PGE Revised Water Quality Report Still Shows Post-SWW Tower Ecological Shifts in Lower Deschutes

Likely in response to concerns raised by DRA, PGE contracted a two-year study on water quality and algae in beginning 2015. Results of the study were initially published in summer of 2019.

The 2019 study included analysis of data collected from the tributaries into Lake Billy Chinook, Lake Simtustus and the lower Deschutes River. A primary finding was that the Crooked River is the main source of nitrogen that leads to nuisance algae growth in the reservoirs and the lower river downstream from the dams. Crooked River water enters the Round Butte Dam’s forebay (the location of the Selective Water Withdrawal Tower) at a relatively shallow depth and mixes minimally with the Metolius River water entering at the bottom of the forebay. As a consequence, surface water in the forebay is primarily Crooked River water, rich in fertilizer runoff and cattle waste (and possibly agricultural pesticides) from the Crooked River basin.

During about nine months of the year PGE utilizes the SWW Tower to discharge primarily surface water from Lake Billy Chinook. This heavily contaminated water is run through the power generating turbines and discharged into the lower Deschutes.

This selective discharge of surface water imposes the single largest impact PGE operation of the SWW Tower has had on water quality below the dam complex. It has led to immediate and ongoing negative changes in the biology and ecology of the lower river that can be traced back to the start of SWW Tower operations.

After the study results were made public, PGE’s contractor discovered that errors in the periphyton analysis had been made. The sub-contracting lab that did the original algae identification reanalyzed the abundance counts and biovolume measures and found large errors in four species of algae in the lower Deschutes River.

We’ve not heard why this report failed to reconcile its algae findings with the earlier R2 report on macroinvertebrates and periphyton growth.

The new data resulted in some reanalysis by PGE’s contractor and new interpretations of what the findings meant were offered. In reality though, none of this changes anything fundamental about the study, which PGE reissued this month, nor its findings. The single most important result of remains that no matter what species of algae are dominant in the lower Deschutes in the post SWW-Tower years, the cause of the increase in algae remains nutrient enrichment caused by SWW Tower operation.

The present set of releases shows once again a troubling trend with PGE’s ability to bring studies to an accurate completion. The now famously flawed – as determined by ODEQ – PGE-R2 aquatic insect and algae study also required a major reanalysis and revision due to the use of inappropriate statistical methods, a failing brought to light by DRA. Our report is available at this link.

PGE’s issues with accurate scientific conclusions here come in the larger context of its scientifically unsound and completely unsuccessful fish reintroduction experiment. Thirteen years after the first juvenile reintroduction fish were released into upstream tributaries, as the graph below shows, adult returns can only be called a failure. All the while in this post-SWW Tower world, pollution-laden Lake Billy Chinook surface water is passed into the lower Deschutes in an attempt to make possible this failing program. PGE repeatedly says, “We need more time.” How much time and what is needed to achieve success are never specified.

We have a very different lower Deschutes River (and not in a good way) and a failing reintroduction effort to show for it. There, that’s the real bottom line. And it didn’t take a multi-year study to figure that out!

2020 Crooked River Water Quality Report

The DRA is pleased to announce the release of our 2020 Crooked River Report. It is available on our DRA Reports webpage.

Photo by Rick Hafele

It is no secret that the water quality of the lower Crooked River is poor. This creates long-lasting consequences for downriver ecology at both its confluence in Lake Billy Chinook and as it is passed to the lower Deschutes River. The Deschutes River Alliance is committed to monitoring, improving, and upholding water quality of the lower Deschutes and throughout the wider Deschutes Basin. Throughout this past year (2020), we continued monitoring water quality in the lower Crooked River at Smith Rock State Park and the results are clear: water quality in the lower Crooked River is in poor condition and exceeds water quality standards for a number of parameters.

Yet fish being reintroduced into the Crooked River are expected to survive, grow and migrate down to Lake Billy Chinook. This despite the water quality requirements in the Crooked River exceeding what is understood biologically to exceed what cold water migratory fish are able to tolerate and thrive in.

