Many years ago, people built a dead end where two rivers met — and blocked an ancient pathway for migrating salmon and steelhead.
A draft evaluation of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Willamette River basin dams that includes analyses of a deeper drawdown at Detroit Dam and a cessation of hydropower is up for public review. However, in the draft the Corps’ preferred alternative maintains hydropower at the dams.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Walla Walla District, in partnership with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Yakama Nation, the Washington Department of Ecology, and the Mid-Columbia Fisheries Enhancement Group has awarded a $1.2 million construction contract to PIPKIN INC. for the Bateman Island Causeway removal project.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is alerting Willamette Valley residents that it will begin drawing down reservoirs backed up behind some of its 13 dams in the river system, an action designed to aid the downstream migration of salmon and steelhead through the dams, but also one that has increased downstream turbidity that impacts city drinking water.
After lifting the stay Sept. 11 on long-running litigation that challenges federal environmental impact statements and biological opinions regarding the impact of operations of Columbia and Snake river federal dams on imperiled salmon and steelhead, a federal judge last week set a court schedule that continues the legal battles.
Plaintiffs in long-running court battles that since 2001 have challenged environmental impact statements and biological opinions regarding the impact of operations of Columbia and Snake river federal dams on imperiled salmon and steelhead are heading back to court, according to a filing by the groups this week in U.S. District Court in Oregon.
Predation by sea birds on salmon and steelhead smolts in some years is responsible for as much as 50 percent of all smolt mortalities during the outmigration to the sea from the Columbia and Snake river basins, according to a presentation this week at a meeting of the Northwest Power and Conservation Council.
Anticipating extra turbidity and an interruption of the clean drinking water it withdraws from the North Santiam River, the City of Salem declared a state of emergency at its City Council meeting last week. The expected turbidity is due to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ deep drawdown next year of its reservoir backed up behind Detroit Dam to aid juvenile salmon and steelhead passage, particularly for salmon and steelhead listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act.
Federal agencies this week backed away from their efforts to prepare a supplemental environmental impact statement for Columbia River basin dam operations and their impact on salmon and steelhead, citing a June 12 Presidential Memorandum as their justification.
The Trump administration issued a memorandum this week that disrupts Columbia River basin salmon and steelhead recovery by rescinding a 2023 agreement that included the federal government, two states and four Columbia River tribes and funded that effort with nearly $1 billion.
Higher flows from Libby Dam designed to encourage endangered white sturgeon to move up into spawning areas on the Kootenai River downstream in Idaho and British Columbia began last week, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced.
Public comments are open until June 6 on whether and how the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers should implement a deeper fall drawdown at its Detroit Reservoir as well as whether the agency should permanently end hydropower production at eight dams in Oregon’s Willamette River basin.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has released the first environmental impact statement since 1980 for its Willamette Valley system of 13 dams. The final EIS analyzes several alternatives and selects the preferred alternative the Corps says will be best for spring Chinook and winter steelhead listed under the Endangered Species Act. The Corps expects to release its Record of Decision in May.
Spring spill at Columbia/Snake River dams to aid juvenile salmon and steelhead in their migration through the hydro projects and out to the ocean is in full motion with all of the lower eight dams on the two rivers initiating full spill by April 10.
Predacious sea lions in Bonneville Dam’s tailwaters took a bite out of the spring Chinook salmon and steelhead runs during the spring of 2024. Some 2.8 percent of the number of salmon counted at the dam last spring and 3.8 percent of the number of steelhead counted were snagged and eaten by Steller and California sea lions, according to a recently-released annual report by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Scoping meetings to explore possible changes to the 2020 Columbia River salmon/steelhead environmental impact statement have been delayed again.
Portland District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) invites the public to comment on the Engineering Evaluation/Cost Analysis (EE/CA) Report for the Upland Operable Unit (OU) of Bradford Island in Cascade Locks, Oregon.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is in the process of revamping the dam’s northern-most fish ladder near the Washington shore at a cost of some $8 million. According to the Corps, the project is changing out a portion of the fish ladder, which spans 800 feet from top to bottom, that was originally a serpentine passage of concrete walls, called baffles, with a newer baffle design more friendly to lamprey.
The Columbia-Snake River System, a critical trade corridor supporting $24 billion in commerce annually, will pause operations for two weeks beginning March 9, as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Portland District, conducts its annual navigation lock maintenance.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is still determining “how to proceed” in implementing actions directed by the 2024 Water Resources Development Act and a new jeopardy biological opinion for its 13 Willamette River projects completed by NOAA Fisheries Dec. 26. The Corps says that it still needs funds from Congress that it could get…
Two federal agencies are extending the public scoping period for the Columbia River System Operations Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS.)
A federal judge in Oregon has ruled that releasing hatchery-raised, non-native summer steelhead into the North and South Santiam rivers in the Willamette River system harms the river’s wild winter steelhead and violates the federal Endangered Species Act.
Citing new information and changed circumstances, two federal agencies are reopening this week their 2020 final environmental impact study for operations at 14 Columbia/Snake river federal hydroelectric dams and are now seeking public input. The final EIS guides the dams’ impacts on salmon and steelhead listed under the federal Endangered Species Act.
In just its second year of court-ordered drawdowns at two Willamette River dams to aid passage of threatened spring Chinook salmon and winter steelhead, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced just prior to Thanksgiving that it halted the drawdown at one of the dams due to water quality issues at three municipalities downstream.
An agreement to study transportation and recreational services that would need mitigation if the four lower Snake River dams were breached to recover the river’s threatened salmon and steelhead was signed early last week by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Washington’s Department of Transportation.
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