Amid Ongoing Lawsuit, Mid-C PUDs Halt Energy Allotments to Canada

The Chelan, Douglas and Grant PUDs are cutting off energy allotments to Canada under the Canadian entitlement of the Columbia River Treaty.

This is consistent with an ongoing lawsuit, filed in June, against the Bonneville Power Association and Army Corps of Engineers, both federal agencies.

The mid-Columbia PUDs claim BPA has stopped cooperating on any meaningful level. Moreover, the PUDs say, BPA has failed to propose a solution that would allow the utilities to use water stored in Canada to generate power after treaty provisions expired Sept. 14th.

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Meaghan Vibbert of Douglas PUD forwarded a written summary of the litigation. It reads, in part, "We have tried to meaningfully engage with BPA to define the actual downstream power benefits derived from improved flows under the Columbia River Treaty. BPA still has not provided a methodology demonstrating how the share of Canadian Entitlement that BPA wants the Mid-Cs to contribute is related to our actual downstream power benefits."

Chelan PUD General Manager Kirk Hudson has said that absent a resolution, it's difficult to plan for long-term operations.

Douglas PUD General Manager Gary Ivory noted, "The Mid-C PUDs have been overpaying for the entitlement for many years and we just want a fair outcome for customers." As it stands, the utilities have been paying more than a quarter of the negotiated deal with Canada. They say this is grossly lopsided - "more than 10 times the value of the actual downstream benefits we receive."

The utilities point to 2013 Senate testimony from Stephen Oliver, who at the time was BPA's point man on the treaty.

"If you look at the value of the coordinated operations with Canada under the Columbia River Treaty," Oliver said, "you just look specifically at the value of energy created with and without those dams and the coordination of that operation...we're presently paying 90 percent more than we should be."

An agreement in principle (AIP) was announced over the summer, but this has yet to be finalized.

BPA and the Corps declined to comment on the litigation.

The treaty was inked in 1961 and implemented three years later. Canada agreed to build and operate hydroelectric storage dams to retain water in British Columbia and coordinate water releases with the United States. The U.S. agreed to return half of the electricity that could be generated at U.S. hydropower projects from the water that Canada stored and released.