Se̓liš Ksanka Qĺispe̓ Dam Operator Reflects on a Decade of Tribal Stewardship
The CEO of Energy Keepers Inc., a Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes-owned corporation responsible for controlling Flathead Lake’s levels, said climate will remain a variable into the future
By Zoë Buhrmaster
In 2015, nearly a century after the Montana Power Company (MPC) began operating what was then called Kerr Dam on ancestral land to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CKST), the tribes acquired the hydroelectric project as independent operators, having acted as co-licensee with MPC since 1985. Tribal leaders changed the name to the Se̓liš Ksanka Qĺispe’ (SKQ), and it has since been under operational ownership of the tribes’ power producer, Energy Keepers Inc. (EKI).
The SKQ dam sits four-and-a-half miles downstream of Flathead Lake, at a height of 200 feet and a length of 381 feet. The hydroelectric structure is responsible for controlling the top 10 feet of Flathead Lake, in addition to regulating the flow of the Lower Flathead River, which eventually drains into the Columbia River Basin.
EKI, per the dam’s regulatory license, has 1.2 million acre feet (MAF) of storage capacity available to it, maintaining the water level between 2,883 feet and 2,893 feet. EKI must meet the minimum instream flows of water into Lower Flathead River, which vary depending on the season. From August to April, the flow minimum sits at a rate of 3,200 cubic feet per second (cfs), peaking at the 12,700 cfs threshold required in May and June before gradually slowing down over the remaining summer months.
In 2023, record-high temperatures resulted in an influx of snow melt and water runoff in the beginning of May, “quicker and faster than anybody’s ever seen,” Brian Lipscomb, CEO of EKI, said Feb. 6 during a community-science presentation hosted by the Flathead Lakers, Flathead Lake Biological Station and Flathead Lake Brewing Co.
By mid-June 2023, the water level of Flathead Lake began dropping precipitously. Despite dam operators doing everything within their legal operating license to offset the lake’s decline, water levels ultimately reached more than two feet below full-pool capacity, jeopardizing some business interests and recreation opportunities.
“We’ve never gotten 90 degrees for 10, 14 days at the beginning of May before,” Lipscomb said. “This hasn’t happened.”
Snow water equivalent (SWE) data for Flathead Lake from the Northwest River Forecast Center showed the spike immediately dropped to a rate unprecedented in the records that exist for SWE in the lake. Flathead Lake reached within two-tenths of full pool capacity in May that year, but because of the lack of runoff water in the later summer months, failed to retain a full pool. Still, the EKI managed to operate within their license and release the required instream flows to sustain the Lower Flathead River, as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission found the following spring.
Lipscomb said the 2023 temperatures point to climate-related changes that are turning up on EKI’s models, with extreme heat and extreme cold resulting in a wider range of temperature averages affecting how and when water replenishes the basin. He said the summer water supply also depends on diminishing meltwater from seasonal snowfields and receding glaciers, including Jackson Glacier, whose reduction Lipscomb illustrated in a side-by-side photo comparison between 1914 and 2020.
“We just got to think, how do we be resilient in the face of all that,” Lipscomb said. “Looking backwards, it is not what we’re going to see looking forward.”
To operate the dam, EKI relies on data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which tracks monthly water supply volumes, seasonal precipitation and temperature outlooks. For streamflow forecasts, EKI turns to the Northwest River Forecast Center, while its snowpack data comes from the Natural Resource Conversation Service. Out of an effort to increase transparency on how the dam calculates decisions, EKI began compiling this information in early 2024 into a comprehensive graph it publish on its website, with weekly updates in the spring and summer and monthly updates in the winter.
EKI is also responsible for maintaining a drought management plan (DMP), per article 60 of the dam’s license. During its licensure, the MPC had previously developed a plan inclusive of a request to modify the license, but it was never granted as it did not meet the required minimum instream flow. In 2010, Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) underwent the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) regulatory process for updating a DMP, which included an environmental analysis and public comment.
Since then, the Energy Keepers have worked in collaboration with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), the Bureau of Reclamation (which operates Hungry Horse Dam), the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to ensure that the strategies laid out in the DMP permitted storage of the required 1.2 million feet of water while also meeting the minimum instream flow requirements. Lipscomb said EKI has met those goals each year.
“We’ve been successful every year, including 2023,” Lipscomb said.
In August 2024, EKI officially incorporated the DMP into its license.
With plenty of potential for more winter weather on deck, predictions for this year’s water levels for the Flathead Basin remain uncertain. Northwest Montana’s near-normal precipitation between mid-October and early December gave way to a relatively dry January, with the exception of a few small storms, while the past week’s storm cycles helped replenish the basin. Even so, Lipscomb said it’s still too early to make predictions for spring.