ISSUE: Hydropower Relicensing
GOAL: Restoration of Bear River and whitewater opportunities
Current Status: The Bear River has been on American Whitewater’s Annual Top 40 Endangered Rivers List for three years running. The reason, the Bear River is undergoing a 5 year hydropower relicense process. PacifiCorp, the utility that owns and operates the three hydropower projects on the Bear has been uncooperative with all stakeholders in the proceeding. PacifiCorp is in effect attempting to get a new license with the same environmental protection, mitigation and enhancement measures as the previous license granted over 30 years ago. Those previous license conditions are out of compliance with many state and federal environmental protection laws passed since issuance of the previous license. As a result, the new license will require significant changes in operations to mitigate for social and environmental impacts.
The relicensing entered a new phase in 2000. PacifiCorp submitted their desired future license terms and conditions to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). This federal agency oversees all private hydropower projects in the U.S. The FERC initiated their environmental review process of the hydropower projects. This gives the public an opportunity to identify issues and operational alternatives to mitigate impacts. The three projects include the Soda project, Grace/Cove project, and Oneida project. Both the Grace and Oneida hydropower projects effect flows on downstream whitewater runs. The Grace project diverts up to 900 cfs of water from the 6.2 mile Black Canyon section. This class IV(V) run is only 2 hours from Salt Lake City. In most years, little or no water flows in the natural river channel. In May of 1997 American Whitewater participated in a controlled flow study to determine the optimum flows for whitewater (see July/August 1997 issue). American Whitewater is fighting hard to get these optimum flows regularly scheduled on an annual basis.
The Oneida project is a peaking hydropower facility. Flows below Oneida Dam can fluctuate between 250 cfs to 3000 cfs several times in a single day. The Oneida reach is an important class II training ground a short drive from Logan, Utah. The Utah State University (USU) canoe club uses the reach regularly. American Whitewater, Idaho Rivers United and the USU canoe club have requested a schedule of stable weekend flows of specific magnitude and duration.
Precedent: These relicensings offer a tremendous opportunity to add significant whitewater stretches in an arid area of the country.