This draft report provides an in-depth accounting and assessment of the Bonneville Power Administration's fish and wildlife expenditures. The report also summarizes historical documentation on past expenditures and includes information on Columbia River fish runs and fisheries.
For Fiscal Year 2003, the Bonneville Power Administration reported total costs of $506.8 million for its Columbia River Basin fish and wildlife activities. This brings the grand total, 1978-2003, to $6.37 billion. That amount does not reflect $1.04 billion Bonneville has received since 1995 for a portion of it's expenditures to improve fish passage at dams. The credit, which is explained on page 6 of this report, effectively reduces the grand total to $5.64 billion.
These costs, which were supplied to the Council by Bonneville and not independently verified by the Council, are detailed in the Appendix of this report.
- $1,163,400,000 ($140.7 million in 2003) for the Council's direct program.
- $16,500,000 ($6.5 million in 2003) for ?high priority? and ?action plan? projects identified by Bonneville. The high-priority projects were intended to bring immediate benefits to all species listed for protection under the Endangered Species Act in advance of subbasin planning. Draft subbasin plans were submitted to the Council in May 2004 and, after public and scientific review, amended into the fish and wildlife program in late 2004 and early 2005. The ?action plan? projects were intended to bring immediate benefits to ESA-listed salmon and steelhead that were affected by altered hydropower dam operations in the spring and early summer of 2001 to offset impacts caused by drought.
- $634,100,000 ($52.6 million in 2003) to reimburse the U.S. Treasury for the power-generation share of other federal agency costs to mitigate the impact of hydropower on fish and wildlife. Primarily these reimbursements are paid to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Reclamation, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for efforts to improve fish and wildlife survival apart from the Council's program, such as operation and maintenance of fish passage facilities and federal fish hatcheries. Since 1997, Bonneville has funded these investments directly rather than reimbursed the Treasury for them.
- $1,034,300,000 ($56.7 million in 2003) in payments for bonds issued by Bonneville to pay for capital investments to improve fish passage at the dams.
- $2,317,900,000 ($171.1 million in 2003) for power purchases to replace hydropower that could not be generated because of legally required river operations that protect migrating fish but reduce hydropower generation.
- $1,205,400,000 ($79.2 million in 2003) in forgone revenue, the calculated value of hydropower that could not be sold because of legally required river operations to assist fish passage and improve fish survival, such as water spills at the dams. Fish passage was not the only source of forgone revenue. See page 6 of this report.
- $1,437,754,000 on fish and wildlife, which includes $1,096,601,000 on anadromous fish projects; $183,690,000 on resident fish (those that don't swim to the ocean); and $157,463,000 on wildlife.
