By ALEX GIMARC
Gov. Mike Dunleavy issued his final Eklutna Fish and Wildlife program this month.
Documents supporting the decision can be found at the Eklutna Hydroelectric Project website. This project is comprehensive, with significant local, state and national interest. Everything is thoroughly documented. And there are a lot of documents.
The 1991 purchase agreement required the governor to give equal consideration to the eight following factors to “ensure Eklutna [is] best adapted for power generation and other beneficial public uses.” These factors are:
- Efficient and economical power generation and other beneficial public uses
- Energy conservation
- The protection, mitigation of damage to, and enhancement of fish and wildlife (including related spawning grounds and habitat)
- The protection of recreational opportunities
- Municipal water supplies
- The preservation of other aspects of environmental quality
- Other beneficial public uses
- Requirements of state law
Note that all of this falls directly out of the 1991 purchase agreement and must be addressed as part of this Final Program.
Dunleavy’s 30-page Decision Memorandum has a three-page transmittal letter and announced with State of Alaska Press Release 24-047. Depending on how deep you want to dig into the Eklutna Fish and Wildlife Program, I would start with the press release, move to the transmittal letter, and then to the 30-page program detail. Supporting documents for all this can be found in the Eklutna Hydro Project Documents page.
The adopted Final Program will restore year-round water flow to the Eklutna River. This will require purchasers to provide funding for monitoring, habitat enhancement, lakeside trail repairs, creation of a “Monitoring and Adaptive Management Committee,” a pair of limited program re-openers for possible replacement of the existing outlet and spillway of the dam, and potential construction of a fish passage into and out of Eklutna Lake.
Left unsaid is the observation that a continuous flow of water out of the lake will eventually require a higher water level in the lake. Water levels in the lake are highly variable over the course of the year leading to periodic dry riverbeds in sections. Note that a 2017 paper by Loso, et al found no evidence of a former red salmon population spawning in the lake, although they could not preclude the existence of such a population before the original dam was constructed in 1929.
From here, the Final Program is a reasonable approach that balances everything the governor was asked to do with the 1991 purchase agreement. Commentors provided significant and what appears to me to be reasonable input. The only significant disagreement appears to be a group from Eagle River calling itself The Conservation Fund that is dedicated to removing the dam.
As I read the approved Final Program, it will be more difficult for a future governor, legislature or Anchorage Assembly majority to remove the dam.
From here, the approved Final Program is a reasonable approach to maintenance and improvement of what we have at Eklutna.
The Governor, his team and the owners of Eklutna should be congratulated on a job well done under potentially difficult circumstances.
Alex Gimarc lives in Anchorage since retiring from the military in 1997. His interests include science and technology, environment, energy, economics, military affairs, fishing and disabilities policies. His weekly column “Interesting Items” is a summary of news stories with substantive Alaska-themed topics. He was a small business owner and Information Technology professional.
