Swift 1 P-2111

General information
Waterway	Lewis River
Current status	Active
Type of facility	Conventional Hydro
Mode of hydropower generation	Run-of-river
Type of permit	FERC License
FERC information
FERC docket #	P-2111
FERC project name	Swift No. 1
Permit issued	6/21/08
Permit expiration	5/27/58
Ownership and operation
Owner	PacifiCorp
Owner type	Investor-Owned Utility
Year first online (conventional hydro)	1958
Transmission or distribution system owner	PacifiCorp
Power and generating capacity
Number of units	3
Total capacity from hydraulic turbine-generator units within each plant	240.0 mW
Average annual net hydropower generation	678,888.2 mWH

The Swift No. 1 (P-2111) obtained its license in combination with three other projects: Yale (P-2071), Merwin (P-935), and Swift No. 2 (P-2213). Collectively, these projects have once license are known as Lewis River Projects.

PacifiCorp’s Swift No. 1 Project is the furthest upstream and largest project in the Lewis River system.

The project includes a 412-foot-high, 2,100-foot-long embankment structure, impounding an 11.5-mile-long, 4,600-acre reservoir

Fish Passage

The 2004 settlement agreement stipulated that PacifiCorp must provide fish passage facilities to allow anadromous fish to move through each of the three project reservoirs by their own volition – opening up over 170 miles of spawning habitat.

In 2016, the utility convinced National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) that habitat restoration could provide equivalent benefits to fish passage at a lower cost. Despite the significant scientific and technical information disputing this conclusion, NMFS and USFWS issued a determination that deemed fish passage “inappropriate” four years later. The federal agencies stated that PacifiCorp would likely not need to build two of the proposed facilities and could defer a decision to build the other two facilities until 2031 and 2035.

In 2021, NMFS and USFWS reversed this decision in dual determinations upholding the licensee requirement to build fish passage at Yale and Merwin Dams by June 26, 2025.

NMFS and USFWS determination on fish passage requirement at Yale Dam (Oct 2021)

NMFS and USFWS determination on fish passage requirement at Merwin Dam (Dec 2021)