Fishing and conservation groups say that a federal Columbia/Snake river salmon protection plan could do more harm than good if left in place while its makers undertake a court-ordered revision to bring it into compliance with the Endangered Species Act and other statutes.
A NOAA Fisheries “findings letter” generally gives good grades to the three action agencies charged with implementing actions designed to avoid jeopardizing the survival of salmon and steelhead stocks passing through the Federal Columbia River Power System.
A federal judge, and the lead attorneys for those involved in the lawsuit, agreed today (May 16) that the federal government should be allowed a year to recast a Columbia River Basin salmon recovery plan that was judged by the court last week to be legally flawed.
Northwest members of Congress of both parties remain opposed to breaching dams despite a federal judge’s ruling against the 2000 salmon recovery plan that was touted as an alternative to dam removal.
But some members believe the judge’s order for federal agencies to rework the plan may be an opportunity to improve it.
Apparently the fare at the foot of the Columbia River’s Bonneville Dam was so fine last spring that wandering California sea lions invited along a few friends this year to sample a Northwest favorite, upriver spring chinook salmon.
A Portland-based U.S. District Court judge on Tuesday ruled that a federal salmon recovery strategy adopted in December 2000 is illegal because it relies improperly on actions that are not “reasonably certain to occur.”
A federal court decision this week that sends federal salmon recovery strategists back to the drawing board is seen by some that are party to the lawsuit as vindication.
Others see it as an opportunity for a mid-course correction of what is essentially, they say, a sound Columbia River basin salmon recovery plan.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers came under criticism from salmon managers at this week’s Technical Management Team meeting for how it balances its NOAA Fisheries Biological Opinion obligation to provide spill at lower Snake River and Columbia River dams and its obligation to meet state Clean Water Act regulations for total dissolved gas at the same dams.
With the bulk of the Snake River juvenile migration still in the river, the Technical Management Team this week decided to continue high flows and spill at Dworshak Dam that boosts flows at Lower Granite Dam on the lower Snake River.
TMT will revisit that decision at next week’s meeting, but river operating agencies warn that Dworshak water that is helping to push juveniles downstream now will no longer be available as early as next weekend.
A federal judge who has said he is predisposed toward overturning the federal government’s plan for Columbia River basin salmon recovery said Monday he gained “food for thought” from hearing oral arguments in the lawsuit pressed by conservation groups.
The federal judge presiding in a lawsuit that challenges federal salmon recovery strategies in the Columbia Basin this week issued a “draft opinion” that would — if it were his final call — force the agencies involved to rework the plan commonly referred to as the Biological Opinion, or “BiOp.”
Hydro operating agencies and to a lesser extent fisheries agencies agreed this week that operations at lower Snake River reservoirs will remain at higher than the minimum operating pools (MOP) in order to give tugboat operators the depth they need to navigate certain sections of the river.
Hard work, experimentation and compromise were the words uttered most often Thursday as the Northwest Power and Conservation Council caught its collective breath, and approved unanimously amendments to the Columbia/Snake river mainstem portion of its fish and wildlife program.
With a rising water supply forecast and juvenile fish already showing up at dams, the decision this week by the Technical Management Team to begin spill at four dams in the Lower Columbia River was made without challenge.
Federal, state and tribal fisheries managers proposed to federal operating agencies to begin spill at McNary, John Day, The Dalles and Bonneville dams and to start the spill Monday, April 14.
A provision of the NOAA Fisheries 2000 biological opinion calls for the Bureau of Reclamation to begin implementing habitat projects, such as providing screens at irrigation diversions, but the agency must get congressional authorization before it can begin the work. That authorization could also bring with it additional money to address Northwest fish and wildlife issues.
Columbia River Basin power and fish managers decided Thursday that spill at hydroelectric projects as well as transportation of juvenile salmon around dams would begin dams this week.
Federal approval of Oregon’s 1996 water quality plan was deemed largely invalid by a U.S. District Court decision this week.
That sent the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, NOAA Fisheries and the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality back to the drawing board to come up with a timeline within 30 days on how the agencies will fix the discrepancies.
The public record has closed, but deliberations go on as the Northwest Power Planning and Conservation Council tries to settle on its vision of how it would like federal agencies to operate the federal Columbia/Snake river hydrosystem for the best benefit of fish and wildlife.
Pressured by biological opinion deadlines, the Bonneville Power Administration and its federal partners are pushing for speedy funding and scientific decisions that, to the distress of others involved, go outside the normal process for choosing Columbia River Basin fish and wildlife projects.
