Hi again river peeps,

First of all, congrats on the response to the Index Skykomish dam meeting a while ago, word on the eddyline is that the degree of response and the very large number of people at the meeting was really unusual.

Now, if you have strong feelings about the proposed dam on the Skykomish River would you please take a minute or two to send a comment to the Northwest Power and Conservation Council (NPCC) before September 17?

The NPCC listed the Skykomish River as one of its areas that is protected from hydropower development.  This listing gets reconsidered every 5 years, and it's happening now, in 2013.

SnoPUD started appealing to NPCC last year to exempt the S. Fork of the Skykomish from protection, which would make it easier for FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) to grant a hydropower license for Sunset Falls.

Please go to this page:   www.nwcouncil.org/fw/program/2013amend/comment-form
and if that doesn't work CLICK HERE FOR THE LINK
and submit your comments.

(It is a really easy-to-use, one-page comment form.)

Tips:  NPCC looks at fish and wildlife concerns, not traffic or recreation.   Areas of concern for the NPCC include the following comment topics that have been suggested by a local group that is against the Sunset Falls dam project:

• Washington voters in 2006 passed I-937 which excludes new hydropower on rivers as renewable energy.
• 
  
• The amendment process is an excellent opportunity for the Northwest Power and Conservation Council to:
• Formally eliminate exemptions entirely.
• Strengthen the program by addressing critical fresh-water issues such as climate change and new Endangered Species Act listings such as Bull Trout (critical BT habitat is just above the proposed impoundment area for the weir) and Chinook salmon.  [ Bull trout (Salvelinus confluentus) were once found in about 60% of the Columbia River Basin but today they occur in less than half of their historic range, with scattered populations in portions of OR, WA, NV, ID, and MT.   Found to be in peril by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, bull trout were listed as a threatened species throughout their range in 1999.  (basic info at this URL: http://www.fws.gov/pacific/bulltrout/ )    Chinook (king) salmon are also considered Threatened by the Endangered Species Act (basic info at this URL:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinook_salmon  )  ].
• 
  
• An exemption for this proposed dam in a Protected Area would be in an acknowledged critically important and sensitive area, with high environmental impacts, minimal energy production, and negligible public benefit.
• 
  
• Allowing new dams to be built in areas with Protected Status is difficult to justify and reconcile subsequent to removal of the Elwha, Glines Canyon, and Condit dams in Washington state.
• 
  
• The Snohomish River basin (Skykomish+Snoqualmie) is home to 20% of all salmon in the Puget Sound.   All six species of wild salmon spawn in the Skykomish.   Creating an exemption on that part of the river system, thereby allowing hydropower projects, puts that fish population at risk.

The deadline for submitting comments is Sept 17th.   It is really important to submit comments if you care whether or not this dam gets built, and it will be more effective for couples/families to submit comments separately, not one comment per group.

Thanks for taking the time to read this, and if you take a moment to submit a comment, a huge thank you!  Please help keep the Skykomish wild and scenic, and remember this sets a precedent for other rivers that we care about as well.

SYOTR


Edited by irened - 09 Sep 2013 at 1:37pm

Thanks for taking the time to do that Clay, it's much appreciated!  I am not the last word in how things are going and opinions are all over the place.  From what I hear every little bit of support counts and it would be very unwise to take for granted that this is not going to happen for some reason and therefore not get involved, and also really unwise to take for granted that the comment process is a show and it will happen regardless and therefore not get involved - which is what I think some people do.

It can very easy to be apathetic (for most people including me) because a lot of this stuff seems to grind on in the background, comment deadlines come up and get missed, and sometimes people think they need to write some researched thesis in order to comment and therefore it gets put off and not done - I have been guilty of all of that stuff in the past myself.

However, my understanding from people with more experience is that it is worth it for people to submit comments even if they are not as long and detailed as they would like them to be, and definitely worth setting 5 or 10 minutes aside to do that when you consider in comparison what it will be like to have years of blasting and heavy truck traffic around Sunset Falls and the Hwy 2 corridor, not to mention the dam itself and all of its effects on one of the most beautiful rivers in the West.

Anyway, thanks again Clay and also to everyone else who comments to NPCC.

PS.  The link to comment again is here:  CLICK HERE TO COMMENT


Edited by irened - 13 Sep 2013 at 8:40am

Hi JP, yes there will be but this is an important one and I just want to remind everyone it's the LAST DAY to comment on this one.  If you're like me and a procrastinator you can still do it today like I am.

It's a bit complicated but what I understand is that there is a connection between NPCC status and the ability for the dam to transmit over lines that would be necessary in order to sell energy credits to California, which since the dam would be producing energy during the times when we have the most energy anyway and not during low energy production times, it appears at least likely that that is one of the ultimate profit motives here.  So every bit does matter and today is the last day for this round.

Here's the link to comment:  CLICK HERE TO COMMENT

Thanks Irene. You're right though, the content doesn't matter just the opinion that you're against it and public comments do work. Grant county tried to railroad a fish hatchery at the head of Lake Wenatchee and despite attempts by Grant County to get the feds involved the public shut it down. A simple "I oppose the Sunset dam" is as good as a novel.