This is the 24th year the Council has reported to the governors of Washington, Idaho, Oregon, and Montana on Bonneville Power Administration’s expenditures to implement the Council’s Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program. The purpose of this report is to provide information, not to assess or comment on the data. Data is provided by Bonneville and is not independently verified by the Council. Data and supporting figures for FY 2024 (Oct. 1, 2023 – Sept. 30, 2024) are available in Excel PDF
Please note that this dataset includes forgone revenue even though it is an estimate of lost surplus power sales revenue and not an actual expenditure. Forgone revenue is defined as forgone surplus hydropower sales revenue that results from dam operations that benefit fish but reduce surplus hydropower generation. Bonneville considers forgone revenue a cost attributable to fish and wildlife mitigation. Power purchases for fish are also modeled results, not actual purchases. Power purchases for fish represent a calculation of the difference month-by-month between the actual firm power generation of the system that includes operations for fish and assumptions about what the firm power output would be without fish operations, with the difference assumed to be filled with purchases at market prices in those months.
One Bonneville expenditure that benefits fish and wildlife that Bonneville did not report is the amount Bonneville made available under the settlement agreement with the Spokane Tribe, the Coeur d’Alene Tribe, and the Colville Confederated Tribes to fund and implement the Phase II studies of the feasibility of reintroducing anadromous fish above Grand Coulee and Chief Joseph dams at a total cost of $200 million over 20 years. The Council considers this a use of Bonneville’s fund to protect, mitigate and enhance fish in a manner consistent with the Council’s Fish and Wildlife Program. Bonneville considers this amount to be a settlement of litigation.
