BAUCUS DEMANDS INVESTIGATION OVER BIGHORN RIVER MISMANAGEMENT

October 22, 2009

Senator Wants Answers for Bureau of Reclamations Continual Failings

(Washington, D.C.) – Citing a “pattern of disregard,” Montana’s senior
U.S. Senator Max Baucus today demanded a high-level investigation into
Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) management of the Bighorn River and
Yellowtail Dam.

In a firmly worded letter to the Office of the Inspector General (OIG)
for Department of the Interior, Baucus laid out case after case of
major blunders by the Bureau, including two recent incidents that
severely damaged fish numbers in the Bighorn River. The OIG is an
independent, investigative arm of the federal government.

“It is clear that better coordination on the entire length of the
system would have prevented many of the impacts of these damaging
events. I would like your office to conduct an investigation into the
overall management of the Bighorn River System, specifically
investigating the operation of the Yellowtail Dam in coordination with
all the dams on the river,” Baucus wrote to Mary Kendall, the acting
OIG for the Department of Interior.

Baucus warned further bungled operations could permanently damage the river.

“The Bighorn is a prize for Montana; and for inept bureaucrats to put
it at risk is unacceptable at best and downright reckless at worst,”
Baucus said. “Montanans demand answers for these continual failings
and we are going to get them. We cannot afford another big mistake.”

Baucus has been a stalwart ally of the Bighorn River, continually
fighting to make sure it’s protected. He has been an outspoken critic
of the BOR’s management of Yellowtail Dam and has led the charge to
increase flows in the river.

According to the Department of the Interior, The Office of the
Inspector General is designed to “promote excellence, integrity and
accountability in the programs, operations, and management of the
Department of the Interior.”

Full Letter pasted below:



Mary Kendall
Acting Inspector General
U.S. Department of the Interior
Office of Inspector General
1849 C Street, N.W.
Mail Stop 4428
Washington, D.C. 20240


Dear Ms. Kendall,

I write today to call your attention to an urgent situation on the
Bighorn River and Yellowtail Dam. A pattern of disregard is becoming
apparent in the management of this river in the context of the greater
Bighorn River System and is adversely affecting a world class fishery.
Below I will relate a number of occurrences that show mismanagement by
the Bureau of Reclamation in 2008 and 2009. I request that you
investigate these several instances as well as the overall management
of Yellowtail Dam and its effect on the downstream fishery.

The Bighorn River is considered to be one of the world’s best trout
fishing streams. It is a very valuable recreational and fishing
resource for Montanans and tourists. 70,000 to 90,000 angler days are
spent annually on the river. Fishing on the Bighorn contributes $30
million dollars per year to the local economy, much of that going to
family businesses in one of the poorest counties in the United States.

Flow in the Bighorn River is dependent on how much water the Bureau of
Reclamation (Reclamation) releases from the Yellowtail Dam. According
to wildlife biologists, the lowest flow to maintain healthy spawning
and rearing habitat for the Bighorn River trout fishery is 2,500 cubic
feet per second (cfs). In past years, during times of drought,
Reclamation has allowed the flow of water from the Yellowtail Dam to
drop as low as 1,000 cfs in order to protect lake levels for boating
in Wyoming. These reductions in flow from the dam have resulted in
dramatically lower fish numbers in the Bighorn River. Optimal flow
conditions for rainbow and brown trout would be 3,500 cfs or higher.
This would spread out anglers on the river and provide usable side
channels, which surveys by Reclamation show are disappearing.

Disruptive water events continuously plague the Bighorn River. In
Spring 2008, Reclamation stated a flow reduction was necessary to
provide lake recreation at the southern end of the lake for Memorial
Day, justifying a reduction in below-minimum flows to the river.
Citing low April in-flows, mid-May releases were dropped to 1,500 cfs.
Fisheries biologists say this reduction in flows severely hindered
spawning trout, only to be inundated a few weeks later due to
inadequate storage available in the lake – a jump from 1,750 cfs to
10,000cfs. Reclamation conveyed that 2008 had been a very difficult
year for water management, but in hindsight, they would not have
changed their decisions, noting that actual fall 2007 decisions were
very close to the modified approach.

