Eric Barker

Jul. 28, 2010 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- The two agencies working on an experimental fertilization project at Dworshak Reservoir have been forced to take a timeout.

The Environmental Protection Agency recently informed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Idaho Department of Fish and Game they need a permit to put nitrogen in the 55-mile-long reservoir. The agencies are in the fourth year of a five-year pilot project that has them adding nitrogen to the reservoir in an attempt to boost production at the bottom of the food chain. The goal is to increase the productivity of the reservoir and eventually improve the size and health of kokanee salmon there.

"The reason we are stopping now is because EPA recently said 'Hey, you do need a permit after all,' " said corps spokesman Bruce Henrickson at Walla Walla.

He said it could take as long as a year to obtain a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit. The pilot project began in 2007. During the summer, a corps-operated barge travels the length of the reservoir and spreads ammonia nitrate in the water. Biologists from the department are analyzing the effects and had hoped to decide by next year if the project would become a long-term fixture.

"Unfortunately we are going to have to decide based on what (data) we have collected up to date if that is enough or if we have to add another year (to the pilot project)," said Joe DuPont (NYSE:DD PRB) (NYSE:DD PRA) (NYSE:DD) regional fish manager for the department at Lewiston.

In May, Ron Hanes of Orofino filed a 60-day notice of intent to sue the agencies over the project. He claimed nitrogen is a pollutant and under the Clean Water Act a permit is required to release it into the reservoir. Hanes is represented by Rick Eichstaedt of the law firm Bricklin and Newman in Spokane. "They realize they are going to have to comply with Clean Water Act," Eichstaedt said. "It wasn't an ambiguous requirement. If you are dumping chemicals or pollutants into a water body you have to have a permit."

The project began quietly, but over the past few years some visitors to the reservoir have reported seeing more blue green algae there, getting rashes after swimming, and others have sought to link steelhead disease outbreaks at Dworshak National Fish Hatchery to the project. Agency officials contend the nutrients they are adding are helping to reduce blue green algae blooms that can become toxic and they expect the pause in the project will make things worse.

Eichstaedt dismissed that concern and said the purpose of obtaining a permit is to analyze possible negative side effects and give the pubic a chance to comment.

"That is what these permits are for to assess how projects like this are going to affect water quality and what the best way to do it is."

Barker may be contacted at ebarker@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2273.

Newstex ID: KRTB-1112-47391126