Banks Lake project draws new investor interest, but questions remain

The Banks Lake Pumped Storage Project has lingered since Columbia Basin Hydropower first brought it to the attention of local leaders in 2016.

Lately the project, planned to generate 500 to 1,000 megawatts of hydropower by moving water in an underground tunnel between Banks Lake and Lake Roosevelt, has drawn attention from a new potential investor and developer. But questions remain, hurdles are high, and clear steps forward are a ways off for the proposed project that would involve constructing an underground channel running directly underneath Grand Coulee's city center. 

Calling it one of the "top ten 'real' pumped storage hydropower projects in the U.S.," Erik Steimle, executive vice president of Rye Development, told the Columbia Basin Hydropower board at their May 28 meeting that he sees the project as "a wise use of resources." He will make the case to Rye's board of directors later this week.

Steimle uses the word "real" to distinguish the project from others that, in his estimation, don't have a practical path forward. But that doesn't mean the Banks Lake project is a done deal.

"If it goes well [with the Rye board] we will continue the due diligence process," Steimle said. 

Rye Development is backing several closed-loop pumped storage hydropower projects throughout the United States. The company's website lists portfolio projects in various stages, but none have actually been completed.

One of them, the Goldendale Project along the Washington-Oregon border, recently cleared a federal environmental review, while simultaneously drawing criticism from tribes and environmental advocacy groups.

Once thought to be up and running by as early as 2025, Columbia Basin Hydropower now estimates the Banks Lake project could come online in 2032. Engineering studies are still ongoing, including a geophysical study to investigate the area's geology, according to the Kleinschmidt Group, an engineering consulting firm.

Coming up with the money is also an issue, something Steimle hopes Rye could help with.

Tribal concerns, sovereignty and treaty rights raise more questions. Representatives from the Colville Tribes did not return a request for comment by press time, but past media coverage indicates concerns surrounding altered flow, increased temperature, and other water quality indicators that could impact the Upper Columbia United Tribes' efforts to reintroduce salmon above Grand Coulee Dam.

The potential for disturbing places of cultural and religious significance to the Colvilles was raised by former Colville Business Council Chairman Michael Marchand in 2017, according to a Spokesman-Review article.

Rye Development is owned by Climate Adaptive Infrastructure, an investment firm specializing in low-carbon infrastructure, and EDF Inc., a subsidiary of Électricité de France, a multinational electric utility company owned by the French government.