Conducting a FERC environmental assessment: A case study and recommendations from the Terror Lake Project

Product Type: Report

Year: 1984

Author(s): Olive, S.W. and B.L. Lamb

Suggested Citation:
Olive, S.W. and B.L. Lamb. 1984. Conducting a FERC environmental assessment: A case study and recommendations from the Terror Lake Project. Washington, DC: Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Department of the Interior FWS/OBS-84/08. 62 p.

Abstract

Over the past several years the Cooperative Instream Flow Service Group has prepared case studies which detail efforts to protect instream uses of water in four States. These instream uses refer to the water as it flows in a stream for navigation, recreation, aesthetics, water quality maintenance, and fish and wildlife habitat. The earlier case studies concentrated on State programs for protecting instream uses of water (See, for example, Sweetman 1980).

Unlike those reports, this paper is an account of the process that evolved during acquisition of the license to operate the Terror Lake hydroelectric power project under the auspices of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The Commission is responsible for granting these licenses under the Federal Power Act (16 U.S.C. 792 et seq.). This act provides, in part, that FERC may condition a license to protect the public interest. The public interest in these cases has come to include both instream and terrestrial values.

The Terror River is located on Kodiak Island in Alaska. The river is within the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge; it supports excellent runs of several species of Pacific Salmon which are both commercially important and a prime source of nutrition for the Kodiak brown bear. The river is also a prime resource for generating electric power. As with any FERC license, there were many issues involved in the Terror Lake Project other than instream uses of water. For example, one major concern in the negotiations was the impact of land disturbance and management practices on brown bear habitat--i . e., protection of the brown bear. Maintenance of the the bears’ habitat is the main purpose of the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge. But, like many other projects, resolving the instream flow issue was of major importance in the issuance of the FERC license.