Poor water quality in the Crooked River is not a new revelation. As far back as 1998, the Crooked River was identified by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (ODEQ) as not meeting water quality standards, and in 2000 ODEQ began collecting data to complete a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) study*. This process required collaboration among interest groups across Central Oregon to discuss high water temperatures, low dissolved oxygen concentrations, high pH levels, excessive amounts of algae (chlorophyll a), excessive amounts of fine-grained sediment and turbidity. Unfortunately, the TMDL was never completed, and now twenty years later, many portions of the Deschutes Basin (including the lower Crooked River) are still without Total Maximum Daily Load standards for controlling pollutants.

Our water quality data obtained in 2019 and 2020 for the lower Crooked River at Smith Rock State Park shows a lack of enforcement and the inability to meet current water quality standards under status quo implementation. Our goal is to document these conditions to provide insight to future policy, and aid in the mitigation of unintentional damages caused by agricultural and municipal works.

In 2021, we will continue our efforts. Through consistent monitoring supported by knowledgeable scientists, we look forward to bringing high-quality, reliable data to the table in the years to come.

*A Total Maximum Daily Load, or TMDL study, identifies key water pollutants and sets numeric limits on those pollutants such that water quality standards will be met. The federal Clean Water Act requires states, or the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, to develop a TMDL for each water body on the state’s polluted waters list, also known as the 303(d) list (Integrated Report). Adapted from Oregon Department of Environmental Quality’s website: https://www.oregon.gov/deq/wq/tmdls/Pages/default.aspx

The Proposal to Breach Snake River Dams

We at the Deschutes River Alliance believe in following science especially for the benefit of resident and anadromous fish. When we first learned of a proposal to remove the Snake River Dams, we were excited. All of the science supports removing these dams for the benefit of the wild salmon populations. The fish will not survive if the dams continue as is.

When we really looked at Representative Simpson’s proposal, our excitement shifted to extreme concern. The proposal contains three points that would be devastating for the entire Columbia Basin. The proposal would:

• Lock in the Status Quo for all Other Qualifying Dams and Hydropower Projects for up to 50 Years: The proposal would lock in ALL other public and private hydropower dams licensed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) over 5 megawatts in the Columbia Basin in the U.S. with a 35-year license extension (up to 50 years total on the license). This means that new operating agreements, necessitated by relicensing, would not have a venue for negotiation. New fish mitigation requirements would not be mandated for dams with expiring licenses.
o There are 82 Columbia Basin dams that would be included in these extensions based on the Simpson proposal language.

• Waive Bedrock Federal Environmental Laws at These Dams for 35 Years: The proposal would suspend widely supported environmental laws at ALL of these dams with respect to anadromous fish for 35 years. Species, habitat, and water quality would no longer be protected by the Endangered Species Act (ESA), Clean Water Act (CWA), or National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) at any such dams across the Columbia Basin. The proposal would stop all ongoing litigation for 35 years.
o The same 82 Columbia River dams would be subject to these moratoria.

• Waive Bedrock Environmental Laws with Respect to Agriculture and Water for 25 Years: The proposal would allocate 3 billion dollars for “voluntary” agricultural watershed partnerships. Wherever a partnership is located—likely across the entire Columbia Basin that includes large parts of Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and Montana—the Concept exempts “agricultural interests” from the CWA and the ESA for 25 years with respect “to water issues in their basin.” Think: animal waste from CAFOs, fertilizer run-off, and pesticides all finding their way into drinking water.

A group of like-minded organizations have been working together to bring attention to the issues surrounding the proposal. Together we issued a statement addressing our concerns.

Simpson’s proposal is just that – a proposal. There has yet to be any legislative language distributed. We are hopeful that our issues can be addressed and the positives of this proposal can move forward into legislative action to the benefit fish of the entire basin.