Columbia River Fish & Wildlife Issues

Summer Spill

February 2004

Spill Fact Sheet

Coalition Letter to NW Governors (2/19/04)

Coalition Press Release (2/19/04)

Summary Points

Spill is a form of mitigation to help juvenile salmon migrate to the ocean.  The summer spill regime costs the region about $77 million while providing a benefit to Endangered Species Act (ESA) listed Snake River fall chinook salmon of only 24 adult fish.  The abundant non-ESA listed fall chinook salmon receive a benefit of about 19,000 fish, only 5% of the adult population returning in 2003.  These abundant salmon stocks are then harvested at a rate of 50% when they return as adults.

Alternate mitigation strategies, such as slightly increasing the harvest of northern pikeminnow and implementation of a Hanford Reach Fall Chinook Protection Program, produce a mitigation benefit of 50,000 to 60,000 adult fall Chinook salmon returning to the Columbia River each year at a cost of $600,000 to $1.1 million per year. 

We support implementation of an alternate mitigation program that provides a greater number of adult fall Chinook salmon returning to the Columbia River each year, and a potential savings of over $75 million to the region. 

"Summer Spill" In-Depth 

Spill is defined as passing water through a spillway instead of through the turbines at a dam and thus does not generate power.  Water is spilled at Snake and Columbia dams in the summer, as a form of mitigation, to help juvenile fall Chinook salmon migrate to the ocean.  "Summer spill" occurs during July and August at Ice Harbor dam on the Snake River and John Day, The Dalles, and Bonneville dams on the lower Columbia River. 

The "summer spill" regime provides little actual benefit to juvenile salmon migrating to the ocean.  Over 90% of the juvenile fall Chinook in the Columbia and Snake Rivers are safely transported past the dams and released back to the river below the Bonneville Dam.

Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) estimates that the average annual cost of summer spill is $77 million, but if we experience another drought and power crisis as we did during 2001, the cost would be significantly greater.

A memorandum by the Regional Federal Executives of BPA, NOAAFisheries (NOAA-F) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), dated August 16, 2003, says that the summer spill regime appears to be excessively costly relative to the biological benefit provided.  The executives declare that their goal is to have a method in place by next year to help ensure that biological benefits are met in the most cost effective manner available.  The agency heads concluded that they have a responsibility to the region to devise an approach that is less costly while maintaining the ability to achieve the biological objectives for salmon and steelhead, and will work with all interested parties in the region to accomplish this objective.

To address the regions concern over inefficient salmon recovery measures, NOAA-F, BPA and USACE conducted an analysis of the benefits of summer spill.  The results show that the summer spill regime provides a minimal mitigation benefit to ESA-listed Snake River fall Chinook salmon of 24 adult fish.  The summer spill regime also provides a mitigation benefit to the abundant non-ESA listed fall chinook salmon of just 5% of a total population of 384,000 of returning adults last year.  Additionally, these salmon are harvested at a 50% rate.  The analysis confirms the results of similar studies conducted last year by the Northwest Power and Conservation Council (Council).  The cost of summer spill is over $4,000 per fish.

To meet the goal of more cost-effective salmon recovery, BPA, USACE and NOAA-F, working cooperatively with Council staff, state fish managers, tribes and utility representatives, have identified several alternatives to summer spill that would provide the same or better biological benefit at a lower cost.  Two alternate mitigation options identified by this group would provide greater protection to salmon at much lower cost.  The first option is to expand the northern pikeminnow management program.  The second is implementation of the Hanford Reach Fall Chinook Protection Program.

1. Northern pikeminnow are significant predators of juvenile salmon.  The population is currently managed through a BPA-funded bounty program to reduce predation on juvenile salmon and steelhead migrating to the ocean.  Increasing the harvest of these predators by 1%-2% will increase the number of fall Chinook returning to the Columbia River by 500 to 8,000 adults in the first year of implementation.  The program would cost BPA an estimated $500,000 to $1 million to expand the program in 2004.

2. The Hanford Reach Fall Chinook Protection Program is estimated to protect an additional 30 million fall Chinook salmon fry resulting in additional 50,000 adult salmon returning to the Columbia River, annually.  The Mid-Columbia PUDs, BPA, Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife, NOAA-F, and the Colville Tribe are close to reaching concurrence on the terms of a long-term agreement.  When agreement is reached, Grant PUD and BPA will sign a separate agreement to cover delivery of energy to mitigate losses at Grant PUD projects.  The cost to BPA of implementing this agreement is about $100,000 annually.

Bottom Line: The alternate mitigation program provides a potential savings of over $75 million to the region, with a net benefit in the number of adult fall Chinook salmon returning to the Columbia River each year.  We should not measure the success of a salmon recovery program on how much money is spent, but on the results of that recovery effort.