30,000 acre-feet would be annually available to individuals in the Odessa Subarea who currently irrigate with a valid state groundwater right and 27,500 acre-feet would be available annually to augment in-stream flows.
In total 82,500 acre-feet would be released in a non-drought year with 27,500 acre-feet of that water remaining in the river for fish flows.
In drought years an additional 33,000 acre-feet would be released and available for diversion by existing water right holders whose water rights are interruptible in drought years. Another 17,000 acre-feet would be available for in-stream flow augmentation. Drought year releases would total 132,500 acre-feet.
The federal agency will develop at least one contract with the state for the release of 37.5 kaf — 25 kaf for downstream municipal and industrial uses and 12.5 kaf for flow augmentation for fish. Another contract with the irrigation district would be for the designated release of 45 kaf — 30 kaf to replace underground water sources in a depleted Odessa aquifer and 15 kaf to augment flows.
“It’s entirely possible we could release the 25 kaf of M&I water” as well as designated in-stream flows yet this year, Gray said.
The NEPA document, and SEPA documents completed earlier by the state, “protect the fish water all the way down to the ocean,” meaning it can’t be withdrawn downstream for other uses, Gray said.
“Flow releases for fish and municipal and industrial users would be timed to maximize the benefits for fish in the Columbia River,” the EA says. “A panel of fisheries and water managers would determine the release schedule each year that best achieves the fisheries benefits within the constraints of the water budget.” Water would be distributed to the Odessa Subarea in mid-March through October.
“The incremental storage releases would increase flows in the Columbia by a minor amount in most months. Although the flow increases will be small, they are expected to help meet stream flow objectives in the Columbia River and provide benefits to fish,” the EA says.
“Columbia River flows will decrease in September when Lake Roosevelt refills with the biggest decreases in drought years in years when water for Odessa is diverted from Lake Roosevelt in September,” the EA says. “The decreases are small relative to Columbia River flows and are not expected to negatively impact fish.
Washington approves water right for large feedlot
Washington state officials have approved a water rights transfer for a feedlot that would house as many as 30,000 cattle, moving the Northwest’s first new feedlot in years one step closer to being built.
However, the decision by the Department of Ecology failed to address the thorny question of whether large feedlots may continue to draw drinking water from wells that are exempt from a state permit under laws dating back 60 years.
Easterday Ranches Inc., already one of the largest feedlot operators in the Northwest with 30,000 cattle near Pasco, has proposed building another lot on dry land near the small town of Eltopia, about 25 miles northeast of Pasco. At peak operation, the feedlot could be home to as many as 30,000 cattle.
The area is comprised of rural homesteads, where farmers plant dry land wheat and draw drinking water for their homes from deep, underground wells.
State law allows some wells to be drilled without a permit, under a law passed in 1945, as long as water usage is limited to 5,000 gallons per day.
They include wells for livestock watering, small industrial uses, domestic use or noncommercial watering of a small lawn or garden.
The Ecology Department estimates the average feedlot cow consumes about 18-20 gallons of water per day. At 30,000 cows, that’s more than 500,000 gallons of water, or enough to nearly fill an Olympic-size swimming pool each day.
Conservation groups have complained the law opens the state’s limited water resources to unlimited use. But a 2005 opinion by state Attorney General Rob McKenna barred the state from limiting the amount of water that ranchers draw daily for their livestock.
Easterday also had proposed drawing water for dust control and stock cooling in the hot summer months. Ecology officials intervened, urging its operators to buy a water right for those uses instead.
In April, the Franklin County Water Conservancy Board authorized a water right transfer from a neighboring farm, where 316 acre feet of water were used each year to irrigate potatoes, blue grass and winter wheat.
The Ecology Department approved the transfer Thursday, with only a few modifications.
“We encouraged them to apply for and get a water right to cover their legal risk, because we didn’t think their other uses would be covered under the stock watering exemption,” said Evan Sheffels, special assistant for water policy to Ecology Director Jay Manning. “By doing this, they’re doing just what we asked them to do, so that’s a good thing.”