Given the current water supply forecast for the Snake River, fisheries managers and river operating agencies this week determined that spring spill would not begin April 3 at lower Snake River dams.
However, that decision could be reversed at the Technical Management Team’s next meeting if the water supply forecast rises as a result of greater than normal March precipitation.
Northwest Power and Conservation Council members on Wednesday postponed action on “mainstem” amendments to its fish and wildlife program, hoping to forge in the next two weeks enough agreement on water management and other issues to win the needed supermajority for passage.
The lower Snake River dissolved gas Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) plan is ready for review.
The Washington Department of Ecology will unveil its plan to improve the levels of dissolved gas in the section of river that is on its 303(d) list and consistently out of compliance with the state’s 110 percent TDG limits due to operations at U.S. Army Corps of Engineer dams, at a public meeting in Kennewick, Wash. March 25.
Federal agencies this week revealed that overall they will spend more in 2003 and 2004 for Columbia River Basin salmon and steelhead recovery activities than they did in 2002.
A final tally of data from last spring’s initial test of a “removable spillway weir” at the Snake River’s Lower Granite Dam shows that the device attracts young salmon and steelhead better, is more efficient in its use of water and sends the juvenile on their way faster than other means of passage, including spill.
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council is expected next week to decide whether or not to approve amendments for the Columbia River mainstem portion of its fish and wildlife program.
The Council meets Tuesday and Wednesday, March 11-12, in Whitefish, Mont.
An early draft of the spring and summer update for the Technical Management Team’s 2003 Water Management Plan is predicting water conditions that could preclude spill and order maximum transportation for smolts at lower Snake River dams this spring.
While low numbers of fry have been seen in the Ives and Pierce islands area directly downstream from Bonneville Dam, emergence of the lower Columbia River chum, listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act, is in full swing further downstream.
While low numbers of fry have been seen in the Ives and Pierce islands area directly downstream from Bonneville Dam, emergence of the lower Columbia River chum, listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act, is in full swing further downstream.
A longstanding assumption that the more efficient a hydroelectric turbine is run, the higher the survival for juvenile salmon that pass through the churning action of the turbine was challenged this week by Dr. John Skalski of the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences at the University of Washington.
Intensive number crunching and a reliance on the capitalization of planned land acquisitions would push Columbia Basin fish and wildlife expenses under a $139 million spending limit without the need for large-scale project terminations, according to a proposal developed by the Northwest Power and Conservation Council staff.
Congress has finally passed an annual spending bill to fund most departments of government for this fiscal year, which began Oct. 1.
The catchall appropriations bill for FY2003 includes a $700 million increase in the Bonneville Power Administration’s borrowing authority as well as funding for numerous salmon recovery programs that were sought by Northwest members of Congress.
After breaching federally prescribed limits last year, Oregon and Washington fishery officials are under the gun this year to keep impacts to steelhead mortality under a 2 percent cap during lower mainstem Columbia River commercial and sport fisheries targeting spring chinook salmon.
President George W. Bush in his budget for fiscal year 2004 is asking Congress for less spending by federal agencies on Columbia Basin salmon recovery than he requested last year.
Last year, Bush requested a total of $506 million for FY03, but a catchall spending bill now moving through Congress would cut that by more than $50 million
A closer look at the data from a Jan. 16 test at Bonneville Dam showed that lowering the tailwater elevation below 11.5 feet could potentially put as many as 20 percent of the lower Columbia River chum redds in the Ives Island area below the dam at risk, far more than the previous estimate of 2 percent.
The process to cut the Northwest Power and Conservation Council’s fish and wildlife program’s 2003 budget to the $139 million cap imposed by the Bonneville Power Administration could be making some progress.
The final report on the costs and impacts of deepening the Columbia River navigation channel from 40 feet to 43 feet, released this week by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, lowers the project’s cost and raises its benefits.
And although the Corps made some concessions to critics, lower river communities say the project still does not adequately address their concerns and they are continuing to oppose the project.
The process to squeeze the Northwest Power and Conservation Council’s fish and wildlife program under a $139 million budget cap lurched forward this week with thorny policy issues and ever-changing ledger sheet continuing to complicate things.
Tribal officials and other Columbia River basin fish and wildlife officials on Monday again stated the case that their programs are already under-funded and are inappropriately being targeted for budget cuts as a remedy for the Bonneville Power Administration’s financial missteps.
The Senate has approved an additional $700 million line of credit for the Bonneville Power Administration, mainly to finance new electricity transmission lines and improvements.
