Irrigators reel under power rate increases
1st increment now in effect in Ore.,
Calif.
By STEVE KADEL
Freelance Writer
April 21, 2006
KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. –
Irrigators predict dire consequences in the wake of power rate increases
authorized by the Oregon and California public utility commissions. The first
increment of new rates took effect April 17.
The new rates will be phased in over seven years in Oregon and four years in
California.
The boost in electrical rates for 1,400 Klamath Reclamation Project farmers
was sought by PacifiCorp, an investor-owned utility with headquarters in
Portland. Seven hundred ranches outside the project’s irrigated ground also
lose their bargain-basement pumping rates.
The increase hits Tulelake Irrigation District hardest. That’s because the
California district has responsibility for sending tailwater from project
farms and wildlife refuges uphill to where it reaches the Klamath River.
Downstream, the water powers PacifiCorp hydroelectric turbines on its way to
the Pacific Ocean.
One of the TID’s largest pump stations has averaged electric bills of
$30,000 to $40,000 annually.
“If it goes to tariff rate, it’ll be over a million dollars,” manager
Earl Danosky said.
Tariff rate is 6.98 cents per kilowatt-hour on both sides of the
California-Oregon border.
Under a 1917 contract that was extended for another 50 years in 1956, farmers
within the project paid six-tenths of a cent to run pumps. Irrigation
districts and the federal government had five-tenths cent Kwh rates for
on-peak pumping, three-tenths cent Kwh for off-peak demands. The 700 ranches
beyond the project’s irrigated cropland have since 1956 had a three-quarter
cent Kwh pumping charge.
“Currently, these customers pay one-tenth of the rate other irrigation
customers pay,” said Dave Kvamme, the PacifiCorp spokesman.
He said other customers must pick up the slack.
But Bob Gasser, a Klamath Water Users Association board member, said the
project provides benefits to PacifiCorp that should be rewarded by a lower
electric rate.
The Klamath River has more water now than before the project existed, he said.
Water from Lost River used to go into Tule Lake and evaporate, but now is
pumped back to the Klamath River, Gasser said.
The TID’s Pumping Plant D, completed in 1942, has two 700-horsepower and
three 750-horsepower units, which can move over 208 million gallons of water
daily.
“There’s no standing water in this system, and that’s what makes it so
efficient,” Gasser said.
PacifiCorp’s hydroelectric turbines on Klamath River run during summer
because of water stored in Upper Klamath Lake during the winter, another
benefit from the project, he said.
“That’s why we think we deserve a (lower rate),” Gasser said. “It’s
not because we’re good old boys.”
The Oregon PUC order leaves the door open for evidence of that benefit. Faced
with a deadline as the contract expired, the PUC didn’t consider a document
the water users obtained March 20 that was part of PacifiCorp’s filing for
hydroelectric license renewal from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
The Oregon commission outlined steps irrigators must take to make their case
for a credit.
Steve Kandra, president of the Klamath Water Users Association, said the
Oregon PUC acknowledged benefits from the project in its decision to implement
higher rates. It gives a ray of hope for irrigators.
“The commission recognized the irrigating community has a valid assertion
when we say we provide a benefit for the utility,” he said. “We
recirculate water and put it back into the system so it does not disappear.”
Scott Seus, a California farmer who is the Klamath Water Users’ Power
Committee chairman, took a philosophical approach to the PUC rulings.
“It’s not a home run, but a double,” he said. “This (phase-in) kept us
from falling off the cliff this season.
“The commission came out somewhere in the middle. That’s probably a
reasonable approach. It gives us breathing room.”
California’s PUC promised it will allow the same arguments this summer when
formal hearings begin on a PacifiCorp request for a general rate increase for
all its California customers.
Staff Writer Tam Moore contributed to this report.