Chronology – Year 2003
PMEs continue to evolve
Once the initial draft PMEs were in place, the Solution Team asked PSE to use them as a basis for preparing a "draft proposed action" for the project. In early March, 61 representatives from the working groups, the Solution Team, consultants and FERC participated in a 2-1/2 day cross-resource workshop. There they reviewed and discussed the initial 150 PMEs and PSE's 54 proposed actions. Participants left the meetings prepared to work on a second set of draft PMEs, and returned in May for another day-long cross-resource workshop to further discuss and refine the PMEs. From this collaborative work, PSE was able to prepare yet another draft proposed action document, which The Louis Berger Group eventually used for evaluation in preparing the draft of the PDEA, and for converting into draft articles for the license.
Working group teamlets form to help with studies and issues
In 2003 a new group, the technical scenario teamlet, was charged with processing modeling requests from the working groups using the Baker River HYDROPS model (a model to determine how water usage impacts other Baker resources). Serving as a clearinghouse for scenario modeling requests, the teamlet provided standardized formats for input and output model runs, and ran the modeling requests. A second teamlet convened to discuss flood control issues on the Baker River.
The settlement process
With one year left before the license application was due, in April of 2003 it was time to begin drafting the settlement agreement. Over the course of the year, attorney-drafted outlines slowly evolved into draft boilerplate settlement language. A legal working group comprised of the attorneys representing various participants helped with the painstaking process. By the time of the license application and PDEA filing in April 2004, the settlement agreement was in its final stages, with an anticipated completion in the next few months.
Draft Baker license issued for public comment
FERC issued the final Scoping Document 2 in May 2003, which incorporated comments to document 1. In October PSE issued a draft License Application for the Baker Project, with comments on the four volumes due by January 2004. This would leave just four months to incorporate changes and complete the final application.