Federal, state and tribal managers are mulling their options this week, saying a proposed lopping of Columbia Basin fish and wildlife project funding is inequitable and that certain steps could and should be taken to avoid the cutbacks.
Under pressure to reduce the amount of water needed for chum operations, Technical Management Team fisheries managers may decide this afternoon to de-water a small portion of chum redds downstream from Bonneville Dam.
Saying it doesn’t have enough information to judge the task at hand, the Northwest Power and Conservation Council this week delayed a decision about how it would pare back its fish and wildlife program to fit under a $139 million cap.
Supporters and opponents of proposed revisions to the Northwest Power and Conservation Council’s mainstem fish and wildlife program both claimed Tuesday to have law, science and the best interests of the region on their side
After determining in an earlier court decision that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers must comply with the Clean Water Act when operating its lower Snake River dams, not just the Endangered Species Act, U.S. District Court Judge Helen Frye ruled in Portland last week that the Corps’ operations do meet state water quality standards.
Opponents of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Columbia River Ports’ $156.2 million plan to deepen about 100 miles of Columbia River navigation channel from 40 feet to 43 feet were out in force at Astoria and Portland hearings this week — their last chance to voice opinions on the controversial project.
With a poor water year looming, the Columbia River dam operators said they will evaluate several alternatives to determine how much water can be used this year to keep Columbia River chum redds covered with water below Bonneville Dam.
The newly elected 108th Congress convened this week, with a Republican majority in both the House and Senate choosing a leadership team closely in tune with the Bush administration’s environmental agenda.
Tough choices are ahead for the Northwest Power Planning Council which on Thursday agreed to lead a process to cut, defer or reduce the scope of some $40 million worth of fish and wildlife work that the panel had earlier recommended, or was expected to recommend, for funding.
The Northwest Power Planning Council on Thursday moved an experimental lower Columbia River selective spring chinook harvest proposal to the front of the funding line so the project can be implemented in February.
A tidal wave of invoices expected during fiscal year 2003 has the potential to push spending in the Northwest Power Planning Council’s fish and wildlife program some $41 million, at minimum, beyond the $139 million cap set by the program’s funding agency, the Bonneville Power Administration.
Those testifying Tuesday evening attempted to pull Northwest Power Planning Council members in opposite directions — some saying the panel’s draft mainstem amendment follows a proper biological and economic course and others saying it ignores both legal and scientific bounds.
A Seattle-based U.S. District Court judge on Thursday issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting navigation channel dredging on the lower Snake River that was scheduled to begin on Dec. 15.
Both sides in the lawsuit agree that the injunction effectively scuttles dredging for the season.
Oregon and Washington are considering the final permits that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will need to move ahead on its $156.2 million project to deepen the Columbia River channel from 40 feet to 43 feet between Portland and the river’s mouth.
Sightings of ocean-roving pinnipeds such as California sea lions have for decades been reported by fishers and others as far upstream as Bonneville Dam — more than 140 river miles from the Pacific Ocean.
But their presence seems more in evidence below the dam in recent years, intercepting adult salmon as they approach fish ladders that get them past that first hydrosystem hurdle on the Columbia River.
The Bonneville Power Administration’s top official announced today that the agency will not, at least for now, pursue a rate increase as a remedy for a growing budget deficit but instead continue to scour its own activities and the programs it funds for $500 million in cost savings over the next four years.
The Northwest Power Planning Council is expected this week to offer its recommendations on how, in the post-2006 era, the Bonneville Power Administration should distribute power generated in the federal hydrosystem.
The rhetoric flared Wednesday in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, along with promises to produce substantive scientific arguments, in what was the first of several public hearings scheduled to take comment of the Northwest Power Planning Council’s draft “mainstem” amendment to its Columbia Basin fish and wildlife program.
Only five members of the public spoke during the Wednesday session.
The potential impacts to Columbia River Basin power generation from proposed changes to mainstem hydro fish operations are quantifiable based on historic averages, though year to year fluctuations in water supply and energy market prices can greatly affect costs and revenues.
The Northwest Power Planning Council draft mainstem amendments are getting praise in Montana, where they’re regarded as a policy step toward ending a long-standing conflict over federal dam operations in northwest Montana.
The Council’s proposed amendments to its fish and wildlife program could, among other things, alter dam operations to benefit Montana fisheries while still delivering water for migrating salmon in the lower Columbia River Basin.
A federal judge has denied an injunction request that would have scuttled a planned six-year evaluation of the egg-to-fry survival of kokanee salmon in northern Idaho’s Lake Pend Oreille.
