Chinoho ho ho

An update from a friend up north regarding an agency cat fight around some seriously flawed Susitna Dam science. This would be downright comical if it were not for the fact that the agency behind the flawed science wants to build a massive 735-foot, 600-megawatt-capacity dam on the Susitna.

Over the past few weeks there's been some sparing between Alaska Energy Authority (AEA), those who want to build Susitna Dam, and federal agencies. All this lead up to meetings designed to review AEA's first year of research on the Susitna. The fish stuides in particular caused quite a stir. Perhaps  the issues are too many to count. NMFS and USFWS called out AEA for for misidentifying a high percentage fish, failing to properly study salmon spawning locations, and erroneously measuring fish abundance.  In general, NMFS states that AEA did not coordinate between its own various studies or meet its own sampling goals or overall study objectives.

To make a long story short, after spending nearly $200 million of state funds AEA and consultants (many of whom also worked on Pebble) can't tell the difference between a chinook and a coho. They were so confused in their studies that they went so far as to call them "Chinoho."

This matter came up in this week's meetings, with AEA arguing how hard it is to tell the difference between Chinook and coho juveniles. Sue Walker from NMFS replied by saying, "While it is true that it can be difficult at times to distinguish between Chinook and coho juveniles, we all agree that what you are calling a "chinoho" is really a coho. That is pretty clear."

The AEA fired off an outraged response to the federal contention that the project’s salmon science is flawed.

Susitna Dam - Animated Tour

A horror film.

We were so horrified we had to make our own version.

DamNation – Susitna: Alaska’s Mega Dam(n) Proposal

Photo: Travis Rummel

A must read from Travis Rummel and Matt Stoecker who floated the Sustina to see first hand what's at stake if a proposed mega dam on the river ever comes to fruition.

LINK (via: The Cleanest Line)

The Susitna River Dam - A bad idea rises in Alaska

While the rest of the world is doing their best to remove aging dams, the State of Alaska is proposing to build a giant new one on Alaska's Sustina River.

The State of Alaska is pressing the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to license a 735-foot high dam and hydroelectric plant on the Susitna (at a projected cost of $5.2 billion), which would drastically alter the river’s physical characteristics and create a 42-mile long, up to 5-mile wide reservoir that would flood approximately 25,000 acres of pristine wilderness, an area larger than the island of Manhattan.

LINK (via: The NRDC)