Cody Easterday said he was pleased with the decision. He estimated the new water right cost about $300,000.
“We’re obviously very excited about it,” he said. “It proves that it’s a solid project and it should be a victory for the residents and the economy of Franklin County.”
Easterday intends to start construction later this summer with a goal of completing it by Jan. 1 and moving the cattle in shortly thereafter.
The feedlot still requires a state air quality permit.
Area farmers who have complained that increasing water use for the feedlot could dry up their own wells immediately criticized the decision.
“Our domestic wells and our families depend on groundwater. The state is risking our lives in its rush to continue mining aquifers to benefit corporate interests,” Randy Jones of the group Five Corners Family Farmers said in a statement.
The Ecology Department asked the Legislature to weigh in last session, but lawmakers failed to address it amid the state’s budget crisis.
Instead, they ordered a group of lawmakers, livestock industry representatives, environmental groups and tribes to discuss the issue this year.
“We need to determine if that is the best water policy moving forward or if there should be some limit on operations moving forward and using the exemption,” Sheffels said.
“Our position moving forward is that there should be some limit, and that’s what we will be advocating.”
Wyoming residents still oppose water pipeline
A second public meeting in southwest Wyoming drew more comments against a proposal to divert water from the Flaming Gorge Reservoir and pipe it to Colorado.
Sweetwater County residents and local municipal officials emphasized once again to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that they believe the privately funded water diversion project will have no real benefits for southwest Wyoming.
About 80 area residents attended the second, added Army Corps scoping meeting on the proposed pipeline project in Rock Springs. That was less than the 300 who showed up for the first meeting in April in the county, but their opposition was just as strident.
Residents said diverting much-needed water from the popular reservoir located south of the city of Green River could hurt local industry, could curtail future growth in Green River and neighboring
Rock Springs, and could threaten a world-class fishery.
“I see the benefits of this for eastern Wyoming and northern Colorado, but I have a real difficult time seeing the benefits for western Wyoming,” Rock Springs resident Dennis Doncastor said. “We’re giving up our water, but what’s coming back in return?”
Colorado businessman Aaron Million wants to build a $3 billion, 560-mile pipeline to move Wyoming’s and Colorado’s unallocated water from the Green River Basin to eastern Wyoming and the Front Range of Colorado.
The Flaming Gorge Reservoir in Sweetwater County is a popular recreation and fishing area operated by the Ashley National Forest.
Million’s proposed pipeline would draw water from intake points on the Flaming Gorge Reservoir and upstream on the Green River just below the Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge and Fontenelle Dam, according to plans.
The Million Conservation Resource Group’s Regional Watershed Supply Project would move about 250,000 acre feet of water from the Green River Basin each year to Colorado’s bustling Front Range near Denver and to southeast Wyoming.
About 225,000 acre feet of water would be transported to the Front Range, with the remaining 25,000 acre feet going to water users in southeast Wyoming’s Platte River Basin.
Million tried to assuage fears about the project. He said the project was supported by recent Bureau of Reclamation studies showing that taking 250,000 acre feet from the Green River Basin would not hurt recreation, endangered fish species or other downstream users.
“If the project does not meet the modeling … and there are adverse impacts, then we’ll not move forward with the project,” Million added. “I’ll be the first to put a fork in it.”
He said the water would be obtained from the Green River Basin as part of the unused portion of water allocated to the states of Wyoming and Colorado under the Colorado and Upper Colorado River Basin compacts.
The project would move Colorado’s allocated water to Colorado and Wyoming’s allocated water to eastern Wyoming, he said.
Agriculture Small Business Innovation Research Program
The U.S. Department of Agriculture requests proposals for the Small Business Innovation Research Program.
SBIR supports U.S. owned, small business R&D projects that address important problems facing American agriculture and have the potential to lead to significant public benefit if the research is successful.
Research areas include, but are not limited to: Biofuels and Biobased Products; Air, Water, and Soils; Rural Development; Aquaculture; and Animal Manure Management. $18.5 million expected to be available, individual awards not to exceed $90K.
Phase I responses are due 9/3/09. For more info, contact sbir@csrees.usda.gov or go to csrees.usda.gov.
