PUD gives $2.6 million for fish
EPHRATA — The Grant County Public Utility District's Board of Commissioners on Monday voted to establish an account devoted to fish habitat conservation and a fund for fish survival as required by a federal biological opinion and recent settlement agreement.
The district expects to contribute a combined $2.6 million to the fish habitat conservation account and fish survival fund.
The commission's action to fund the accounts moved the district closer to a second 50-year license to operate the Priest Rapids Hydroelectric Project, including Wanapum and Priest Rapids Dams, district officials said.
The utility filed a license application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in October 2003. The original project license expired on Oct. 31, 2005. The utility now operates the Priest Rapids Project using an annual license issued by FERC.
The final license application includes nearly $800 million in proposed protection, mitigation and enhancement measures for the natural and cultural resources impacted by the Priest Rapids Project.
Commission President Randy Allred said the district has a history of sound environmental stewardship.
"Contributions to these funds will allow us to further our on-going efforts in providing solutions for salmon and habitat protection," Allred stated in a district news release.
"Grant PUD is one step nearer in the process to re-license the Priest Rapids Project," said PUD General Manager Tim Culbertson. "We are pleased to be moving forward with the support of so many of our interested stakeholders."
Culbertson said the commission vote formalizes the district's implementation of the salmon and steelhead settlement agreement. That settlement agreement became effective Feb. 9.
State and federal agencies along with the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation joined the PUD as parties in the settlement agreement.
The parties drafted the settlement agreement hoping it would constitute a comprehensive and long-term management program aimed at safeguarding protected species of fish likely to pass or be impacted by the district's two dams.
"The collaboration process to reach these agreements spans the past 20 years," Culbertson said.
A federal biological opinion released in May 2004 for the Priest Rapids Project requires the district to specifically fund the habitat conservation account.
For 2006, the habitat conservation account receives $1,451,716 from the district for projects improving habitat along the Columbia River and its tributaries. Contributions to the account will be made annually by the district.
The biological opinion, issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Fisheries Service, also called for new downstream fish passage facilities, new fish-friendly turbines at Wanapum Dam and predator controls. Turbine replacement at Wanapum Dam has already begun, using advanced models designed to improve fish survival.
The settlement agreement requires the PUD to establish a "no net impact fund."
That fund provides money needed to improve survival rates of protected species of fish, including Chinook salmon, sockeye salmon and steelhead.
When parties to the settlement agreement determine their fish survival standards are achieved on a species-by-species basis, the district's annual fund contributions for the individual species will be terminated.