President Bush Approves Extension for Idaho Hydropower Project
Only 3 percent of the 80,000 dams in the United States produce
power, and it would be feasible to add an estimated 16,700
megawatts of new hydropower to some of those existing dams. That
sounds nice in theory, but a group of five irrigation districts
in Idaho have found that the idea can be difficult in practice.
The Boise-area irrigation districts obtained a federal license
in 1989 to add two 7.5-megawatt turbines to two of the outlets
from Arrowrock Dam, a Bureau of Reclamation dam on the Boise
River. Shortly after the license was obtained, the Bull Trout
was listed as an endangered species, causing a re-evaluation of
the project. Although construction of the project should have
started within two years after the license was issued, the Bull
Trout issue and other complications have required the U.S.
Congress to repeatedly step in and extend the deadline on the
project. In 2005, the irrigation districts committed to funding
the project and the Cl