Deep winter drawdown anticipated

SANDPOINT — Another deep winter drawdown appears to be in Lake Pend Oreille’s future.

A final decision on the winter pool level is pending, although there are strong indications that the lake will be drafted to 2,051 feet above sea level for the second year in a row.

A deeper drawdown was recommended following the annual interagency lake level meeting in Bayview on Sept. 17.

“They were in agreement to suggest a winter lake level of 2,051,” said Amy Reese of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which operates the Albeni Falls Dam on the Pend Oreille River.

A final decision on the lake level is up to the Columbia River Basin technical management team, a broad consortium of resource managers which helps the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers coordinate dam and reservoir operations to protect threatened, endangered or struggling fish species.

Reese said the winter pool elevation is expected to be considered by the technical management team today.

“It’s not a final elevation until it’s approved by the technical management team,” Reese said.

The Idaho Department of Fish & Game, which is working to restore the lake’s embattled kokanee population, continues to remain silent on the matter.

Jim Fredericks, the department’s fisheries manager for the Panhandle, declined to say what Fish & Game planned to recommend at the Sept. 17 meeting and did not respond to an inquiry about the recommendation after the meeting. Chip Corsi, Fish & Game’s regional supervisor, was not immediately available for comment late Thursday.

Fish & Game typically recommends a lower winter pool if there are less than 70,000 spawning kokanee, as it did last year when there were only about 31,000 available spawners.

A higher winter pool results in additional shoreline spawning habitat for kokanee. But without a sufficient spawning population, a biological argument for a lesser drawdown dries up.

Kate Wilson, program coordinator for the Pend Oreille Basin Commission, said it’s her understanding the spawning population did not rise a level this year that would trigger a higher winter pool request.

“They were double what they were last year, but it’s still not quite enough,” Wilson said of this year’s Fish & Game spawning population figures.

However, a back-to-back deep winter drawdown would be a departure from a kokanee recovery study which recommends a deep drawdown once every four years.

Deep winter drawdowns are usually embraced by downstream interests, which include erosion control below Albeni Falls Dam, power generation and chum salmon recovery efforts in the Columbia. Swift, deep drawdowns tend to be unwelcome in the Upper Pend Oreille because they hamper access to the lake.

The rate of this year’s drawdown was not clear on Thursday, although the corps is still planning to reach an elevation of 2,060 feet by Sept. 30, Reese said.

The lake level was marked at 2,060.92 feet on Thursday.

The prospect of a deep winter drawdown is being greeted warmly by the Idaho Transportation Department and Parsons RCI, lead contractor for the U.S. Highway 95 bypass.

“It allows them to do more work quickly and efficiently,” ITD Engineer Ken Sorensen said on Thursday.