Committee Protocols
In the late 1980’s, Northern Wasco County Public Utility District (NWCPUD) initiated the process of building a hydroelectric plant on the north shore of McNary Dam, located near Umatilla, Oregon. The official title was the McNary Dam Washington Shore Fishway Hydro project, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) project no. 10204. In lieu of a bypass system to divert fish away from the turbine, FERC stipulated, as a condition of the license, that NWCPUD enter into a mitigation agreement with the fish management agencies involved.
This resulted in the July 1, 1991 Settlement Agreement, which directed NWCPUD, prior to the first day of commercial generation, to establish a Fisheries Mitigation Irrevocable Trust Fund to fund projects that would mitigate for the loss of juvenile salmon from the operation of the turbine.
In 1997, just prior to the unit going on line, NWCPUD legal counsel proposed that the NWCPUD act as both Trustor and Trustee for the Trust Fund. The agencies involved agreed and the trust was established. Since then, the PUD has made an annual contribution to the Trust Fund and it is available to fund mitigation projects.
The Settlement Agreement also stipulated that the agencies involved appoint a representative to sit on the McNary Fisheries Compensation Committee (MFCC). The Committee would be responsible for reviewing applications and voting to fund them or not. The first application was received in 2011 which sparked the convening of the committee. The protocols for how the Committee would function were drafted and adopted. Follow the link below for the protocols document.