BPA plans meetings on coho reintroduction

Events provide for community input, questions and discussion

Portland, Ore. - The Bonneville Power Administration will hold two open-house-style public meetings in Leavenworth, Wash., and Twisp, Wash., this week as an initial step in preparing an environmental impact statement to assess the reintroduction of coho salmon into tributaries of the Columbia River in Chelan and Okanogan counties, Wash.

The first scoping meeting is scheduled for Thursday, Aug., 20, from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Chelan Fire District 3, Community Center, 228 Chumstick Hwy., Leavenworth, Wash., 98826.

The second meeting will be Friday, Aug. 20, from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Methow Valley Community Center, 201 South Methow Valley Hwy., Twisp., Wash., 98856.

The meetings provide an opportunity for the public and agencies to ask questions and provide ideas about what issues should be examined in the EIS.

The EIS will assess the issues surrounding BPA’s proposed funding of new permanent and temporary facilities for broodstock development and modification of side channels and ponds as semi-natural rearing and acclimation areas for juvenile coho salmon in the Methow and Wenatchee basins. The reintroduction project also proposes to use existing adult capture facilities, and the Willard and Winthrop National Fish Hatcheries.

Those who cannot attend the meetings can still comment. Comments may be submitted online at www.bpa.gov/comment, faxed to (503) 230-3285 or relayed by phone by calling (800) 622-4519. Please reference “Mid-Columbia Coho Restoration Project EIS” with the comments. All comments will be posted on BPA’s website.

BPA is a not-for-profit federal electric utility that operates a high-voltage transmission grid comprising more than 15,000 miles of lines and associated substations in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana.  It also markets more than a third of the electricity consumed in the Pacific Northwest. The power is produced at 31 federal dams operated by the U.S. Corps of Engineers and Bureau of Reclamation and one nuclear plant in the Northwest and is sold to more than 140 Northwest utilities.  BPA purchases power from seven wind projects and has more than 2,000 megawatts of wind interconnected to its transmission system.

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