LIHI Certificate #30 Lake Chelan Project, Chelan County WA

LIHI Certifies the Lake Chelan Hydroelectric Project (FERC # 637) at the January
Governing Board Meeting

Lake Chelan Dam

Portland, Maine (January 24, 2008) The LIHI Governing Board today certified the Lake Chelan Hydropower Project. The Board's decision recognizes that the Lake Chelan Hydropower Project has avoided or reduced the Project's environmental impacts pursuant to the Low Impact Hydropower Institute's criteria.

Facility location: The Lake Chelan Hydroelectric Project is located on the Chelan River, near the City of Chelan, in Chelan County, Washington. The project occupies 465.5 acres of federal

landsadministered by the U.S. Forest Service (Forest Service) and U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service (Park Service).

Installed capacity: 48MW

Applicant: Public Utility District No. 1 of Chelan County (Chelan PUD)

Applicant contact:

Gregg Carrington

Director of External Affairs

Public Utility District No. 1 of Chelan County

327 N. Wenatchee Ave.

P.O. Box 1231

Wenatchee, WA 98807

(509) 663-8121

REGULATORY HISTORY

The Federal Power Commission (FPC) issued the original license for the Lake

Chelan Project on May 8, 1926.

On May 21, 1981, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (the successor to FPC) issued Chelan PUD a new license that was made retroactive to 1974; the license expired on March 31, 2004. Since that time, projectoperations have continued pursuant to an annual license.

On March 28, 2002, Chelan PUD filed an application for a new license for the

project using the Commission's alternative licensing procedures. On April 29, 2002, a

public notice accepting the license application was issued, setting June 28, 2002, as the

deadline to file comments, protests, and motions to intervene, as well as terms,

conditions, prescriptions, and recommendations. Interventions were timely filed by the

U.S. Department of Agriculture; U.S. Department of the Interior (Interior); NMFS;

jointly by the City of Chelan and Lake Chelan Valley Collaborative Stakeholders;8

Ecology, Washington Fish and Wildlife; American Whitewater; jointly by the Yakama

Nation, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (Umatilla Tribes),

and the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission (CRITFC); and American Rivers.

None of the intervenors oppose the project.

On November 25, 2002, the Commission staff issued for comment a draft

Environmental Assessment (EA) that evaluated the potential environmental impacts of

continued operation of the project. Comments on the draft EA were filed by MansonPark and Recreation District, American Rivers, Ecology, American Whitewater,

Washington Fish and Wildlife, Chelan PUD, NMFS, Interior, CRITFC, and the Forest

Service.

On October 8, 2003, a settlement agreement (Agreement) was reached between

Chelan PUD, Forest Service, Park Service, NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service

(NMFS), United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), Washington Department of

Fish and Wildlife (Washington Fish and Wildlife), Washington Department of Ecology

(Ecology), the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation (Colville Tribes),

American Whitewater, and the City of Chelan. On October 17, 2003, Chelan PUD, on

behalf of the signatories, filed the comprehensive settlement agreement with the

Commission requesting that the measures set forth in the proposed license articles in

National Recreation Area, and the Ross Lake National Recreation Area as components

thereof.

Attachment A to the Agreement be incorporated, without material modification, as

articles in the new license.

On October 10, 2003, Commission staff issued a final EA for the project.

On October 24, 2003, the Commission issued public notice of the Agreement

filed October 17, 2003. The Forest Service, NMFS, Interior, American Whitewater,

Washington Fish and Wildlife, North Cascades Conservation Council, City of Chelan,

and Park Service filed comments in support of the Agreement. The Umatilla Tribes and

CRITFC jointly filed comments opposing the Agreement.

The motions to intervene, comments, and recommendations have been fully

considered in determining whether, and under what conditions, to issue this license.

