Montana paddling against proposed Columbia flow rule

Montana again is pursuing summer operations at Libby and Hungry Horse dams to benefit resident fish, but a conflicting proposal is aimed at delivering all "flow augmentation" water for migrating salmon in the lower Columbia Basin by the end of August.

That situation, according to Montana officials, will cause sudden and certain effects to resident fish populations, particularly on the Kootenai River below Libby Dam.

A resolution to the conflicting "System Operation Requests" was on the agenda this week for a panel of state, federal and tribal agency officials involved with federal hydropower management called the Implementation Team. But the panel delayed discussion about the issue until next week at the request of Jim Litchfield, Montana's representative on hydro operations.

"We know that we have a potential conflict between the SORs that have been presented," Litchfield told the panel during a morning conference call.

Litchfield said Montana officials have been discussing the issue with officials who are backing the competing request, "and it seems like if we have another week to follow these discussions, we can make a lot of progress."

Bruce Measure, one of Montana's representatives on the Northwest Power and Conservation Council, said there have been negotiations with the Columbia River Intertribal Fish Commission, which represents four downstream tribes.

Specifically, Montana is urging the commission to withdraw support for the SOR that has been proposed by the U.S. Fish, Wildlife Service's Region 6 office in Seattle.

That proposal calls for the Montana dams to draw down their reservoirs 20 feet below full pool by the end of August. That presents considerable biological problems on the Kootenai River.

Greg Hoffman, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers biologist at Libby Dam, said the most recent flow models predict the Kootenai River would flow at 16,500 cubic feet per second throughout August until Lake Koocanusa has been dropped 20 feet below full pool.

Then flows on the river suddenly would drop to a range of 6,000 to 8,000 cfs, with water being held back into winter for power production, Hoffman said.

That sudden degree of dewatering at a time when fish are growing and the river is still biologically productive is "like jumping off the edge of a cliff," Hoffman said. "That's the impact."

The Montana proposal calls for the Kootenai River to flow at about 13,000 cfs, dropping Lake Koocanusa 20 feet by the end of September.

"You're biological productivity is naturally down by that point, so the impacts aren't that great," Hoffman said.

The Fish and Wildlife Service SOR contends that water released after Aug. 31 "will not likely pass through Kootenay Lake and so will not be available to benefit juvenile salmon" in the lower Columbia this year.

"All indications are that these fish will be migrating through the Snake River and the Lower Columbia through July and August as in past years," it continues. "Flow augmentation from Libby will benefit these wild stocks of fish."

But Montana's proposal counters that any benefits to completing flow augmentation by the end of August are so small that they are not measurable, while the effects in Montana are indisputable.

This has been the crux of a debate that has carried on for the past 10 years.

But Montana has built its case in time. The state's proposal cites, in considerable detail, findings reached at a science symposium held during November by a group called the Independent Scientific Advisory Board:

"The prevailing flow augmentation paradigm, which asserts that in-river smolt survival will be proportionately enhanced by any amount of added water, is no longer supportable. It does not agree with information now available," the board concluded. "It is a well-established fact that storage reservoir drawdowns result in adverse effects on resident fish populations and their associated fisheries."

Montana Trout Unlimited is backing the state's proposal.

"Certainly, any positive contribution Montana's reservoirs can contribute, if it's even measurable, is outweighed by the harm augmentation schemes incur on our state's resident fisheries," wrote Bruce Farling, executive director for Montana Trout Unlimited.

According to Hoffman, the Kootenay Tribe of Idaho and Idaho Fish and Game are concerned that shutting down river flows at the end of August will compromise a joint study that started this week on the lower Kootenai River.

The study focuses on biological productivity in the river, which will drop drastically at the end of August under the Fish and Wildlife Service proposal.

Measure and other Montana officials question the propriety of the Fish and Wildlife Service putting forth a proposal that clearly has implications for Kootenai River bull trout and sturgeon, which are listed under the Endangered Species Act. The Fish and Wildlife Service is the oversight agency for protecting and recovering those species, Measure noted, but the Region 6 office clearly is weighted toward salmon interests when it comes to flow augmentation.