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Council report details fish and wildlife spending by Bonneville Power Administration
June 16, 2006
The Council is seeking public comments on its fifth annual report to the Northwest governors on Bonneville Power Administration expenditures to implement the Council’s program to protect and rebuild fish and wildlife in the Columbia River Basin.
The report details Bonneville expenditures to implement the Council’s Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program. The program, prepared by the Council under authority of the Northwest Power Act of 1980, a federal law, is designed to protect, mitigate, and enhance fish and wildlife, and related spawning grounds and habitat, of the Columbia River Basin that have been affected by hydropower dams.
The fifth annual report details Bonneville’s spending from 1978 through 2005. The grand total of Bonneville’s fish and wildlife expenditures through 2005 is about $7.8 billion. According to the report, during that time frame Bonneville:
- Spent $2.7 billion to purchase electricity to meet its load requirements in response to required river operations that reduced hydropower generation at Columbia and Snake river dams
- Spent $1.5 billion to implement on-the-ground projects — the Council’s “direct program”
- Assigned $1.3 billion to its fish and wildlife budget in forgone revenue, which is 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 dams
- Paid $1.2 billion in fixed expenses for bonds issued (by Bonneville) to pay for capital investments in fish-passage facilities at the dams
- Reimbursed the U.S. Treasury $801.6 million for the power-generation share of other federal agency expenditures to mitigate the impacts of hydropower on fish and wildlife.
The report details expenditures by category and species, and also includes data about the status of threatened and endangered species of salmon and steelhead in the Columbia Basin.
See report for details on how to comment.
The Council is an agency of the states of Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington and is directed by the Northwest Power Act of 1980 to prepare a program to protect, mitigate and enhance fish and wildlife of the Columbia River Basin affected by hydropower dams while also assuring the region an adequate, efficient, economical and reliable power supply.
Contact: , Information Officer, 503-222-5161