[5] Energy Bill Language Cuts Funding For Fish Passage Center
Language added to the U.S. Senate's Energy and Water appropriations bill calls for an end to annual funding of the controversial Fish Passage Center by the Bonneville Power Administration. The language was added by the Subcommittee for Energy and Water Development, where senators from Montana, Idaho and Washington sit.
The FPC gets about $1.3 million annually from BPA. Its main tasks are to provide the fishery agencies and tribes with technical expertise, to run the smolt monitoring program at federal dams, and to provide data for fish passage management decisions. But critics have long complained about the FPC's advocacy role for spill and flow augmentation and lack of accountability.
The markup language cites concern over the increasing cost of salmon recovery efforts in the Columbia River Basin and the "quality and efficiency of some of the fish data collection efforts and analyses being performed."
The bill's language says other entities could take on the database functions. "The Committee understands that there are universities in the Pacific Northwest that already collect fish data for the region and are well-positioned to take on the responsibilities now being performed by the Fish Passage Center, and that the universities can carry out those responsibilities at a savings to the region's ratepayers that fund these programs."
That's shorthand for the University of Washington, whose Columbia Basin Research group maintains the DART Web site that keeps track of daily fish counts, flows, and water quality throughout the hydro system, along with an extensive database, chiefly funded by BPA.
Dan Whiting, spokesman for Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho), said in light of Judge Redden's recent spill decision, which could cost $65 million or more to implement, the language was added because it's necessary to make some cost-cutting decisions and tighten the belt of BPA's fish and wildlife spending. He said the proposal to end BPA's funding of the FPC stood a good chance of surviving the budget process. So far, it has survived a full Senate vote. The appropriations bill will likely be finalized after conference committee sessions with the House and signed into law this fall.
Supporters of the Fish Passage Center were marshalling for a counterattack. The language to de-fund the agency had been posted on the Columbia Fish and Wildlife Authority's Web site, and the four lower Columbia tribes met June 22 with federal agencies. Charles Hudson, spokesman for the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission said the tribes got a disjointed response. He said BPA didn't seem to hold the issue in very high regard, but both the Corps of Engineers and NOAA Fisheries were interested in keeping the FPC funding in place. Hudson said the tribes are firm in their stand to keep the funding.
Hudson said environmental groups were expressing their concerns with Patty Murray's (D-Wash) staff about the language to cut off the FPC budget. Murray and Senator Conrad Burns (R- Mont.) also sit on the subcommittee.
The Fish Passage Center was under scrutiny last year by the Northwest Power and Conservation Council, after the agency requested a within-year budget increase. Several council members used the squabble to call for a review of the region's fish and wildlife databases to reduce redundancy and save ratepayer money. The Council authorized $10,000 to spend on an independent review of the database management systems of the FPC, Columbia Basin Research and the Pacific States Marine Fish Commission's StreamNet project.
At the time, then-Council Chair Judi Danielson said most Northwest state fish agencies and some tribal entities sent letters supporting the FPC budget request. "They're all pretty much the same, they all contain misinformation, accusations, veiled threats, and a number of things like that." But she said they raised "red flags" in her mind, and left the council "a little more committed to find out what the deal is when it comes to the budget." But no review was ever completed, though the independent panel that reviews F&W proposals gave the FPC a green light for funding at its last review in 2003.
In 2002, after earlier concern over the advocacy role played by the FPC in the region, an oversight board was established. But critics say the agency is still out of control and point to its continuing support of higher flows and more spill for fish passage in the Columbia and Snake rivers. A June 14 FPC memo that supported the recent boost in summer spill was cited by BiOp plaintiffs in their brief to the 9th U.S. Court of Appeals, where the federal government and BPA customers had requested a stay of the spill order.
In early 2003, comments from the Pacific Northwest Generating Cooperative on amendments to the region's fish and wildlife program said many BPA customers felt that funding the FPC was "a less than prudent expenditure of ratepayer dollars." The PNGC said the handling of regional fish data was too important to remain in an agency that continues to advocate for state fishery interests. "If the FPC is to act as an arm of local fish agencies," said Scott Corwin, vice president of PNGC Power, "then it should be funded by those entities."
The battle is just heating up. PNGC Power President and CEO Pat Reiten just sent a letter to BPA saying the agency should not saddle ratepayers with the 4 to 5 percent rate boost that's likely to occur from the spill action, but should cut costs internally, with the "bulk" of the cuts coming out of the fish and wildlife program. -B. R.
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