Council report details BPA fish, wildlife spending
The total amount of ratepayer revenues expended by the Bonneville Power Administration to boost Columbia River basin fish and wildlife has risen to nearly $12 billion, according to a draft report released this week by the Northwest Power and Conservation Council.
The “Draft Eighth Annual Report to the Northwest Governors On Expenditures of the Bonneville Power Administration to Implement the Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program of the Northwest Power and Conservation Council, 1978-2008” can be found on the web at nwcouncil.org.
That total includes $941 million in fiscal year 2008, the report says. “Of that amount, $174 million was for the Council’s Fish and Wildlife Program ($148 million in direct expenses and $26 million in capital expenses),” according to the report. Other 2008 spending categories include:
- Capital funded by Bonneville’s borrowing from the U.S. Treasury and Bonneville’s participation in projects funded by the Corps of Engineers and Bureau of Reclamation ($64.1 million)
- Reimbursements to the Corps and Bureau for investments in fish passage and fish production ($62.2 million)
- Interest, amortization, and depreciation (called “fixed expenses”) on capital investments in facilities such as hatcheries and fish-passage facilities ($116.2 million)
- Forgone hydropower revenue that results from dam operations that benefit fish but reduce hydropower generation ($273.5 million)
- Power purchases during periods when required dam operations to protect migrating fish reduce hydropower generation ($274.9 million)
Fish and wildlife spending accounted for 34.8 percent of Bonneville’s total 2008 operating expenses and obligations of $2.7 billion, according to the report prepared by the Council and staff in consultation with BPA.
“Financial information was provided by Bonneville in response to requests from the Council and was not independently verified by the Council or its staff.
Information about salmon and steelhead was compiled from reports by the Fish Passage Center, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, NOAA Fisheries, the states of Washington and Oregon through the Columbia River Compact, and the University of Washington Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Oceans.”
Expenditures 1978 through 2008 now total $11.9 billion.
- $3.30 billion for power purchases to meet electricity-demand requirements in response to required river operations that reduce hydropower generation.
- $2.33 billion in forgone revenue. Bonneville calculates the value of hydropower that could not be generated (revenue that is forgone) because of required river operations to assist fish passage and improve fish survival, such as water spills at the dams when salmon and steelhead are migrating to or from the ocean.
- $1.99 billion for the Council’s direct program. This amount does not include annual expenditures from the separate capital-investment budget for projects in the direct program…. With capital expenditures added, the total for the direct program for the period 1978-2008 is $3.63 billion.
- $1.64 billion for capital investments, discussed above, such as the construction costs of facilities like fish hatcheries and fish-passage facilities at the dams.
- $1.60 billion in fixed expenses for interest, amortization, and depreciation on the capital investments.
- $984.7 million to reimburse the U.S. Treasury for the power-generation share of other federal agency expenditures to mitigate the impacts of hydropower hydro power on fish and wildlife.
Primarily these reimbursements are paid to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Reclamation, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for efforts to improve fish and wildlife survival apart from the Council’s program, such as operation and maintenance of fish passage facilities and federal fish hatcheries.”
The annual report (and seven previous reports) responds to a July 1999 request by the governors of Idaho, Oregon, Montana, and Washington—the four states represented on the Council—to report annually on Bonneville’s expenditures for fish and wildlife mitigation.
The Council was created by the 1980 Northwest Power Act develop a program to protect, mitigate and enhance fish and wildlife affected by construction of the Columbia-Snake river hydro system and to help assure the Pacific Northwest an adequate, efficient, economical, and reliable power supply.
The Act directed BPA, which markets power generated in the hydro system, to fund the program. Bonneville also has obligations stemming from tribal treaties and other federal laws to fund mitigation for hydro system impacts on fish and wildlife.
The Council will accept comments on the draft report through the close of business on Friday, July 10. Comments should be directed to Mark Walker, director of Public Affairs, Northwest Power and Conservation Council, 851 S.W. Sixth Avenue, Suite 1100, Portland, OR, 97204, or by e-mail to comments@nwcouncil.org.
