232 



UMATILLA ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE ASSOCIATION 



750 W ELM • P0B0X1K8 • HERMISTON. OREGON »7»3a 



Tel*phon«: (50J) $67-6414 • !=••: (505) 567-614J 



July 9, 1993 



The Honorable Peter DeFazio 



Chairman 



Task Force on Bonneville Power 



Administration 

 Longworth Building 

 Washington, D.C 20515-3704 



Dear Hr. DeFazio: 



Thank you for the opportunity to participate at the July 12, 1993, 

 Task Force hearing on the Bonneville Power Administration. I eun 

 Steve Eldrige, General Manager of Umatilla Electric Cooperative 

 Association, located along the Columbia River 200 miles east of 

 Portland. We have the largest, most efficient irrigation load of 

 any electric cooperative in the United States. Ninety percent of 

 the water taken from the Columbia River for irrigation occurs in 

 Umatilla and Morrow Counties — our service area. This amount of 

 irrigation water comprises .3 percent of the flow of the Columbia 

 River and irrigates 200,000 acres. 



There was not sufficient time to respond in detail to all the 

 issues raised in your June 29, 1993, invitation. Our discussion 

 will be limited to resource acquisition and the Northwest Power 

 Planning Council. 



RE80DRCE ACQUISITIOM 



In the late 1970 's Umatilla Electric Cooperative Association (UECA) 

 and a number of other electric cooperatives in the Pacific 

 Northwest formed Pacific Northwest Generating Cooperative and 

 bought 10 percent of Portland General Electric' s Boardman coal- 

 fired plant. Umatilla Electric beceune an owner of the Boardman 

 plant due to BPA's Notice of Insufficiency. When the 1980 Regional 

 Power Act gave BPA authority to contract for the purchase of 

 resources, BPA clearly indicated Boardman was the type of resource 

 they would like to buy. In 1981 BPA committed to purchase from 

 PNGC any resource that BPA needed and the Pacific Northwest needed 

 every resource it could get. Shortly after this, BPA discovered it 

 was in surplus. In May 1983, as PNGC was in final draft contract 

 stage with WAPA, BPA offered WAPA a better deal and PNGC had no 

 sale. During the 90 's as the surplus ran out due to regional load 



