The Independent Economic Analysis Board (IEAB) has been asked to review current information about Columbia River mainstem bypass spill and alternative juvenile passage strategies to determine if the information base can support a formal cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) of any passage options, and if so, how the information can be characterized to represent the range of opinions about the effectiveness and costs of bypass spill and passage alternatives.
For purposes of this analysis the IEAB defines a cost-effective scenario as one that reduces net costs (power revenue losses plus costs of passage actions) and increases juvenile survival relative to the status quo scenario. Therefore, our scoping is concerned with quantitative information about power revenues, passage costs and juvenile survival.
In early 2004, Bonneville Power Agency (BPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), the "Action Agencies" proposed to modify bypass spill operations at the Federal Columbia River Power System (FCRPS) dams while providing "offsets" to compensate for the reduced juvenile survival caused by the reduced bypass spill. The scope of the review includes analysis, comments, and response to comments in relation to the "Preliminary Proposal for FCRPS Summer Juvenile Bypass Spill Operations" (BPA and USACE, 2004a) released March 30, and the "Amended Proposal for FCRPS Summer Juvenile Bypass Operations" (BPA and USACE 2004b), released June 8. We also describe the proposed revised BiOp as provided by the Amendment to the 2004/2004-2008 Implementation Plan, (USDC 2004c). For the purposes of this paper, the status quo for spill requirements is defined by NOAA Fisheries? 2000 Biological Opinion for FCRPS Operations.
Our descriptions of the proposals and comments include text related to cost-effectiveness taken verbatim from the documents. This body of information provides a current and detailed information base that reveals the range of opinions about the cost-effectiveness of summer spill as compared to other actions to increase salmon and steelhead runs.
