State bid to lower Kootenai flows fails

A proposal from the State of Montana to lower Kootenai River flows by 2,000 cubic-feet per second through the end of September was rejected by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries.

The state proposed to drop releases from Libby Dam from 12,500 to 9,800 cfs to protect Kootenai River habitat and recreation as well as the fishery in the Koocanusa Reservoir.

NOAA Fisheries rejected the proposal, which had been debated at several layers of river management during the past week, because the state did not include a satisfactory monitoring and evaluation plan that would also look at Columbia River impacts to migrating salmon.

Brian Marotz, fisheries special projects biologist for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, said Montana¹s contribution of 4,000 cfs from Libby and Hungry Horse dams to Columbia River flows is undetectable to known measuring devices within the 140,000 cfs flow expected in the Columbia this summer.

Water managers on the river system¹s Technical Management Team were unable to reach an agreement on the Montana proposal last week and it was passed up to the Implementation Team. The IT discussion ended in similar disagreements. Executives of the federal, state and tribal agencies then debated the proposal to a similar split. That¹s when NOAA, the agency responsible for the salmon¹s recovery, stepped in.

The Northwest Power Planning and Conservation Council voted 6-2 on July 14 in favor of Montana¹s proposal with both Oregon representatives opposed.

John Hines, one of Montana¹s two representatives to the council, said the state was being held to an impossible standard in determining impacts of its proposal.

Hines said Montana will be back with another proposal this year.

The Montana proposal involved a water swap with Arrow reservoir in British Columbia. That swap has to occur in July, according to Cindy Henriksen, director of the Corps¹ Reservoir Control Center. She said the Canadians have no need for additional water in August.

Other planning council representatives and an official from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers agreed with Montana¹s position that it would be impossible to detect impacts in the lower Columbia River.

Flows from Libby Dam are expected to remain at 12,500 through July and August. And according to the salmon biological opinion for recovery of the endangered species, the top 20 feet of Koocanusa will be drained. The reservoir is expected to be at 2,439 by the end of August. Montana officials were hoping to delay that reservoir drawdown period until the end of September.

State representatives and fisheries biologists were concerned with a proposal from Columbia River managers to drop flows from 12,500 at the end of August to 4,000 cfs in September.

³After you¹ve kept it that high, at 12,500 cfs, dropping it in September to 4,000 is damaging to the habitat along the shallow edges of the river,² Marotz said. ³When you get to 4,000 cfs in the Kootenai, it (the river¹s edges) drops like a rock,² he said.

At stake is fish and insect habitat that are left high and dry when the river drops in volume.

Another potential problem, is that actual conditions in the Kootenai River basin have changed enough since the modeling that allowed the river managers to agree to a 12,500 cfs flow from Libby Dam to lower the reservoir to 2,439 feet above sea level by Aug. 31. According to Greg Hoffman, fisheries biologist for the Corps at Libby Dam, there may have to be increased flows from the dam for the reservoir to be drawn down to 2439.