Legislators seek help on lake level, dam repairs

BOISE — Lake Pend Oreille took center stage before the Senate Resources & Environment Committee Wednesday as District 1 legislators appealed for support on a longer summer pool — and a faster timeline on fixing defective gates at the Albeni Falls Dam.

Sen. Jim Woodward, R-Sagle, and Rep. Mark Sauter, R-Sandpoint, told fellow legislators Wednesday that help on both issues is needed.

"It's not often your legislator in District 1 says we have a water issue," Woodward said. "If I can leave no other impression upon you, we're talking about two distinct issues, the gates of Albeni Falls Dam, which I consider a short-term corrective maintenance issue and the water levels of the lake."

Sauter agreed, saying the issues are important, on both economic and recreational fronts.

"At a meeting a number of years ago, it was said that the economy of our area rises and falls with the lake," Sauter said. "There's something to that."

Woodward and Sauter sought the hearing to seek support on increasing the summer pool and moving repair of the dam's aging gates to the top of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' to-do list.

The pair have two goals — first, faster repair of the gates.

"If it's an emergency and it changes the operational status of the dam, then it's an emergency and requires more attention and a faster timeline," Woodward said.

Second, a longer summer pool on the lake, something which varies depending on whether power production is needed downstream.

Debate over the lake's summer pool has been going on since the dam's construction with supporters of the higher level pointing to recreational needs and economic benefits. However, others say the need for affordable power in the region must also be considered.

The timeline over the gates' replacement has been a growing concern since defects were found in Gate No. 3 during routine maintenance in April 2024. All 10 gates at the site have outlived their intended lifespan; the USACE plans to replace them stepwise starting in 2027. 

At a recent Lakes Commission meeting, Taylor Johnson, chief of natural resources with the U.S. Army USACE of Engineers, said the timeline for designing new spillway gates for the dam has been accelerated by two months. The design is now expected to be complete by July. 

What the region is asking for can be summed up in two sentences, Lakes Commission Chair Ford Elsaesser told the committee. The first involves the troubled gates affecting the USACE's ability to adjust water levels on Lake Pend Oreille and the second involves the lake itself.

"The (Albeni Falls Dam) gates can and should be built and replaced in a much quicker timeframe and … we want the federal government to honor its promise in the legislation that created the Albeni Dams, to ensure we have a full recreational system."

That legislation promised six months of a higher lake level and six months lower. That has not materialized.

"Virtually since the dam was built, we've literally had to fight for every additional day of recreational season that we've achieved and that's primarily been in the fall," Elsaesser said.

Norm Semanko said in the days leading up to the dam's construction, some of the discussion centered on whether the facility should be a state or federal facility. In agreeing to have it be a federal facility,  Semanko said certain promises were made to the state and community that the lake would be at full pool for six months of the year.

"Do you know how many times the lake has been at the full level, the summer pool level, for that period since the dam was built in 1955?" Semanko asked Resource Committee members. "Once. In 1957."

Instead, the Lake Pend Oreille Association, which Semanko represents, said the lake is at summer pool for roughly three months each year. 

Kendra Kaiser, director of the Idaho Water Resources Research Institute at the University of Idaho, told the committee the university will be conducting a study on the lake's role in the local economy. While in the early stages of gathering data, Kaiser said the study should provide a lot of information on the lake's impact on the region.

Expected to be delivered this summer, the research is expected to illustrate the lake's benefits and need for a reliable lake level throughout the recreation season.

"We're in the process of doing a real deep dive on analyzing the economy of Sandpoint and Bonner County with a focus on the recreation and tourism sectors," said University of Idaho economist Steven Peterson, whose team is studying the economics surrounding the lake. "We're hoping to collect enough data where we can identify the effects of the various lake levels specifically on those recreation industries and then, ultimately, what effect the management of the lake has had on the economic growth of the region."

Many of those testifying said there is frustration over how long it took to identify the problem — and how long the USACE expects it will take to replace defective gates at the Albeni Falls Dam. 

The USACE's plan is too slow and could be done much faster, Wayne Hammond, CEO of the Idaho Association of General Contractors, told the committee.

Not only are construction prices increasing, but the extended replacement schedule is inefficient.

"It's our belief that it can be done faster, it can be done cheaper and it can be done with less risk," Hammond said. "There are three main things that drive up the cost of a construction project: the price of materials, the price of risk and the longer the project. The more complicated a project, the more drawn out the project, the higher the risk. There are contractors ready, willing and able to do this work and do this work today."

The Army USACE just needs to be willing to accelerate the timeline, several of those testifying told the committee.

Woodward and Sauter are working on a resolution that would address both issues, saying they plan to bring it before the committee in the near future.

"We really need to keep on top of this so we can get (the dam) fixed," Sauter said. "About the lake level itself … (the goal) is to extend the top pool an extra 30 days in the spring for a lot of reasons."