[3] Corps Says No Flex In 2007 Libby Dam Operations
The Corps of Engineers announced Jan. 5 that it would operate Montana's Libby Dam under "strict" VARQ [Variable Discharge] guidelines in 2007, after last year's flexible operations backfired and caused tens of millions of dollars in flood damage to crops and dikes near Bonners Ferry, Idaho.
"Public life and safety--people and their dwellings--is our first priority," said Brig. Gen. Gregg Martin, commander of the Corps' Northwestern Division, in a press release. "We are responsible to minimize the risk to the public as we operate for local and flood damage reduction, provide flows for threatened and endangered species and meet other project purposes."
The Corps admitted the screw-up in an after-action report issued last November. The agency said if it had followed strict VARQ guidelines last spring, no flooding would have occurred. But dam operators kept the reservoir elevation behind Libby higher than strict VARQ would have allowed to provide more spring spawning flows in the Kootenai River for ESA-listed sturgeon, and to provide a little extra for salmon flows in the mainstem Columbia later in the summer.
But a late spring storm and heavy rain forced dam operators to spill extra water at Libby for weeks, gassing ESA-listed trout downstream, causing widespread crop damage and further weakening more than 50 miles of already substandard dikes.
The agency has spent more than $3 million studying the use of VARQ at Libby, rather than the standard flood control operations that were in effect before 2003. The standard operations offered a more cautious approach to flood control.
At the January meeting of the Implementation Team in Portland, where mid-level agency policymakers heard about the Corps' decision, it was reported that VARQ operations result in only a 6 percent likelihood of reservoir refill, while standard flood control operations doubled that chance of refill.
"We may have less water available for salmon flows this year," said Eric Braun, a fish program planner with the Corps.
However, in water years that are essentially average, the amount that VARQ protocols leave in Libby for ESA salmon needs will likely be close to the same amount that standard flood control procedures would produce.
Since last November, the Corps' water supply forecast for Libby inflows changed considerably. On Nov. 1, the agency expected a 90 percent of average water year; but a month later, it had jumped to 122 percent. The Corps' latest forecast calls for 110 percent of average.
The forecast from the National Weather Service's River Forecast Center, issued Jan. 8, pegged Jan.-July Libby inflows at 103 percent.
The Corps' representative Braun said 2007 Libby operations will strictly adhere to the established rule curve with the latest forecast.
The Weather Service has been under some pressure from local residents to reduce the official flood level for the Kootenai River at Bonners Ferry by two feet. The Corps says it will operate Libby at or below the current official flood stage level of 1,764 feet in 2007 because that was the designated level when the decision document was signed.
The river level remained right at the 1,764-foot level for over a month at Bonners Ferry, when dam operators were trying to get the reservoir back to a manageable level.
The state had asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency for financial aid to pay for damages, but was turned down in December. Darrell Kirby, the mayor of Bonners Ferry, told NW Fishletter that the federal agency said the region did not sustain enough damage in the categories they had money for, nor did FEMA have any money at all for dike repair.
The strict VARQ decision is only for 2007. The Corps says a long-term decision will require more evaluation, and would be addressed in the "upcoming" Record of Decision for upper Columbia alternative flood control and a fish operations environmental impact statement.
Several environmental groups have already said they intend to sue the Corps unless Libby operations are made more fish-friendly. Last year, some resident fish, including ESA-listed bull trout, died from gas bubble disease incurred during the high spill episode.
The Corps admits its operations killed some fish, damaged dikes and ruined crops (mainly hops). But it still won't help pay to improve the dikes, noting that it is not a federal responsibility. The price tag for bringing them up to current standards has been estimated at about a million dollars per mile for the 54 miles of protective levees.
Another cost of the Corp's Libby operation that hasn't been discussed much is the lost power revenue by not releasing water earlier in the spring, which critics say added up to about $20 million.
The states of Montana and Idaho have urged the Corps to implement VARQ in 2007, as long as there is protection from damaging floods. NOAA Fisheries and the Northwest Power and Conservation Council also support VARQ, but BC Hydro told the Corps last July it supported a return to standard flood control operations until VARQ was further reviewed. -B. R.
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