Bristol Bay depends heavily on expensive diesel for electricity, adding to the region’s high cost of living.
A local electric cooperative hopes a proposed hydroelectric project can change that. But some community members worry it could threaten salmon.
The Nushagak Electric and Telephone Cooperative wants to build a hydroelectric plant at Nuyakuk Falls, about 60 miles north of Dillingham, without damming the river.
The project could generate up to 12 megawatts of electricity, enough to power about half a dozen Bristol Bay communities.
At an October town hall, cooperative general manager Will Chaney said affordable electricity is key to keeping people in the region.
“How do we create an environment where our children are likely to remain here, can continue to value what we have and what's important to us?” Chaney said. “Everybody expects the conveniences of modern electricity, and that's one of the factors that affect who stays here.”
Chaney says the project would harness clean hydropower to reduce Bristol Bay’s reliance on diesel.
But the project has generated considerable concern in the region.
Why would anybody oppose affordable, clean energy? The answer comes down to the one thing at the center of everything in Bristol Bay: salmon.
MaryAnn Johnson is from Portage Creek. She says the land has provided for her family, and she doesn't want to jeopardize that.
“That's what sustained us. And the woods is what heated our house,” Johnson said. “Yes, infrastructure is important, but our livelihood, our habitat, is much more important for the survival of our people.”
The project doesn't require a dam, structures that have devastated salmon runs in places like Oregon's Klamath River. Instead, it would use turbines the cooperative says could be designed to minimize harm to fish.
University of Washington fisheries scientist Daniel Schindler has been studying salmon in Bristol Bay for 30 years. He reviewed the project's research and compared it with studies of similar projects elsewhere. He spoke at the Bristol Bay Sustainability Summit in September, where he raised doubts about the cooperative's claims that the turbines would be safe for salmon.
“These fish-friendly turbines, as currently described, really cannot be called fish-friendly turbines based on experience elsewhere,” Schindler said.
He pointed to a model that projected sockeye abundance could decline up to 40% under certain scenarios.
“As currently designed, it's anything but low impact,” Schindler said. “The turbines that are proposed to be put in have been shown to cause a lot of harm to migrating juvenile salmon.”
But those are model projections, not predictions of the inevitable.
Cooperative officials say their studies examine varying scenarios and don't necessarily reflect how the plant would actually operate.
Audrey Thompson is an aquatic scientist who conducted some of the research for the project. She defended the cooperative's research, saying the studies were meant to identify risks so the cooperative can decide how to operate the project to avoid or minimize them.
“Nothing is finalized. Nothing is finished, and we're still in the process of figuring out how to do that ... and what those limitations are,” Thompson said.
She said the cooperative could restrict how much water gets diverted to the hydroelectric project during salmon migrations or when river flow is low.
“The cooperative is proposing to find a way to generate power and to avoid harming fish, and if that involves a solution where sometimes the project doesn't run, or throttles back, or runs less, that conversation is still on the table,” Thompson said.
Even then, critics question whether the project makes economic sense. The turbines might have to slow down or shut off to protect salmon during periods when they would otherwise be generating electricity. That would leave the cooperative relying on diesel while still paying for the hydroelectric plant.
Several upriver communities have formally opposed the project, and the cooperative is still studying whether it will make economic sense.
The Nuyakuk River Hydroelectric Project is in the federal pre-licensing process. The public comment period closes Dec. 31.
