The Snake
When TFT first started working with Idaho Power Company (IPC) in 2014, IPC had gone through 13 failed relicensing efforts for its hydropower dams in Hells Canyon (which produce 70% of the utility’s hydropower). With TFT’s help designing a solution, IPC received its Clean Water Act (CWA) 401 certification from Idaho and Oregon to implement a $350 million watershed stewardship program that will rehabilitate hundreds of miles of riparian vegetation on tributaries, reshape the mainstem Snake River to better fit its current hydrograph, and avoid significant sediment and nutrient loading from upgraded irrigation infrastructure.
To support this program, TFT built a technology system for site selection, design, permitting, implementation, monitoring, tracking, and reporting for all conservation projects. TFT is now working with IPC to evaluate options to limit total phosphorus loads entering Brownlee Reservoir, and also with the City of Nampa to enable water quality trading in its upcoming discharge permit.
Without options to incorporate watershed improvement strategies into compliance programs, these and other centralized sources could soon spend over $1 billion on technology solutions that will fail to make a meaningful difference in overall water quality conditions in the Snake. TFT is working on behalf of these entities to coalesce an integrated watershed solution that brings all these pieces together into an optimized approach.