Columbia River System Operations; Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington

Based on the Columbia River System Operations Final EIS (DOE/EIS-0529, July 2020), the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Reclamation, and DOE’s Bonneville Power Administration jointly issued a record of decision (ROD) for the operation and maintenance of 14 federal multiple-purpose dams and related facilities within the Columbia River Basin. The decision announced in the ROD is that the Corps will operate its 12 projects and Reclamation will operate its 2 projects as described in the Preferred Alternative of the Final EIS, implementing associated mitigation and conservation actions described in the Preferred Alternative and the 2020 US Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service Biological Opinions; and Bonneville will implement its part of the Preferred Alternative by marketing and transmitting the power generated by the Columbia River System projects as part of coordinated system operations.

The three lead agencies jointly published a Record of Decision (September 2020) with two appendices: a Mitigation Action Plan and a list of all mitigation and conservation measures for ESA-listed [Endangered Species Act] species. The Bonneville Power Administration published the Record of Decision (without appendices) in the Federal Register on October 8, 2020.

For more information, see Columbia River System Operations.