The Washington Public Power Supply System - WPPSS - will fade from the Pacific Northwest over the next year.

On Friday, WPPSS board members heard a consultant recommend the 40-year-old name be dropped because it carries too much baggage: memories of a failed nuclear power plant construction program that ended in the largest municipal bond default up to that time.

WPPSS became "whoops" for many in the Northwest.

And now, it's time to shed the past by shedding the name.

"It's hurting your business opportunities because you're called WPPSS. It's a bad name," said Seat tle consultant Anne Fennessy.

"If everyone said 'Washington Public Power Supply System' all the time, we wouldn't be here recommending a name change," she said.

Board members agreed WPPSS must be dropped.

Although no vote was taken at Friday's meeting, a Herald poll of members of the executive board and the full board of directors found no one opposed to shucking WPPSS.

The executive board will vote to drop the name in January or February - assuming the switch won't cost too much, said Louis Winnard, board chairman.

No one has given much thought as to what will replace WPPSS. The utility has budgeted $75,000 for consultants' recommendations on how to go about selecting a new name and planning for its adoption, but may not spend the total amount, said Mary Ace, a WPPSS spokeswoman.

No one has a firm grasp on how much the switch would cost after officials pick a new name.

Ron Webring, a WPPSS vice president, suggested $300,000 might be spent over several years but cautioned that was a guess.

No money would be spent on new supplies simply to change the name, Webring said.

Ironically, a goodly number of Northwest residents have forgotten - or never learned - that WPPSS once was pronounced with derision by most in the region.

In a survey of 1,000 homes in Washington and the Portland area, 47 percent said they didn't know what WPPSS was, Fennessy said.

It's been 15 years since the default on bonds for two nuclear plants and the end of work on two others. Only the No. 2 commercial nuclear power plant north of Richland ever operated.

WPPSS began as a small endeavor when a number of public utility districts banded together to build generating stations.

The Packwood Lake hydroelec tric plant in the shadows of Mount Rainier was the consortium's first project - and it's still operating, generating about 3 percent of the output of the WPPSS nuclear plant.

WPPSS officials have said they want to venture into other energy businesses. They've already licensed a site for a natural gas-fired turbine at WPPSS's old Satsop nuclear park west of Olympia.

There has been talk of combining with other interests to build electrical transmission lines or building natural gas pipelines.

"We have a marvelous opportunity for new business. For this, we need a name change," said Executive Board member Don Carter, who manages Richland utilities.