Columbia Basin Bulletin
Bills aim to continue Umatilla Basin Project
The feasibility study for the Umatilla Basin Recharge Project that Senate Bill 1069 began will end June 30, but lawmakers are working to fund the next stage for water recharge in Eastern Oregon.
Even with tough economic times, Oregon state Rep. Bob Jenson, R-Pendleton, said the funding the project is worthwhile. “I know times are tough but we need to do our development and sometimes it’s cheaper to do it in these times than when times are really booming,” Jenson said, ”because you’ve got too much other activity getting in the way of it.
“It will return significant profits,” he added, “not just for individuals, but for the state – including jobs, including production, including growth through the rural economy rather than the shrinkage of the rural economy.”
Jenson, along with Rep. Jefferson Smith, D-Portland, are backing House Bill 3369. It establishes a program in the Oregon Water Resources Department to hold $50 million for water supply projects, funded by lottery bonds.
The money could go to finance construction, similar to the way SB 1069 funded IRZ Consulting’s feasibility study, said Barry Norris, of the Oregon Water Resources Department.
The Legislature also is looking at SB 5535: a massive $257.5 million bill to use lottery bonds to fund economic and community development departments – a small piece of which includes about $2.5 million for the next phase of the Umatilla Basin project.
Laser show at Grand Coulee Dam resumes
The Laser Light Show at Grand Coulee Dam has resumed for the summer season. In June and July, the show will begin at 10:00 pm. In August, the show begins at 9:30 pm. For September, the show will begin at 8:30 pm. The show runs each evening through September 30 and is 36 minutes long.
The Laser Light Show tells the story of Grand Coulee Dam and the Columbia Basin Project using figures and animations drawn on the face of the dam by four lasers and accompanied by music and narration. Several upgrades to the laser equipment have resulted in bigger and brighter images. The popular show has been in operation each summer since 1989.
The Grand Coulee Dam Visitor Center has extended hours for the summer season. The visitor center is open in June and July from 8:30 am until 11:00 pm. In August, the hours are 8:30 am until 10:30 pm. In September the visitor center is open from 8:30 am until 9:30 pm.
A guided walking tour on top of the forebay dam will be available from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm daily. Due to mechanical difficulties with the tour elevator, no tours inside the Third Powerplant are currently available. For the current status of the laser show, tour schedule or for more information on dam visits, call (509) 633-9265 or visit the dam’s website at usbr.gov.
Grand Coulee Dam was completed in 1942 and serves as a multipurpose facility providing water for irrigation, recreation, fish and wildlife, hydroelectric power production, and also flood control.
Governors seek funds to study pumped storage, wind
The governors of Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington have signed a letter to the U.S. Secretary of Energy supporting funding for the Bonneville Power Administration to study technologies for integrating wind and other renewable energy into the Northwest power grid.
One of these studies will evaluate potential sites for pumped-storage power plants that would provide a “carbon-free resource” for temporarily storing energy generated by wind farms and other renewable resources.
Pumped storage is a form of hydropower in which water is pumped uphill to a reservoir during low-demand periods, such as late at night or very early in the morning, and then allowed to flow downhill to turbines during high-demand periods.
BPA, a federal power-marketing authority under the Department of Energy, is seeking funding to study the potential for new generating plants, including pumped-storage facilities, that could be built to support renewable energy, which can be highly intermittent.
Wind power is particularly intermittent and must be backed up by another power source to ensure its reliability. One of the studies will begin by identifying and evaluating all potential sources of integrating wind that will include, at a minimum, pumped storage, demand-response programs, flywheel storage, smart grid innovations, hydrogen proposals, and conventional gas-fired generation.
In their letter, the governors point out that the 2,000 megawatts of wind power currently distributed by Bonneville constitutes the largest single demand for backup power from the Bonneville system. Bonneville relies on hydropower for this purpose. Bonneville expects to have 6,000 megawatts of wind power in its system by 2013, but its supply of backup hydropower will be exhausted by 2011.
