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<br />S nakg 2?jver <br /> <br />In 1906, the Idaho.Oregon Light and Power Company tried to take advantage ofthe <br />topography at Oxbow. by building a dam and then drilling a I,ODO.foot tunnel to shortcut a <br />two-mile loop of river (Caney and others. 1979). Despite a significant investment. the <br />company managed to generate only 600 kilowatts (kw) at this facility; with debts mount- <br />ing. the company filed for bankruptcy. Later during the 1940s. the U.S. Army Corps of <br /> <br /> <br />Brownlee Dam on the Snake River <br /> <br />Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation were maneuvering for the rights to build a 590- <br />foot dam in Hells Canyon. But the Idaho Power Company, reorganized from the ashes of <br />the Idaho.Oregon Light and Power Company. took advantage of options that it had inher. <br />ited at the Oxbow, and received a license to dam the Snake River upstream at Brownlee. <br />Short.circuited by Idaho Power Company, the two Federal agencies would have to be <br />content with their eight dams further downstream on the Snake and the Columbia. In all. <br />Idaho Power built three dams. called the Hells Canyon Complex. within a 35.mile stretch <br />ofthe Snake. Brownlee was completed in 1958. a new Oxbow Dam in 1%1. and Hells Canyon <br />Daminl%7. <br />When the gates were first closed. combined storage of the Hells Canyon Complex was one <br />million acre.feet of water, with 90 percent held in Brownlee Reservoir. All together. that repre. <br />sents only seven percent of the river's average annual flow as measured at Hells Canyon. <br />Contrast that capacity with storage behind Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado River. where <br />the single reservoir holds 2.3 years of that river's flow. Because the Hells Canyon Complex <br />doesn't have much storage capacity. the dams have linle value for flood control. and managers <br />are able to maximize the potential fur the generation of electricity. <br />Idaho Power Company is tied into a grid that provides electricity throughout the West. <br />The demand for electricity within this grid is not uniform. Daily peak demands occur <br />during summer afternoons or early winter mornings. The need for power drops off <br />markedly on weekends. Weather conditions (and consequently the power needed for <br /> <br /> <br />21 <br />