The study is intended to further test the findings of an Idaho Department of Fish and Game study indicating that kokanee fry survival is greater when the lake is held at a higher winter level (2,055 feet above sea level) than levels maintained for the most part since the 1970s (2,051).
A draft amendment to the Northwest Power Planning Council fish and wildlife program approved Thursday would break the prescribed Columbia Basin federal hydrosystem operational mold by — among other measures — sending more water from upstream reservoirs in winter to generate power and possibly less in spring to augment flows for migrating juvenile salmon and steelhead.
Support for a Montana/Idaho-led plan to alter dam operations that was approved for public comment this week by the Northwest Power Planning Council has been evident during the Bonneville Power Administration’s Financial Choices public process this spring and summer.
An eight-month effort to resolve issues through mediation has ended, coincident with a cavalcade of new filings in the lawsuit brought to challenge the federal government’s Columbia Basin salmon recovery plan.
Plaintiffs in the case, National Wildlife Federation, et al. v. National Marine Fisheries Service, are asking the court to require NMFS to withdraw its 2000 Federal Columbia River Power System biological opinion and reinitiate consultation on hydrosystem operations.
Caspian terns that settle in each spring on an island in the Columbia River estuary and prey on passing salmon and steelhead smolts do hinder Endangered Species Act fish recovery efforts, according to a report released Sept. 26 by the National Marine Fisheries Service.
A massive fish die-off over the past two weeks has fanned the flames of controversy in the Klamath River Basin of southern Oregon and northern California with tribal members, conservation and fishing groups, a politician and California fishery officials saying federal water management policies give too much water to irrigators and too little for in-river fish flows.
Preliminary testing of a “removable spillway weir” (RSW) at the Snake River’s Lower Granite Dam indicates that the fish passage device has great drawing power — flooding more juvenile salmon and steelhead downstream per volume of water than is accomplished with traditional spill.
The Northwest Power Planning Council has nearly completed the first round in its newly created three-year rolling “provincial review” process for selecting projects to be funded through its Columbia Basin fish and wildlife program.
The Bonneville Power Administration says that power purchases and foregone revenues forced by federal hydrosystem operations to help migrating salmon and steelhead cost the agency’s ratepayers $1.5 billion during fiscal year 2001, according to a Northwest Power Planning Council report released Wednesday.
The federal Columbia Basin salmon and steelhead recovery effort can list $3.8 billion in costs over the past 20 years, but can not identify a biological benefits bottom line, according to a report recently released by U.S. General Accounting Office.
A report by the RAND Corporation says removal of the four lower Snake River dams and replacing the lost power with at least 20 percent conservation and renewable energy would have a negligible effect on the Northwest’s economy and could even add up to 15,000 new jobs.
Bonneville Power Administration administrator Steve Wright last week challenged the Columbia Basin’s federal, state and tribal fish and wildlife managers to identify potential cost reductions that could help the agency limit future power rate increases.
Dam operators and fisheries managers this week agreed at a multi-agency Implementation Team meeting to swap a reduced level of spill in August at some dams so that biologists can conduct a spill test at The Dalles Dam in October.
Public utility customers of the Bonneville Power Administration demanded this week deep cuts to the agency’s budgets and questioned the value of continued spill at federal dams to aid salmon recovery.
The anticipation of funding from the Bonneville Power Administration for fish and wildlife projects recommended by the Northwest Power Planning Council has become, in some cases, as maddening as Chinese water torture, according to one Council member.
The Northwest Power Planning Council sorted through sometimes conflicting advice in making a decision to recommend that 10 projects be funded under its “innovative” fish and wildlife project category during the current fiscal year at cost of nearly $2 million.
Persistence has paid off for project proponents who will test whether a Umatilla River basin aquifer could, essentially, be pumped brimful in winter when surface water is plentiful and seep out during the summer’s dry months to enhance stream flows for fish and feed irrigation pumps.
A panel of economists handpicked by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and meeting this week in Portland, Ore., determined that the agency’s economic analysis of the Corps’ $149 million project to deepen the Columbia River shipping channel by 3 feet overall is reasonable and prudent.
Northwest Power Planning Council members from Idaho and Montana say they are willing to accept — with qualifications — a federal document’s prescriptions for running the Columbia-Snake federal hydrosystem as a baseline for the Council’s own fish and wildlife program mainstem strategy.
A list of 104 systemwide and mainstem fish and wildlife project proposals have started down the final gauntlet in the Northwest Power Planning Council’ “rolling provincial review” funding approval process, with only 14 passing muster in an initial technical review by the Independent Scientific Review Panel.
