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Seventh 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, 1978-2007
May 2008 | document 2008-3
read full report > (1.2mb PDF) |
Executive Summary
In Fiscal Year 2007, the Bonneville Power Administration spent a
total of $716 million to mitigate the impacts of hydropower dams on fish
and wildlife of the Columbia River Basin. Of this amount, $139.5 million
was for direct spending to implement the Northwest Power and
Conservation Council’s Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program.
The remainder was money Bonneville reimburses the Corps of Engineers and
Bureau of Reclamation for fish-related dam operations ($60.3 million);
interest, amortization, and depreciation (these are called “fixed
expenses”) on capital investments in facilities such as hatcheries and
fish passage at dams ($112.9 million); forgone hydropower revenues that
result from dam operations that benefit fish but reduce hydropower
generation ($282.6 million); and power purchases to replace the forgone
hydropower ($120.7 million). Tables 2-4 of this report detail
Bonneville’s direct spending on the Council’s program in Fiscal Year
2007
The 2007 expenditures bring the grand total of Bonneville’s fish and
wildlife spending, from 1978 when the expenses began, through 2007, to
$9,378,800,000. Here, in descending order, is a breakdown of the
expenditures, 1978-2007, which are detailed in Table 1 of this report:
- $3.02 billion for power purchases to meet load requirements in
response to required river operations that reduce hydropower
generation.
- $2.06 billion in forgone revenue, the calculated value of
hydropower that could not be generated 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.
- $1.84 billion for the Council’s direct program. As noted above,
the direct-program expenditures do not include annual expenditures
from the separate capital-investment budget. With capital
expenditures added, the total for 1978-2007 is $3.97 billion.
- $1.49 billion in fixed expenses for bonds issued by Bonneville
to pay for capital investments in fish-passage facilities at the
dams.
- $922.5 million to reimburse the U.S. Treasury for the
power-generation share of other federal agency expenditures to
mitigate the impact of hydropower 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 Council thanks the Bonneville Power Administration for providing
information about the agency’s fish and wildlife expenditures for this
report. |
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