Other utilities are facing the same issue with the proliferation of renewable energy. That is spurring interest across the West in finding new supplies to help integrate intermittent renewable power with power provided from other generating plants and maintain “a reliable, adequate electricity supply” as required by the Northwest Power Act.
Renewables alone won’t deliver clean energy future
U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, has voiced opposition to a one-size-fits-all national renewable mandate that excludes existing emissions-free energy technology, such as hydro and nuclear power.
The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee today marked up a Renewable Electricity Standard (RES) that would require utilities to generate 15 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2021. Murkowski, the committee’s top Republican, said she opposes the plan because it excludes existing carbon emissions-free technologies. The proposal’s narrow definition of renewable energy allows only new nuclear and limited hydro to be taken out of the national baseline.
“Nuclear energy simply must be an increased part of our energy mix if we’re serious about addressing climate change,” Murkowski said.
While the majority are determined to force the country to invest in a select few renewable resources through top-down mandates, Murkowski favors letting the free market determine which technologies can best deliver clean, affordable power.
“The government should not mandate winners and losers,” Murkowski said. “We should instead encourage private industry and the free market to determine the best, most economical, emissions-free energy solutions.”
If an RES is designed to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, then it makes no sense to leave out nuclear energy that is already proven to provide baseload, reliable, affordable power generation without the pollution that scientists believe contribute to global climate change, Murkowski said.
Murkowski said she also wants to see the arbitrary cap on energy efficiency measures removed from the RES. Under the existing proposal, up to a quarter of the 15 percent mandate could be met through increased efficiency.
“Efficiency is the quickest, easiest and cheapest way to improve how we use energy,” Murkowski said. “It’s counterproductive to discourage one of the simplest solutions we have to address U.S. emissions.”
“We need to employ solutions that are actually achievable and within our reach before we force states to invest billions of taxpayers’ dollars in technologies that currently make up a mere fraction of our energy supply,” Murkowski said. “Wind and solar have a role, but we need to be honest about what they are really capable of.”
Dworshak’s largest turbine out, impacting fish
The largest of three turbine generating units at central Idaho’s Dworshak Dam will be idled for at least a month, and could stay down for more than a year.
Salmon and hydro managers are hoping for a best-case scenario. A shutdown that lingers into July and August would cut in half the amount of cool water that could be released to augment flows downstream in the Clearwater River and, more importantly, the Snake River for migrating salmon and steelhead.
The augmentation is employed each year to bring down water temperatures that can reach near-lethal levels in late summer in the lower Snake River.
“It is a pretty severe limitation,” the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Steve Hall told the Technical Management Team. The Corps owns and operates the dam. The TMT’s federal, state and tribal members work to implement hydro system operations that benefit 13 basin salmonid stocks that are listed under the Endangered Species Act. Putting Dworshak’s cool water to best use is one of the TMT’s main tasks in late summer.
The large turbine unit controls more than half of the powerhouse flows — 5,500 cubic feet per second of a 10.5 kcfs total. Typically outflows can be boosted to about 15 kcfs before the releases stir up enough “total dissolved gas” below the dam to reach state-imposed water quality limits. That maximum flow includes full powerhouse generation with additional water released through spill gates and/or the dam’s “regulating outlets.” The powerhouse flows create little gas, but the spilled water and RO releases bring up TDG levels quickly.
If the large turbine unit cannot be repaired quickly managers will be unable to call on its benign flows. That volume of water also serves to absorb gas created by the spill, which allows a greater spill outflow. Without that unit operating, outflows this summer would likely be limited to about 7-8 kcfs before reaching the TDG cap.
The unit has, literally, sprung a leak with an estimated 250 to 300 gallon per minute, seeping into the turbine pit.
“It could be a lot of different things,” Hall said of the reason for the leak. It will take about two weeks to dewater the unit and complete the safety procedures required before someone could be lowered into the dam’s bowels to determine what the problem is. The turbine will be idled to guard against any catastrophic malfunction that might result from the unit flaw.
A simple fix could potentially put the unit back online within a month or so. If the Corps has to “take the whole thing apart,” the outage could last as long as a year and a half, according to preliminary estimates. “It could be a very extended outage,” Hall said.