Already behind schedule, implementation of the Columbia Basin salmon recovery plan would slip further under an annual federal funding bill recently approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Plans and actions taken by key federal agencies to implement a 10-year Columbia River Basin salmon and steelhead recovery program are — for the most part — on schedule to meet the first major benchmark in the plan — a major 2003 evaluation, the National Marine Fisheries Services announced Tuesday.
Senate appropriators have agreed to increase the Army Corps of Engineers’ budget for the Columbia River salmon mitigation by $6 million next year, to $87 million.
The Northwest Power Planning Council on Wednesday recommended the expenditure of $462,000 to have its artificial production review process complete draft documents that are necessary for Columbia Basin salmon hatcheries to gain “coverage” under the Endangered Species Act.
The Bureau of Reclamation said that it can deliver this summer to Snake River dam reservoirs owned by Idaho Power Company only about two-thirds of the water required to augment river flows in the lower Snake River.
Drawdown at Cascade Lake, north of Boise, Idaho, is one of several options the Bureau of Reclamation could choose to move water into the lower Snake River for flow augmentation this summer, but the idea is strongly opposed by local residents and Idaho Republican Sen. Larry Craig.
The Bush administration has changed its position and now supports legislation to require fish and wildlife agencies to give greater weight in making endangered species listings and other decisions to peer-reviewed and field-gathered scientific information.
An abundant Methow River Basin spring chinook salmon return has allowed federal, state and tribal fishery officials to again implement a plan that involves the capture of naturally spawning fish to reinvigorate hatchery programs and allows any “surplus” hatchery returns to find spawning grounds in the wild.
The premises underlying three controversial fish passage strategies employed in the Columbia-Snake mainstem hydrosystem have not, in many cases, been scientifically justified.
The Technical Management Team this week determined conditions are right to end spring spill at lower Columbia River and lower Snake River dams and that barging at lower Snake River dams is unnecessary until stream flows drop and the water temperature rises.
An envisioned 10-year plan for managing the federal Klamath Project failed to clear its final hurdle this week with the Bureau of Reclamation’s regional chief criticizing federal fish agencies’ strategies for protecting fish listed under the Endangered Species Act.
A later than normal snow melt is filling streams and reservoirs in the Columbia River basin and threatening to flood some areas. Average flows over the past seven days in the lower Columbia River have been 50 percent higher than the previous week and many of the storage dams in the upper reaches of the basin have been filling at a rate faster than expected.
Biological opinions released by two federal agencies last week said a project that will deepen by three feet the Columbia River shipping channel from Portland, Ore., to Astoria will pose no jeopardy to 13 species of salmon, steelhead and cutthroat trout listed, or being considered, under the federal Endangered Species Act.
A draft report now out for technical review likens the impact of predatory Caspian terns on migrating Columbia Basin juvenile salmon and steelhead to those brought by human activities that increase fish mortality.
With rain, warmer weather and more snow melt, juvenile salmon have been getting the amount of water they need to pass Columbia and Snake river dams. After a delayed spring snow melt, river levels began rising two weeks ago and have remained at or above target flow levels recommended in the National Marine Fisheries Service 2000 biological opinion.
The federal action agencies say they are “right on track” in implementing measures called for in a December 2000 federal fish recovery plan for the Columbia Basin.
Critics call that assertion a “fairy tale.”
A National Marine Fisheries Service draft biological opinion claims that proposed federal Klamath Basin irrigation operations put at risk the existence of coho salmon populations.
But the document released Thursday prescribes actions — such as the creation of a “water bank” — that the agency says can keep irrigators and fish afloat while scientists figure out just what Klamath River mainstem flows are needed for fish.
The Caspian terns that assemble each spring, in recent history, in the
Columbia River estuary to breed, and hatch and rear their young, seem
unruffled by the legal and political gyrations that preceded their return
to the Pacific Northwest.
The Idaho Power Company says that water from its Brownlee Reservoir on the
Snake River will be unavailable before August to augment flows in the river
unless the Bonneville Power Administration pays the company for the water.
While waiting for the spring runoff to begin, fisheries managers and dam operators are looking for water to keep river flow up near biological opinion flow targets.
After a week of cool and dry weather across the Northwest, river flows are dropping and threatening to stall the spring juvenile salmon and steelhead migration.
