In Fiscal Year 2006, the Bonneville Power Administration incurred costs totaling $851.7 million to mitigate the impacts of hydropower dams on fish and wildlife of the Columbia River Basin. Of this amount, $137.9 million was for direct spending to implement the Northwest Power and Conservation Council’s Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program. The remainder was money for which Bonneville reimburses the Corps of Engineers and Bureau of Reclamation for fish-related dam operations ($60.7 million); interest, amortization, and depreciation (these are called “fixed expenses”) on capital investments in facilities such as hatcheries and fish passage at dams ($87.5 million); forgone hydropower revenues that result from dam operations that benefit fish and reduce hydropower generation ($397.4 million); and power purchases to replace the forgone hydropower ($168.2 million). Tables 2-4 of this report detail Bonneville’s direct spending on the Council’s program in Fiscal Year 2006. The Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Authority (CBFWA) also reports on Bonneville’s fish and wildlife expenditures, in its Status of Fish and Wildlife Resources in the Columbia River Basin.
The 2006 expenditures bring the grand total of Bonneville’s fish and wildlife spending, from 1978 when the expenses began, through 2006, to $8,662,800,000. Here, in descending order, is a breakdown of the expenditures, 1978-2006, which are detailed in Table 1 of this report:
- $2.90 billion for power purchases to meet load requirements in response to required river operations that reduce hydropower generation.
- $1.78 billion in forgone revenue, the calculated value of hydropower that could not be generated because of required river operations to assist fish passage and improve fish survival, such as water spills at the dams when salmon and steelhead are migrating to or from the ocean.
- $1.71 billion for the Council’s direct-program. As noted above, the direct-program expenditures do not include annual expenditures from the separate capital-investment budget. With capital expenditures added, the total for 1978-2006 is $3.97 billion.
- $1.38 billion in fixed expenses for bonds issued by Bonneville to pay for capital investments in fish-passage facilities at the dams.
- $862.2 million to reimburse the U.S. Treasury for the power-generation share of other federal agency expenditures 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.
The Council thanks the Bonneville Power Administration for providing information about the agency’s fish and wildlife expenditures for this report.
