How much is one fish worth?

That’s the question among a number of tribal groups and state power administrators involved in a divisive debate on whether or not to reduce this summer’s spills on the Columbia River’s John Day, The Dalles and Bonneville dams.

Officials at the Bonneville Power Administration, which controls much of the state and local power sources, say the annual July and August spills are a costly use of its water supply. They estimate that a relatively small amount of fish are being helped at a cost of millions of dollars.

Several months ago, the BPA asked its federal oversight agency for a change in the summer spill so that it could divert the water for additional power, said Bill Murlin, a spokesperson for the company.

The spills are “at a time when the region could benefit by generating surplus electricity and selling it to California or other regions,” Murlin said.

The ability to do that could keep local power users’ rates stable, Murlin said, suggesting that if the spills go forward as usual rates might increase.

At least one public utility in the area, the Umatilla Electric Cooperative, is taking that statement seriously.

In its winter newsletter, it published an article warning its customers (about 9,000 rural residents in Umatilla and Morrow counties) that the summer spills help just 15 adult salmon at a cost of $5 million per fish.

Such efforts are paid for by BPA’s customers, accounting for 10 to 15 percent of the total bill, the newsletter says.

“We think that is too high,” said Debbi Watson, a spokesperson with Umatilla Electric. “We sent out the information to our customers and asked them to write to the governor and encourage him to consider reducing the spill.”

However, local tribal officials say the numbers the BPA uses aren’t quite right.

They are opposing any reduction in spills, which allow surface water and fish to flow over the top of the dam. Spills are popularly accepted by scientists as the safest form of passage through the dams for the species, said Carl Merkle, salmon recovery policy analyst for the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation.

In February the CTUIR led the 54-member Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians in passing a resolution strongly opposing any changes to the dam’s normal operations.

Their data shows that more than 50,000 fish would be harmed by the spills reduction, Merkle said.

The CTUIR has worked extensively in the last several years to improve habitat conditions for the local salmon population. It has been rewarded with increased runs in the Umatilla River in the last two to three years, Merkle said. Reducing any of the spills at dams along the Columbia River will have a noticeable impact locally.

“If the spills are limited, it will result in greater mortality of the salmon population,” Merkle said. “It will harm the tribes’ opportunity to fish and the non-tribal opportunities to fish.”

The NOAA Fisheries, which has the power to grant BPA’s request, is expected to make a decision sometime in April, though nothing is definite.

“There is no clear deadline,” Merkle said. “It could be prolonged to the summer, to the bitter end.”