For the second consecutive year, the spring chinook salmon tangle net fishery on the Columbia and Willamette rivers is showing positive results in immediate survival, according to an interim report by Oregon and Washington fisheries agencies. In addition, a recently completed study on long-term survival is showing that adults caught in the tangle net and released are surviving in high numbers.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will suspend about 150 public water projects — about one-fifth of its projects that already have congressional approval — while it reviews their economic justifications. The decision follows the Corps’ announcement last week that it would suspend a $311 million project to deepen the Delaware River, a project that was widely criticized for its faulty economics.
The Senate on Thursday passed a sweeping energy bill that would allow owners of non-federal hydroelectric dams to change new fishway requirements if they showed they could meet environmental standards in less costly ways or benefit power production.
Columbia River sport fishers’ piece of the spring chinook salmon pie is shrinking as the number of adult fish continues to lag — behind expectations and far, far behind last year’s record run.
The National Marine Fisheries Service has provided its Columbia River
Basin salmon recovery partners with a set of numerical targets to help
“size” the task at hand — building fish populations to the point that
they can be removed from the Endangered Species list, and beyond.
The National Marine Fisheries Service has released an early draft
biological opinion that identifies the Bureau of Reclamation’s on-going
irrigation projects, started nearly a century ago, as harmful to
steelhead in the Umatilla River.
The Technical Management Team extended spill this week to another lower
Snake River dam and also began spilling water at lower Columbia River
dams.
Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne said Wednesday that additional salmon
recovery efforts in Idaho are moving from concept to reality, thanks in
many respects to the Northwest Power Planning Council’s fish and
wildlife program.
A deep plunge into experimental tangle net fishing presented some
logistical nightmares, but the just-ended season was mostly positive for
non-tribal commercial fishers who enjoyed their biggest haul of Columbia
River basin spring chinook salmon since 1991, and found the market was
willing to pay top dollar for the catch.
With yearling chinook showing up at lower Snake River dams, the
Technical Management Team this week gave approval to begin spilling
water at Snake River dams and will likely order spill at lower Columbia
River dams next week.
Federal agencies this week revealed that overall they will spend more in 2003 and 2004 for Columbia River Basin salmon and steelhead recovery activities than they did in 2002.
In anticipation of a soon-to-be-released biological opinion, PacifiCorp
this week filed a 60-day Notice of Intent to sue the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service alleging violations of the Endangered Species Act and
the Administrative Procedures Act in Oregon’s Klamath Basin.
The battle lines remain clearly drawn about whether southwest
Washington’s 125-foot-tall, concrete Condit Dam should be removed from
the White Salmon River to revive a free-flowing ecosystem, or retained
to provide the many benefits people have come to expect since the hydro
project was built in 1913.
Western Republican members of Congress this week said a scientific
report finding last year’s cut-off of Klamath Basin irrigation water was
not justified bolsters their case for reforming the Endangered Species
Act.
A winter precipitation — and snow accumulation — season that began
fast in October and November slowed considerably in February to leave
irrigators, hydro power producers and fish managers with the prospect of
again having to carefully share a below-average supply of water.
A series of articles this week in The (Portland) Oregonian analyzing the
economic and environmental costs of deepening the Columbia River
shipping channel has prompted strong public responses from the Port of
Portland and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
While not all river operations required by the National Marine Fisheries
Service’s 2000 biological opinion are costly to the region’s power
system, the price tag for most of the actions taken to help restore
salmon runs in the Columbia River Basin is high, costing the power
system millions of dollars in lost revenue, according to preliminary
findings in a study by the Northwest Power Planning Council.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said it will recalculate the economics
of deepening the lower Columbia River channel using costs and benefits
that more closely describe the project as it has evolved since its 1999
report.
The Corps, along with lower Columbia River ports, is proposing to deepen
the river by three feet in order to accommodate deeper draft boats.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation this week tossed the Klamath River
basin’s hottest potato to two federal fisheries agencies — issuing its
proposed plan for apportioning available water among irrigators while
still aiming to preserve habitat for imperiled stocks of fish.
It will cost an estimated $390 million over 10 years to implement
proposed structural improvements and changes in operations at four lower
Snake River federal dams under a chosen strategy to improve the survival
of migrating juvenile salmon listed under the Endangered Species Act.
One of the most notable hot seats for federal officials in the Pacific
Northwest has only gotten hotter since Bob Lohn took over in September
as regional administrator for the National Marine Fisheries Service.
A Benton County judge in Washington ruled in favor of eastern Washington
irrigators in late January when he prohibited the state’s Department of
Ecology from using water flow limits in the National Marine Fisheries
Service’s biological opinion as the standard by which the state
restricts water rights.
