Petition seeks Pend Oreille protection

SANDPOINT - A new alliance in Sandpoint is circulating a petition calling on Idaho's governor and congressional delegation to do more to protect Lake Pend Oreille's summer pool level.

The Lake Pend Oreille Alliance launched a petition Wednesday calling on the Bonneville Power Administration, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Idaho's highest elected officials to address four particular issues.

"We believe there are three threats to Lake Pend Oreille," said Ralph Sletager, an LPOA board member.

The alliance formed earlier this year to protect upstream interests in the operations of Albeni Falls Dam, which controls the level of water on Lake Pend Oreille.

In 2012, the Kalispel Tribe of Indians formed a Memorandum of Agreement with the BPA and Corps, which agreed to pay nearly $40 million to mitigate bull trout habitat on the Pend Oreille River in Washington state.

Sletager said the document could allow the lake level to be drawn down 4.5 feet to cool the water in the river during the late summer months.

Although Gov. Butch Otter has reached an agreement with BPA and the Corps to prevent the late summer draw-down this year, Sletager said the alliance wants to see that document invalidated.

"I want to be clear that our whole group is supportive of the First Nations and the Kalispel Tribe," he said. "And the MOA might have reached the right decision, but the public was not properly notified and didn't have a chance to give input.

"Somehow they need to get input from Idahoans into the process."

Deane Osterman, executive director of Natural Resources for the tribe, was unavailable for comment Wednesday. However, Rachael Paschal Osborn, executive director of the Center for Environmental Law and Policy, did address the issue at a water seminar at The Coeur d'Alene Resort earlier this week.

She said there may be a conflict between the tribe's MOA and the governor's agreement with the water management agencies.

"The (governor's) agreement for this summer, so far as I can tell, is not in adherence with the so-called salmon accords MOA the Kalispel Tribe has with BPA," she said, adding she is not sure how the tribe will proceed.

While the MOA got the alliance up and running, the group has now discovered other issues that it wants addressed.

Sletager said the Corps, which operates the dam at Albeni Falls, is not following the original charter in its operation of the dam. That charter, he added, can be found in Idaho Senate Document No. 9, where it states that the lake's normal pool level should be kept at 2062.5 for six months of the year.

Sletager said the lake level is only near 2062 for about two months out of the year and even though the Corps states in all of its operating agreements that it is substantially in compliance with Senate Document No. 9, the alliance doesn't think two of six months is "substantial compliance."

"Now they are talking about dropping that to a month or a month and a half," he said. "How is that substantial compliance?"

The third threat the LPOA is concerned with is the renegotiation of the Columbia River Treaty with Canada, which could substantially change the purpose of the dam.

Last month, Gov. Otter sent a letter to the Pend Oreille Lakes Commission assuring that organization that the draft treaty recommendation calls for "no changes" to current management operations at Lake Pend Oreille.

However, Sletager said the draft treaty recommendations include language that encourages ecosystem-based functions be incorporated in the treaty.

The Columbia River Treaty, which was ratified Sept. 16, 1964, is a 60-year agreement between the United States and Canada, which details how the Columbia River will be used for flood control and power generation. The agreement treaty sunsets in 2024, but it can be terminated or renewed by either party with 10 years' notice.

Sept.16 will mark the 10-year notice deadline to renegotiate the treaty and the U.S. is likely to give the proper notice to start the re-negotiations.

"That means all of the dams on the Columbia River could potentially have their purpose changed," Sletager said, adding the alliance would like the treaty to include some language to prevent that from happening.

They are suggesting this: "Nothing herein contained is intended to or shall be interpreted to alter, modify, change or affect any purpose or water rights on any dam in Idaho, and the CRTR does not have supremacy over state and federal laws as it relates to pre-existing laws and water rights."

Sletager said the alliance would also like to see the Lakes Commission get more state funding to protect the lakes it is charged with protecting.

In its petition, the alliance requests that Idaho fund the Lakes Commission with "adequate funding commensurate with the value of the resources that it is charged with preserving, and support the commission's statutory authority to receive and direct any mitigation monies involving Lake Pend Oreille, Pend Oreille River, Priest River and Priest Lake."

Sletager said the alliance doesn't want to have to fight every year to protect the summer pool level of the lake.

"And we believe we have a right to be part of this process," he said.

The petition can be found on the alliance website at www.savependoreille.org.