Bill introduced to slow Priest Lake Siphon project 

by Logan Finney, Idaho Reports 

The Senate Resources & Environment Committee introduced a bill Wednesday that would add state oversight to a controversial conservation measure proposed at the mouth of the Priest River in Bonner County. 

The Priest Lake Outlet Dam is operated by the Idaho Department of Water Resources and is required by state law to maintain a certain water level elevation in the lake during the summer recreation season. 

Sen. Scott Herndon, R-Sagle, presented Senate Bill 1021, which would amend that law to stipulate the existing dam is the only structure authorized to release water from the lake, and that no siphon, gravity bypass, or other bypass device may be constructed without prior approval from the legislature and the governor. 

Warm surface waters flowing from the lake into the river have resulted in fish kills in recent summers. Idaho Fish and Game and the Kalispel Tribe have explored building a gravity siphon that would pull cold water from deeper in the lake and release it downstream, with the goal of cooling the river and improving fish habitat. 

“We are basically not prohibiting any additional structures to be built in the future, but we are adding to Idaho code that we would want authorization for any outlet control structures added to the Priest Lake as it empties into the Priest River to be authorized by this legislature and the governor,” Herndon said. 

The senator said previous studies relating to the siphon project were funded under the Clark Fork Settlement Agreement, which is part of the federal license under which Avista Utilities operates Cabinet Gorge and Noxon Rapids dams upstream of Lake Pend Oreille. 

“Lower Priest River begins at the outlet of Priest Lake in northern Idaho. The stream flows 45 miles south to its confluence with the Pend Oreille River, upstream from Albeni Falls Dam. Priest River is hydrologically connected to Lake Pend Oreille with no barriers to fish movement, and like a number of other Idaho tributaries to the system, provides spawning and early rearing habitat for Lake Pend Oreille Bull Trout.”

Avista, Priest River Coldwater Bypass Limnology Assessment, Clark Fork Projects 2021 Annual Implementation Plan)

“The concern of residents of District 1 is that this [siphon] could proceed using those funds, without the legislature being involved, as the studies have proceeded,” Herndon said. 

The Senate Resources Committee voted unanimously Wednesday to introduce the bill. 

In the same hearing, lawmakers also interviewed two appointees to the Lakes Commission, an advisory body based in Bonner County for issues related to the Lake Pend Oreille and Priest Lake basins.

John Ford Elsaesser – who has served on the commission since its inception in 2003 – said the body has not taken a position on the siphon proposal, but added he personally considers the project to be dead. 

“There’s skepticism from a practicality standpoint, as well as the fact that the Priest Lake community is pretty organized against it,” Elsaesser said. “It just seemed like such a heavy lift to do without being certain it would work.” 

Idaho Fish and Game staff made public presentations about the project in 2021 and in 2022. 

“We are not cutting off the ability of this project to happen in the future as conceived, but we would be asking the legislature and governor to be involved in that process.” Herndon said. 

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