BPA seeks fluctuating lake level

SANDPOINT — A Bonneville Power Administration proposal to fluctuate the level of Lake Pend Oreille this winter is raising concern in Idaho.

The federal agency, which markets power generated by the Columbia River Basin’s hydroelectric system, is asking the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to use Albeni Falls Dam to lower and raise the lake level between 2,051 and 2,055 feet above sea level this winter to meet energy demands.

The corps is holding a community meeting on Tuesday discuss BPA’s proposal. It starts at 7 p.m. in the Sandpoint High School auditorium.

“The power generated at Albeni Falls is very small,” BPA’s Tony Norris said in a story published last month in the Columbia Basin Fish & Wildlife News Bulletin.

The dam’s output is relatively small, but the Pend Oreille remains an important source of water to tap, especially when cold snaps in the region push up energy demand, Norris said.

But the Pend Oreille Basin Commission, which provides input on lake level management, is troubled by BPA’s proposal.

The commission is concerned toggling the lake level this winter will cause nutrient loading in near-shore areas of the lake through sedimentation, which could violate the Total Maximum Daily Load for nutrients in those zones.

There is also worry that fluctuating lake levels will hasten erosion in the Clark Fork and Pack river deltas, in addition to promoting the growth and proliferation of aquatic invasive weeds such as Eurasian milfoil and flowering rush.

There is yet more concern that the rise and fall of the lake will disrupt one of the largest concentrations of over-wintering redhead and other species of diving ducks.

BPA’s proposal is also being met with push-back from lakefront landowners and marina operators.

Tom and Marjorie Trulock, owners of the Heitman Docks at Glengary Bay in Sagle, have configured their docks and gangways to account for the traditional annual winter drawdown. They’re concerned fluctuating lake levels will damage the docks and render them inaccessible if they are frozen to the ground and unable to rise with the water.

“If our pilings docks and pilings are frozen in, there could be significant damage and uprooting of our pilings if they can’t move with the water. This would obviously have a negative impact on the boats that are moored to them as well,” the couple said in a Nov. 12 letter objecting to the proposal.

Although BPA plans to monitor the impacts of drafting and filling the lake this winter, the basin commission said it is unclear how monitoring will be conducted.

“Even if BPA agrees to a monitoring program for erosion and fish and wildlife impacts, there is no mention of mitigation,” basin officials Ford Elsaesser and Kate Wilson said in a Nov. 17 letter to the Columbia Basin Technical Management Team.