Utility seeks $220 million from Idaho, Oregon ratepayers

BOISE, Idaho - Officials are considering a utility company’s request to pass on to ratepayers $220 million in relicensing expenses for a three-dam hydroelectric project on the Idaho-Oregon border.

The Idaho Public Utilities Commission has set an Oct. 11 settlement conference for Idaho Power’s request concerning its stalled relicensing application for the Hells Canyon Complex on the Snake River.

Oregon officials are refusing to agree to the relicensing until salmon and steelhead can access Oregon tributaries that feed into the Hells Canyon Complex, as required by Oregon law for the relicensing.

But Idaho lawmakers have prohibited moving federally protected salmon and steelhead upstream of the dams, which could force restoration work on Idaho’s degraded middle section of the Snake River.

Officials say elevated mercury levels blamed in part on agricultural runoff extend 60 miles downstream to the Salmon River confluence.

“There are discussions between the states right now as to what the next step will be,” said Idaho Power spokesman Brad Bowlin, adding the company was taking part but that he could not comment on the gist of the discussions.

“We are still talking. Stay tuned,” Jon Hanian, spokesman for Idaho Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter, said in an email Thursday.

Idaho Power has 534,000 customers in southern Idaho and eastern Oregon. The company generates 39 percent of its electricity from 17 hydropower facilities, the main producer being the Hells Canyon Complex.

But the company’s 50-year license for the complex expired in 2005, forcing it to seek an annual renewal with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission as the disagreement between Oregon and Idaho continues.