The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) will hold two sessions on Thursday, Feb. 8, to receive public comments on Avista Corp.s applications to relicense its five Spokane River dams.


Both sessions, from 9 a.m. to noon and from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., will be at the Doubletree Hotel, at 322 N. Spokane Falls Blvd., Avista says.


The Spokane-based company claims it has spent more than $10 million to relicense the five hydroelectric facilities, which have the capacity to generate a total of as much as 137.65 megawatts of electricity, although actual average production is closer to 100 megawatts. One megawatt of power is enough to serve 750 homes, Avista says. Four of the dams, at Upper Falls, Monroe Street, Nine Mile, and Long Lake, were licensed in 1972, and Post Falls Dam was licensed in 1981.


Avista filed two separate applications on July 28, 2006, to relicense the dams for as long as 50 years, but even before those filings, relicensing had become contentious.


On a Web page on the issue, the Upper Columbia Group of the Sierra Club and the Spokane-based Center for Justice contend that operation of Avistas Post Falls Dam has eroded shorelines on Lake Coeur dAlene, caused movement of heavy metals in the lake, destroyed wetlands, and harmed natural and cultural resources owned by the Coeur dAlene Tribe. The Web site says that the dam, by reducing flow downstream in the Spokane River, has harmed water quality and fisheries habitat. It also says Avista should release up to 800 cubic feet of water per second (cfs) over the dam during late summer, which it claims is more than twice the amount thats released now.


Avista says it releases a minimum of 300 cfs of water from Post Falls Dam now, but has offered to set a minimum release of 600 cfs under one of its proposed licenses. This is the optimal flow established by experts, Avista spokesman Hugh Imhof says. He says studies show that during the hot part of the year, releases of more than 600 cfs can heat up the water in the river so much that fish die.


A few weeks ago, a Department of Interior administrative law judge found in favor of some conditions for relicensing urged by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which is charged with protecting resources on the Coeur dAlene Indian Reservation, and which Avista says has authority to set some license conditions. The judge agreed with the BIA that Post Falls Dam has harmed cultural resources by allowing an increase in illegal collecting of artifacts, has caused a net loss of wetlands on the reservation, and has impaired functioning of wetlands.


Avista, however, also prevailed on several counts in the ruling, in which the judge rejected the BIAs claims that maintaining the summer level of Lake Coeur dAlene harmed native fish and increased the amount of metals in the lake. The judge also rejected the BIAs claim that Avista is solely responsible for erosion on the reservation, saying its responsible for half of the erosion on the lakes lower tributaries and 30 percent of the erosion on the lake itself.


A host of other issues have arisen in the relicensing, including concerns about the accumulation of sediment behind Nine Mile Dam and Long Lake Dam, depletion of oxygen in Long Lake Reservoir, and a lack of water released into upper Spokane Falls during the summer.


For aesthetic reasons, Avista has proposed a minimum flow of 200 cubic feet per second of water during the daytime in the north and middle channels of the river in downtown Spokane. The water would be diverted to upper Spokane Falls from the 1,730 cfs mean minimum flow in the rivers south channel, thus reducing by 200 cfs the amount of water available to generate power at Avistas Upper Falls Dam and Monroe Street Dam, Imhof says.


Weve proposed that we would put water into that channel above upper Spokane Falls, Imhof says. FERC agrees. Weve said 200 cfs. The Sierra Club has said 500 cfs.


Asked about the two flow levels, John Osborn, of the Center for Justice, says, You have to put yourself out on the suspension bridges (in Riverfront Park) in August and tell yourself what youd like to see. He says that on Wednesday, Feb. 7, the Center for Justice and the Sierra Club were scheduled to release a report on the economic value of Spokane Falls done by Rocky Mountain Econometrics, of Boise.


Avista also has proposed implementing or improving programs to limit dissolved gas in the river, to enhance water quality, to enhance habitat for fish and other aquatic life, to protect raptors, to deal with weed growth, to enhance or restore wetlands, and to stock fish.


FERCs staff issued a draft environmental impact statement Dec. 29 on the proposed relicensing, and Avista says the public can comment on it until March 6. It says final terms and conditions from the BIA and other agencies are due on the relicensing about May 1. Afterwards, FERC is to issue a final EIS and final license orders on the two applications.


Avistas current license expires Aug. 1, but could be extended until the relicensing is completed if it isnt done by then, Imhof says.