Board takes up BPA proposal

SANDPOINT - The reinvigorated Pend Oreille Basin Commission will discuss a contentious proposal to fluctuate the level of Lake Pend Oreille for power generation when it meets Friday.

The meeting starts at 10 a.m. in the Panhandle Health District Office's conference room, located at 322 Marion Ave.

The Bonneville Power Administration is proposing the flexible winter power operations plan, which would raise and lower the lake level within a 5-foot range from December to March. The fluctuation would be limited to 6 inches per day.

Representatives from BPA, the Idaho Department of Fish & Game and the Idaho Conservation League are scheduled to make presentations to the basin commission.

The BPA proposal has been heavily assailed in Bonner County due to concern that it would further hasten shoreline erosion, cause damage to docks and other waterfront infrastructure, and diminish recreational opportunities on Lake Pend Oreille.

An analysis conducted jointly by BPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers under the National Environmental Policy Act concluded that the impacts would be no greater than those of current lake level management operations.

But that determination has done little to assuage concerns in Bonner County.

The meeting comes as the state considers a BPA offer to dedicate $3 million in funding for erosion management and monitoring in exchange for tacit approval of the flexible winter operations proposal.

The basin commission was abruptly dimmed out earlier this due to a loss of state funding. However, stopgap commission funding was cribbed together from a re-licensing agreement involving the Noxon and Cabinet Gorge dams.