76 



Attachment A 



Testimony of the Northwest Power Planning Council 



before the 



Bonneville Power Administration Task Force 



Committee on Natural Resources 



United States House of Representatives 



Portland. Oregon 

 July 12. 1993 



mSTORT OF REGIONAL POWER SYSTEM 



The development of the Colimibia River sj^tem in the Pacific Northwest began 

 in the 1930s under a program of regional cooperation to meet the needs of electric 

 power production, land reclamation, flood control, navigation, recreation, and other 

 river uses. 



From the beginning, the Federal Government has played a major role in the 

 development of one of the largest multiple-use river systems in the world. Thirty 

 multi-purpose dams on the Columbia River and its tributaries were built by the U.S. 

 Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation. Investor-owned and 

 publicly owned utilities also built a major system of dams and generating facilities. 

 Congress directed the Bonneville Power Administration in the Bonneville Project Act 

 of 1937 to build emd operate transmission lines to deliver the power from dams, and 

 to market electricity from Federal generating projects on the river at rates set only 

 high enough to repay the Federal investment over a reasonable period of time. 



Cwnadian Treaty 



As demand for power grew, the U.S. emd Cemadian governments recognized a 

 need for development of dam sites in Canada. The governments of both nations 

 negotiated a treaty in the early 1960s for the cooperative use of dams built by 

 Canada on upper reaches of the river. The three treaty dams, all completed by 1973, 

 provide flood control downstream as well as reservoir storage for production of 

 additional power at the U.S. dams downstream. By 1980, the treaty dams had 

 enabled U.S. downstream dams to generate enough electricity for a city the size of 

 Seattle for 15 years. 



Intertie 



Also in the 1960s. Congress authorized the construction of three major power 

 lines linking the Columbia River hydro projects with power markets in Califomia and 

 the rest of the Pacific Southwest. The interties benefit the Pacific Northwest in 

 several ways. They aUow the sale of hjTlropower from the Colvunbia when it is not 



