Alex Baumhardt: Hydro deauthorization delay stirring concerns in Oregon
About the writer: A former Fulbright scholar, Alex Baumhardt holds a master’s degree in digital and visual media. Before joining the Capital Chronicle, she served as a reporter and producer with American Public Media’s APM Reports, and reported for various national and international media, including The Washington Post.
Inexplicable delays to a federal report on ending hydropower generation in the Willamette River Basin, aimed at saving threatened salmon, are creating frustration and concern for Oregon’s tribal and conservation leaders.
In 2022, Congress directed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to produce a report by the end of June 2024 detailing the impact eight federal hydroelectric dams in the basin have had on native fish over the past 60 years, and the possibility of deauthorizing hydropower production at them, which would require congressional approval. Instead, the report is sitting in Washington, D.C., under administrative review.
Kerry Solan, spokesperson for the Corps’ Portland District, said her office submitted its disposition report, an evaluation of corps projects that no longer serve their intended purpose, to headquarters in D.C. She declined to say whether the report was submitted to headquarters on time or where responsibility for the delay should lie.
Meanwhile, advocates for deauthorizing hydropower at the dams, and allowing water levels in reservoirs to be drawn down for safe fish passage, say native fish species can’t wait.
Upper Willamette River Chinook salmon, steelhead and bull trout are all listed as threatened species under the federal Endangered Species Act. A recent report from the National Marine Fisheries Service found their populations are continuing to decline, and some runs could go extinct, or nearly so, by 2040.
“These fish can’t wait any longer for the corps to stop dragging its feet,” said Jennifer Fairbrother, policy director for the Native Fish Society.
The corps has historically resisted deauthorizing hydropower at the dams, and allowing drawdowns, because the reservoirs behind the dams are also used for irrigation and recreation. Officials have instead advocated other, high-cost methods of fostering fish salvage, despite calls from electric utilities and industry groups to end hydropower generation at the dams because the harm substantially outweighs the benefit.
At a recent news conference, Kathleen George of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde said almost every stakeholder agrees the dams should no longer be used for hydropower.
“This is a unique natural resource policy challenge where you have salmon advocates, you have tribal nations, you have the state of Oregon, you have the Bonneville Power Administration and public power advocates, all united in seeing the same solution,” George said. “This is a win-win-win situation that you don’t find just about anywhere else in the world of salmon recovery.”
The eight hydroelectric dams are among 13 dams the corps operates in the basin. They are part of the larger federal Columbia River Power System overseen by the corps and the Bonneville Power Administration, which is in charge of marketing hydroelectricity in the system.
The Columbia River Power System provides 40% of all hydroelectricity in the U.S. But the eight Willamette Basin dams produce just 4% of the Columbia River System’s power.
They were built between 1940 and 1960, primarily for flood control in the Willamette Valley. Ever since, fish have struggled to get past them, except for when the reservoirs are drawn down.
With lower water levels, small fish can reach gates in the dam walls to continue downstream. But lowering water levels compromises hydropower, irrigation and recreation contributions.
Instead of ending hydropower and allowing drawdowns, the corps has proposed developing giant fish collectors to transport fish around the dams. It would entail sucking young fish up through a floating vacuum, then depositing them in trucks and driving them downstream to be rereleased into the water.
It’s been criticized by many as ineffective and overpriced, and making a bad situation worse.
Operating costs for hydropower production from the eight dams outweigh the revenue, according to a recent federal study. In fact, they are slated to lose nearly $940 million in the next three decades.
Electricity from the dams has become so expensive the Eugene Water and Electric Board, which buys power from the Columbia River System, said that it’s not worth continuing to use them to produce power. It advocates repurposing them to ensure fish passage.
“We already know that the Willamette Basin projects are the least efficient hydropower resources in Bonneville Power Administration’s portfolio,” said utility spokesperson Aaron Orlowski. “Changing how they operate will have benefits for fish and wildlife, while saving money for publicly owned utilities.”
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