Tribe, Wash. Utility Agree On New Dam License

NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Box Canyon Dam will become friendlier to fish under a federally mediated deal that ends a decade of litigation over the structure's new operating license.

The agreement between the Kalispel Tribe of Indians and the Pend Oreille County Public Utility District will help repair environmental damage caused by the dam when it was built in the 1950s. It's the latest example of tribes using the dam relicensing process to correct wrongs of the past.

"The tribe is glad to have the settlement process completed," tribal Chairman Glen Nenema said in a news release. "We look forward to beginning the important work of restoring and enhancing natural resources that are such a central part of our heritage and culture."

A signing ceremony was held Friday at the tribe's reservation at Usk, about 45 miles north of Spokane.

The dam on the Pend Oreille River near Ione in northeastern Washington created a 55-mile-long reservoir that flooded one-tenth of the small Kalispel Reservation and inundated numerous cultural sites. It also submerged the rapids that halted explorer David Thompson's quest to find a route from Idaho's Lake Pend Oreille to the Columbia River.