In 2009 the incident of mismanagement escalates. The year began with
above average snow pack and Bighorn Lake sitting at levels higher than
any period on record. Flows to the river were expected to be
exceptional when runoff began. With normal precipitation adding to the
snowmelt, evacuation of the reservoir led to dangerously high releases
to the river, as adequate storage was unavailable. Flooding in the
river due to this event caused thousands of dollars in damage and
record high lake levels moved beached materials causing blockages of
boat launches, closed boating on the north end of the lake due to
hazards, and flooded campgrounds that remained closed until mid- to
late summer. The economy in Big Horn County suffered as fishing trips
were canceled, citing concerns over the high water.

The summer held no respite for the beaten fishery - at approximately
12:30 p.m. on Wednesday, July 29, 2009 the automated Yellowtail
Afterbay Gate Control System experienced a malfunction due to a power
surge which resulted in releases to the Bighorn River dropping from
4,000 cfs to approximately 1,500 cfs for a brief period. According to
Reclamation, alarms that are built into the new system alerted staff
at Yellowtail Dam who responded to the situation, and releases from
the Afterbay were restored back to the previous rate of 4,000 cfs by
around 1:15 pm. As this incident demonstrates, automation systems can
unfortunately be vulnerable and it points out the need for additional
failsafe mechanisms in their control system.

Reclamation has stated it is taking steps to ensure a similar
malfunction does not occur. What steps will be taken are uncertain at
this time, and the likely impact to the fishery resource remains
unknown. Reports from outfitters on the river at the time of the drop
recount boats docked high and dry in the middle of the river, rainbow
and brown trout fry lying dead or flopping in riverbed gravel, and
both clients and outfitters scrambling to return fry to the water.
But the real question here is why was this incident allowed to happen
in the first place?

Incredibly, this year still held one more major blunder for
Reclamation. On Saturday, October 17th, in preparation for a routine
measurement of seepage and accretions, Reclamation started a gradual
reduction in flows to the Bighorn River in order to nearly empty the
Afterbay. Reclamation worked closely with Montana Fish, Wildlife &
Parks to create a reduction schedule that would least impact the
fishery. On the morning of Tuesday, October 20th, when flows should
have been at 2,000 cfs, river advocates were shocked to see flows in
excess of 3,700 cfs and rising. The flows eventually peaked that
afternoon at over 4,400 cfs and then quickly dropped to 700 cfs. The
gradual reduction that was necessary to protect an already
overstressed fishery due to poor management throughout the year was
completely bungled. The scheduled testing continued as the fisheries
biologist determined that damage had already been done to the fishery
when the rising releases were suddenly reversed.

Without some oversight into the reasons behind these issues, the
outlook for this fishery is grave. Annual events of this magnitude
show that management for the entire system over lake levels must be
put into effect; Yellowtail and all of the dams on the Bighorn River
should be managed together as one system. Reclamation management
practices continue to favor lake levels over releases; regular
intra-agency meetings, conference calls and quarterly public issue
group conferences have succeeded only in benefiting the south end of
the lake and Horseshoe Bend, a boat input that is quickly being buried
under 0.8-1.1 feet of sediment per year. All parties made compromises
to deal with limited water resources during the drought years of
2001-2007. However, the river should not suffer in good to above
average water years as was the case in 2008 and 2009. After the
mishaps of the last two years, there must be a commitment to
maintaining a stream flow of at least 2,500 cfs into the Bighorn
River, regardless of drought status in the area. The Bighorn River
trout fishery is a national treasure that could be lost if stream
flows are not maintained at or above this level.

It is clear that better coordination on the entire length of the
system would have prevented many of the impacts of these damaging
events. I would like your office to conduct an investigation into the
overall management of the Bighorn River System, specifically
investigating the operation of the Yellowtail Dam in coordination with
all the dams on the river. I would like you to examine each of the
specific incidents above – from the obvious mishaps in dam failure and
seepage testing to the overall practice that appears to favor lake
levels over river flows. I would like to know the technical reasons
behind the failures in July and October 2009, how failures can be
prevented in the future, impacts to the downstream fishery, and what
the Department of the Interior will do to assess and mitigate those
impacts.

With best regards, I am

Sincerely,


Max Baucus