Current scientific evidence does not support the need to require higher
water levels in Oregon’s Upper Klamath Lake or higher flows on the
nearby Klamath River, as prescribed by two federal agencies to protect
endangered and threatened species of fish.
That’s the finding of a new interim report from the National Academy of
Science’s National Research Council.
President George W. Bush this week sent Congress an FY03 budget that
would boost spending on Columbia Basin salmon recovery to $506 million,
according to Northwest federal agency leaders.
The Bureau of Reclamation released this week for review a draft
biological assessment of its Klamath projects in southern Oregon and
northern California that assumes irrigators will get nearly all the
water they need.
Three Northwest environment groups on Thursday released an internal
cost estimate prepared by the National Marine Fisheries Service in
2000 that indicates the federal government is spending only half of
what is needed to implement the Columbia Basin salmon recovery plan.
A commercial fishing method tested on 20 boats last year will be
employed later this month on a much grander scale — potentially 200 or
more fishing boats — on the mainstem Columbia River as spring chinook
salmon begin to appear on their way to hatcheries and spawning grounds.
The state of Oregon is among the list of official participants in
lawsuits filed in November accusing the Bonneville Power Administration
of failing to give fish and wildlife “equitable treatment” in planning
federal Columbia-Snake river hydrosystem operations.
Former U.S. Attorney for Oregon, Sid Lezak, has agreed to lead a
mediation effort among the parties involved in a lawsuit that claims a
2000 National Marine Fisheries Service Federal Columbia River Power
System biological opinion is doomed to failure and should be rewritten.
An idea hatched by Northwest Power Planning Council members from Oregon
and Idaho and aired publicly this week would change the way Columbia
Basin fish and wildlife project proposals are developed and judged.
A north-central Washington habitat proposal — previously approved for
$2.5 million in high priority project funding — dropped from favor
Wednesday despite renewed assurances from the Independent Scientific
Review Panel that the planned protections for the so-called Arrowleaf
property would indeed benefit imperiled salmon and steelhead stocks.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers submitted to the National Marine
Fisheries Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Jan. 3 a
biological assessment of impacts to salmon and wildlife if it were to
deepen the Columbia River shipping channel from Portland to Astoria by
three feet.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is seeking comments on a proposal to
construct and operate a juvenile surface collection and bypass system at
the Bonneville Dam’s Second Powerhouse to improve salmon passage.
Oregon’s senators have agreed on a $175 million federal spending plan to alleviate conflicts between agriculture and endangered species over water in the Klamath Basin.
Representatives of electric utilities and ratepayers and those charged
with recovering Columbia Basin fish and wildlife pulled at either end of
the budget rope this week during a roundtable discussion organized by
the Northwest Power Planning Council.
Representatives of irrigation groups from the four Columbia Basin states
joined the Northwest Power Planning Council this week to pitch their
vision of how to better manage the river system for power production,
irrigation and fish.
After more than five years of research conducted at a cost of $25
million, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced this week that major
systems improvements — not dam breaching — will be the preferred path
for trying to improve salmon and steelhead survival through four lower
Snake River federal hydroelectric projects.
The “federal executives,” along with representatives of states and
tribes, met this week to consider the potential of transitioning from an
informal organization to a more formal, regional decision-making forum.
Federal, state and tribal representatives raised issues this week with
the federal “implementation plan” released by the federal action
agencies in mid-November.
The plan describes the specific measures the agencies will implement
between Oct. 1, 2001, and Sept. 30, 2002, to comply with the National
Marine Fisheries Service’ 2000 biological opinion.
An October discovery that a section of north-central Washington’s Methow
River had run dry has caused funding entities to rethink a March
decision to spend $2.5 million to protect the reach’s riparian habitat.
Maintenance dredging in the lower Snake River — stalled last year in
large part because of feared impacts on migrating salmon and steelhead
— will have to wait another year while the Corps of Engineers puts
final touches on a plan expected to guide the process for the next 20
years.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said it expects to release in
mid-December an assessment of the biological effects that deepening the
Columbia River shipping channel by three feet from Portland to Astoria
may have on 13 listed species of salmon, steelhead and trout.
Fishing and conservation groups and two Columbia Basin tribes this week
announced the filing of lawsuits claiming that the Bonneville Power
Administration has violated the Northwest Power Act by failing to manage
the federal hydrosystem “equitably” to produce energy and to restore
salmon.
Flows to protect threatened lower Columbia River chum salmon likely
won’t start until at least Nov. 19, after restrictions on flows in
Hanford Reach are lifted. The federal hydroelectric system operating
agencies told fisheries managers at this week’s Technical Management
Team meeting that the Vernita Bar Agreement restricts the amount of water they can get to Bonneville Dam through Feb. 18.