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

The Lake Chelan Project consists of (a) Lake Chelan, a 1,486-foot deep, 55-milelong

natural glacial lake that was raised 21 feet by the construction of the dam to a

normal maximum water surface elevation of 1,100 feet mean sea level (msl); (b) a 40-

foot-high, 490-foot-long concrete gravity dam; (c) a reinforced-concrete side discharge

intake structure that is integral with the dam; (d) a 14-foot-diameter, 2.2-mile-long power

tunnel; (e) a 45-foot-diameter by 125-foot-high steel surge tank; (f) a 90-foot-long

penstock that transitions from 14 feet in diameter to 12 feet in diameter before bifurcating

to two 90-foot-long, 9-foot-diameter steel penstocks; (g) a powerhouse containing two

vertical-shaft, Francis-type turbine generators with a rated capacity of 24,000 kilowatts

(kW) each for a total rated capacity of 48,000 kW; and (h) a 1,700-foot-long excavated

tailrace adjacent to the confluence of the Chelan River and the Columbia River that

returns the project flows to the Columbia River. A more detailed description of the

project works is provided in Ordering Paragraph B. The average annual electric

generation by the project was 380,871 megawatt-hours (MWh) for the 20-year period,

1980-1999.

The Lake Chelan Project, which can be operated locally or remotely from Chelan

PUD's Wenatchee Dispatch Center, operates at full or near full capacity almost yearround.

Chelan PUD operates the project to maintain reservoir elevations between 1,100

and 1,079 feet msl, with the reservoir maintained above 1,098 feet for most of the

summer recreation period. The reservoir is drawn down annually for power generation

and storage of spring snowmelt beginning in early October, with the lowest lake levels

being reached in April. The lake is refilled through May and June, to attain an elevation

of 1,098 feet on or before June 30, where it is maintained above 1,098 feet through

September 30. Spills typically occur during May, June, and July, when inflows exceed

the hydraulic capacity of the powerhouse units (2,300 cubic feet per second (cfs)) or

when generation is curtailed. Water is spilled over the spillway into the 4.5-mile-long

reach of the Chelan River that is bypassed by the project.

Under the new license, Chelan PUD would have slightly greater flexibility in

managing lake levels by establishing target elevations to be achieved between May 1 and

October 1, rather than a fixed elevation by a date certain. Chelan PUD proposes to

manage minimum lake elevations based on snow pack conditions, lake levels, predicted

precipitation and runoff conditions, and operational objectives of maintaining minimum

instream flows in the Chelan River, reducing high flows (greater than 6,000 cfs) in the

Chelan River, providing usable lake levels for recreation (between 1,090 and 1,098), and

ensuring the project can pass the probable maximum flood without dam failure, among

other objectives. The previous license did not require a minimum flow release to the

bypassed reach of the Chelan River. Chelan PUD proposes a minimum flow for the

entire bypassed reach, supplemented with pumping of additional water from the tailrace

into the lower portion of the Chelan River (Reach 4) to improve spawning habitat for

listed salmon and steelhead. The proposed minimum flow varies depending on the time

of year and whether it is a dry, normal, or wet water year.

Lake Chelan is a 32,560-acre reservoir at normal maximum water surface

elevation of 1,100 feet msl, with a gross storage capacity of 15.8 million acre-feet and a

useable storage of 677,400 acre-feet between elevations 1,079 and 1,100. Approximately

2,000 acres of land lie within the Lake Chelan Project boundary which follows the 1,100-

foot contour line from the upper end of Lake Chelan near Stehekin, Washington, to the

City of Chelan then continues down both sides of the 4.5-mile-long bypassed reach of the

Chelan River to the confluence of the Chelan and Columbia rivers. About 1,300 acres of

the project lands are inundated and project facilities occupy the other 700 acres. The

project lands are owned by the Forest Service, Park Service, several state agencies,

Chelan PUD, and private property owners. Approximately 465.5 acres are inundated

federal lands.

There are no primary transmission lines included in the Lake Chelan Project. A project switchyard located 70 feet from the powerhouse connects the project power to Chelan PUD's interconnected transmission system.

PROJECT DOCUMENTS

A copy of Chelan PUD's application to the Low Impact Hydropower Institute for the Lake Chelan Hydropower Project can be accessed on an FTP site:

ftp://lihiftp:lihiftp387!@ftp.chelanpud.org/extaffairs/LIHI/

Please note that some attachments are in PDF and therefore are separate files; other attachments are in the application document itself (which is in Word).

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