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planning carried out in cooperation by the Council and the fishery managers.' The Council 

 called for sub-regional implementation to be integrated with the Implementation Planning 

 Process. Due to BPA's reluctance, sub-regional planning is one of the key measures in the 

 Strategy for Salmon that remains unfunded. 



3) Bonneville assens that its current financial condition will prevent or delay fidl 

 implementation of the Council's fish and wildlife program. What measures can 

 Bonneville take to ensure more stable fimding for the Council's fish and wildlife 

 programs, given its wide swings in revenues? 



Tremendous inefficiencies exist in the current mechanism for funding fish and wildlife 

 projects under the Northwest Power Act. One of the most important measures for ensuring 

 more stoble funding is streamlining the funding process. We estimate that an approximate 

 twenty to thirty percent savings in fish and wildlife program dollars could be realized by 

 changing the mechanism for administering these funds. These savings should be applied to 

 stabilizing the funding base and accelerating implementation of measures under the Act. 



4) What can be done to facilitate water conservation and other changes in regional water 

 management to provide increase flows for power production and salmon recovery. 



A 1987 study (Tolisano et al.) funded by the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish 

 Commission identified significant potential for water conservation measures and water transfers 

 (e.g. water rental, dry-year leasing, water sales) in the upper Snake River Basin (above 

 Brownlee Dam). Subsequent studies (Brendecke et al.) by NMFS confirmed these conclusions. 

 Currently, BPA has limited its attempts to lease upper Snake River water to $1 million per year. 

 If BPA were able to significantly increase the amount of funds available for water acquisition, 

 we believe significantly greater commitments of water would be available from the upper Snake. 

 To put this issue in perspective, BPA recently estimated that it incurred revenue losses of 

 approximately $20 million to maintain Lower Snake River pools behind Lower Granite, Little 

 Goose, Lower Monumental, and Ice Harbor dams at minimum operating levels in 1993. Further 

 inquiry may indicate that greater improvements in water particle travel time, a key measure for 

 improving smolt survival, could be made by increasing investment in water acquisition 

 investments. 



' Unfortunately, the Council refused, during Phases I to III of the Program amendments, 

 to address the 37 sub-basin plans and Integrated System Plan recommended to the Council by 

 CBFWA. These efforts took three years and several million dollars to complete. The efforts 

 were carried out by the state fishery managers and Indian tribes and describe actions necessary 

 to rebuild salmon populations basin-by-basin. 



