Excellent analysis on what and why SMUD needs to get in congruence with its mission and use of public natural resources.
An excerpt.
Editorial: Bears, bucks and hydro
SMUD shouldn't short Sierra stewardship
Published 12:01 am PDT Thursday, August 10, 2006
The Sacramento Municipal Utility District has a series of Sierra reservoirs and hydroelectric facilities known as the "Staircase of Power." It is the jewel of the SMUD system, given how it is both a cheap and precious source of peak power on hot summer days and how the reservoirs provide camping and boating for tens of thousands of visitors each year.
For SMUD, a regulatory moment has come along that happens only twice a century. At that time, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission reviews and renews the license to operate these facilities. SMUD is at a crucial juncture in this approval process, and if not careful, it may stray from its mission to balance all the public values of being a good steward of this resource.
A long list of governments, from the National Park Service to the state Water Resources Control Board to the state Department of Fish and Game, has a different vision from SMUD's in how to operate this system. Some of the differences are very complicated, such as how much water to release downstream for fish and how much to release into tunnels for electricity production.
But here is an example of how SMUD is negotiating on an issue that rests at the gut of stewardship: bears.
When SMUD built this system more than 40 years ago (Loon Lake, Icehouse Reservoir, etc.), it agreed to build campgrounds on surrounding land. The campgrounds sit on U.S. Forest Service land. At the time, the facilities were state of the art. At the moment, many violate federal regulations (the Americans with Disabilities Act) and an unwritten code of how to respect wildlife.
The bears are a case in point. Many of these campgrounds do not have bear lockers so that campers can safely store food and bears don't grow accustomed to a diet courtesy of Costco. An appetite for humans' food can be deadly for the bear. At state campgrounds, bear lockers in bear country have been in place for years. SMUD could have, but hasn't, done the same at the campgrounds.
To bring these campgrounds up to modern standards (picnic benches tall enough for wheelchairs to fit under, more flush toilets, more bear lockers, etc.) would cost an unknown amount of money, but a lot. The Forest Service and the other agencies are asking SMUD to make these changes in exchange for permission to keep producing the hydroelectric power. But SMUD isn't making the promise. Instead, it is proposing to maximize its capital expenditures on the campgrounds to approximately $250,000 a year. That remodeling budget isn't a prescription for getting much done quickly.
