Lakes panel wants input on treaty

SANDPOINT — The Idaho Lakes Commission is pushing its chair up to the table where the Columbia River Treaty is being modernized.

The commission is scheduled to take up its participation in the treaty renegotiation when it meets on Friday, June 15. The meeting begins at 9 a.m. at the Bonner County Administration Building.

The commission, which advises the state on water quality and quantity issues, is invoking its right to take part in the treaty update via Senate Bill 1260. The bill, floor sponsored by District 1 Sen. Shawn Keough, amended an existing law which authorizes the commission to designate a representative to participate in proceedings regarding the Columbia River Basin.

“There will always be nearly year-round demand for water and storage capacity at Lake Pend Oreille, and those demands nearly always conflict with the recreational lake levels that we believe were guaranteed by the federal legislation enabling the Albeni Falls dam. With expanded jurisdiction and additional funding, we look forward to making sure our region’s voices are heard in the Columbia River Treaty renegotiations,” commission Chairman Ford Elsaesser said in a statement released in March.

The treaty, an agreement reached between the U.S. and Canada in 1964, was designed to optimize hydropower production and coordinate flood risk management.

In 2013, U.S. officials forwarded their recommendations concerning the future of the treaty after 2024. They include addressing the imbalance that has developed in the equitable sharing of downstream power benefits and closer coordination on flood risk management.

When the treaty was ratified, the U.S. and Canada structured Canada’s share of the power benefits as one-half of the downstream benefits with Canadian treaty projects as compared to without those projects. The U.S. contends an equitable sharing of those benefits should instead be based on the a more realistic measure of power value of coordinated operations as compared to non-coordinated operations.

“Based on the present formula developed in the 1960s, the estimated value of the Canadian share of the downstream benefits in 2024 is significantly greater than anticipated, and far exceeds the value of coordinated power operations under the treaty,” U.S. officials said in their recommendations.

Also recommended is a nod to climate change and flood risk management.

“As the nation and region develop a better understanding of the potential impacts of climate change, future flood risk management procedures need to be resilient to provide for public safety,” U.S. officials said.

In addition to power generation and flood mitigation, a renegotiated treaty could see a third purpose added — ecosystem-based function. The U.S. is recommending a balance be struck with regard to recognizing water uses within the basin over the past 50 years.

“This recommendation respects the importance, complexity and trade-offs of each these many uses and the benefits that the region has strived to achieve,” U.S. officials said in their recommendation.

Information: crt2014-2024review.gov

Keith Kinnaird can be reached by email at kkinnaird@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow him on Twitter @KeithDailyBee.