Grant County PUD meets last license requirement

Anticipates new long-term license within year

EPHRATA - Grant County PUD staff is waiting for a new long-term license for its Priest Rapids Project after meeting the final relicensing requirement.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported Feb. 1 the PUD met requirements in a biological opinion regarding two species of fish.

"That's the last step that's required before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) can act on giving us a new license for the Priest Rapids Project," PUD spokesperson Sarah Morford said.

The report clears the way for the commission to issue a new license.

"Receipt of a new, long-term license for the Priest Rapids Project has been the highest priority for Grant PUD for a number of years," Grant PUD General Manager Tim Culbertson stated. "We are pleased to have reached this final milestone and look forward to the day when a new license is issued."

Rate payers in Grant County and millions of other electricity consumers throughout the Northwest have a stake in the outcome of this relicensing effort, according to PUD staff.

Morford said measures are in place regarding how power rates might be affected, but nothing is certain until after the license is issued.

"We've been planning for relicensing for the past decade. So those costs have been included in our projection for moving forward, but obviously whatever the next license has in it will have to incorporate into measures that we take moving forward. It' s really a final project that can't be determined until we get the license in hand," she said.

Grant County PUD applied for a 50-year license from the energy commission in 2003. The request includes nearly $800 million in proposed environmental and cultural protection measures about locations, people and animals affected by the project.

"Those (measures) can be anything from recreation measures, to shoreline management to cultural resource protection to fish … and there's several (more) plans that have been put forward to the energy commission along those lines," Morford said.

The original Priest Rapids Project license expired in October 2005. The project operates under annual licenses issued by the energy regulatory commission until a new long-term license is issued.

Morford said staff at the Grant County PUD anticipates a new, long-term license this year.