Lemhi Valley River and Floodplain Restoration Project - Draft Environmental Assessment
The following comments were submitted in response to the open comment period described below.
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PROJECT DESCRIPTION: The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) proposes to provide funding for river and floodplain habitat restoration actions in the mainstem and tributaries of the Lemhi River in eastern Idaho designed to benefit fish species such as Chinook salmon, steelhead, and bull trout. These actions include six mainstem and tributary river/stream restoration actions; four irrigation diversion modifications; and one culvert replacement on a state highway. These actions would be sponsored and managed by a number of entities, including the Idaho Department of Fish and Game (IDFG), Lemhi Regional Land Trust (LRLT), Trout Unlimited (TU), Lemhi Soil and Water Conservation District (LSWCD), and the Upper Salmon Basin Watershed Program of the State of Idaho’s Office of Species Conservation.
For More Information:
https://www.bpa.gov/efw/Analysis/NEPADocuments/Pages/Lemhi-Valley-River-and-Floodplain-Restoration-Projects.aspx
Close of comment: 5/15/2020
- LVR2020 0001 -
paceThis project has value but it is not the responsibility of BPA ratepayers to fund. The project seeks to mitigate for the effects of land management and water diversions in the Lemhi River basin. As far as mitigation and enhancement for the effects of the hydrosystem there are no tracks in the snow. BPA, instead of focusing directly on system operations, is ranging hither and yon looking for ways to spend money on habitat projects that have one and only one benefit for ratepayers: it keeps attention away from the harmful effects of system operations on designated critical habitat in the mainstem. It’s a “go away and shut up” approach that benefits ratepayers only to the extent that BPA is allowed to avoid having to mitigate for the effects of day-to-day hydrosystem operations for load following, power peaking and integration of wind and solar, all of which play hell with the shoreline habitat. Then there is the link to the biological opinions. The biological opinions, however, have been repeatedly invalidated by courts but left in place anyway. Put somewhat differently, BPA has parasitized habitat projects around the basin with BPA funding to keep from having to focus on the direct impacts of its actions. That approach honors the Endangered Species Act—and the Magnuson-Stevens Act and the Northwest Power Act—only in the breach. This project deserves funding but it is not the responsibility of ratepayers to underwrite. Especially when the purpose of providing funding is avoiding responsibility for the direct effects of system ops.
- LVR2020 0003 -
Edmonson/Idaho Governor's Office of Species ConservationPlease see the attached PDF letter
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