A Pocatello conservationist is chiding two Idaho lawmakers for supporting what he feels amounts to a $1 million congressional kickback for a Utah hydroelectric developer.
But the project developers say the supplemental funding is both fair and necessary.M.R. "Mick" Mickelson, president of the Henry's Fork Foundation, contends a $1 million appropriation backed by Democrat Rep. Richard Stallings and Republican Larry Craig will end up in the pocket of Bonneville Pacific Corp., the Salt Lake company contracted to convert Island Park Dam into a power-generating structure.
"They are obviously trying to sneak this thing through without anybody in Idaho knowing about it," he said. "We are disappointed that there hasn't been information available to the public on this $1 million kickback."
Stallings, Craig and four other western congressmen backed the resolution allowing the federal government to reimburse Fall River Rural Electric Cooperative of Ashton for its expenses due to stricter environmental requirements for the hydroelectric project on the Henry's Fork of the Snake River.
Bonneville Pacific is under contract with Fall River to finance and build the project. The resolution passed the House Friday and is awaiting a hearing by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
"It certainly provides federal assistance, but (Stallings) felt it was justified inasmuch as the congressional intervention was responsible for all of these new environmental requirements," said Carey Jones, a Stallings' spokesman.
The environmental requirements were placed on the project after Congress passed legislation in 1986 prohibiting hydroelectric development on the Henry's Fork. The Island Park Dam project was the only one exempt from the ban.
The project developer is required to install an oxygen injection system, automated gate controls to regulate water levels and temperature, and equipment to monitor the environmental impact on fish and wildlife. It also must hire an environmental coordinator. All this is expected to cost about $1 million.
Jones said the environmental requirements delayed construction of the project and prevented Fall River from meeting a deadline to apply for investment and energy tax credits for which it was eligible.
"For two years the congressman has tried to extend the tax credits to pay for environmental requirements," he said. "Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful in getting the House Ways and Means Committee to act on the bill."
The Henry's Fork Foundation has opposed the project since it was proposed in 1984. Mickelson said he fears the dam will cause silt to build up and damage the world-famous trout fishery.
"Congressman Stallings has been an advocate of river protection, but this hydroproject takes too many risks," he said.
No party has proven there is a current need for the electricity the project will generate, said Mickelson, who opposes federal money going to a private development.
"As taxpayers, our money should not be subsidizing a private, Utah-based developer," he said.
Clark Mower, a Bonneville Pacific development manager, said there is a market for the dam's power, and three environmental studies indicate the project will create no significant impacts. He noted the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued a license for the project last year and the Idaho Water Resource Board granted it an exemption to the state's rivers protection law earlier this year.
However, Mower conceded the $10 million project cannot be built without the federal funding. "We would not build a project at that rate of return," he said.