The Northwest Power Planning Council marched ahead Thursday with a plan
that allots nearly $35 million in fiscal year 2002 spending on new and
ongoing fish and wildlife projects in the Columbia Plateau Province.
“This is an example of the Council approving on-the-ground projects that
will benefit fish and wildlife, and doing so within the budget
established by Bonneville,” Council Chairman Larry Cassidy of Vancouver,
Wash., said.
U.S. District Circuit Judge Michael Hogan on Tuesday turned aside
arguments that federal protection for Oregon coastal coho and their
habitat be continued while the federal government rethinks the status of
the salmon’s wild and hatchery produced populations.
If higher river flow is provided for chum salmon spawning downstream
from Bonneville Dam beginning Monday, as Oregon and the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service want, the Bonneville Power Administration doubts it
could sustain the flow through January without jeopardizing juvenile
salmon operations next spring and summer.
The Fish Passage Center released a report this week that shows a marked
difference in the survival of juvenile that remained in the river
between McNary and John Day dams once the Bonneville Power
Administration decided to provide a limited amount of spill this spring.
A depressing power reliability outlook released in May by the Northwest
Power Planning Council turned rosy this week when Council staff released
a new study that predicts a loss of load probability through the coming
winter of less than 1 percent, far lower than the prediction for the
same measurement in May.
This week, Congress passed a final interior spending bill with $26
million toward removal of two dams in Olympic National Park and at least
$14 million for Columbia Basin fish habitat and salmon enhancement in
the Northwest.
Some of the lowest river flows on record, coupled with no spill, or
reduced spill provided too late at Columbia Basin dams to move the main
body of juvenile migrants downstream, resulted this spring and summer in
lower than ever in-river survival for juvenile salmon and steelhead.
By anyone’s spin, it was a bad year for salmon and steelhead juveniles.
Gov. Gary Locke on Monday launched a “sweeping new Columbia River Regional Initiative” he says is aimed at improving Columbia and Snake river water management for the benefit of fish and humans.
The Northwest Power Planning Council is pondering a “freeze” on funding
for new fish and wildlife projects until it can judge the full weight of
growing demands stemming from its newly instituted provincial review
process and from federal hydrosystem biological opinions.
Chum flows last season cost the Northwest hydroelectric system a
significant amount of valuable water and partially depleted headwater
storage reservoirs. Despite this effort, when regional fisheries and
operations managers shut off chum flows in mid-March, only 20 percent of
Columbia River chum had emerged from mainstem redds and even fewer had
emerged from Hardy Creek and Hamilton Springs spawning areas.
The Northwest Power Planning Council Thursday adopted a fiscal year 2002
fish and wildlife program “provisional start of year” budget that sets a
wavy line at $152.7 million.
A recent U.S. District Court judgment that the federal government erred
in its listing of Oregon coho could open a can of legal worms across the
Columbia River basin and Pacific Coast, according to an assessment
provided by the Northwest Power Planning Council’s legal staff.
The Senate has approved an additional $4 million for Pacific salmon
restoration projects in Washington state, raising total funding next
year to $74 million for four West Coast states.
The Pacific Salmon Fund is part of the $42 billion FY02 appropriation
bill for the Department of Commerce and other departments. The Senate
total is $26 million less than the House approved in July but $18
million above the current fiscal year.
U.S. Secretary of Commerce Don Evans on Thursday announced the
appointment of Dr. William T. Hogarth to head the department’s National
Marine Fisheries Service and Robert Lohn as chief of NMFS’ Northwest
region.
Hogarth, a veteran with 16 years of experience in fisheries and natural
resources management, has since January been NMFS acting assistant
administrator.
The origin of toxins found in juvenile salmon in the lower Columbia
River estuary and at some Oregon salmon hatcheries has Northwest
scientists mystified.
However, the finding by the National Marine Fisheries Service, which is
the result of three years of testing, will likely not stop the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers and lower Columbia River ports from deepening the
river’s shipping channel by three feet.
Volumes of materials offered over the past year by states and federal
agencies show an improved scientific approach but lack the detail to
judge whether the plans will work, in combination, to recover
beleaguered Columbia Basin salmon populations.
Columbia Basin fish and wildlife managers have been asked to more
precisely outline their project priorities midway through a new process
that has identified fish and wildlife project needs likely to surpass
the projected budget ceiling for fiscal year 2002 and beyond.
At the request of the Federal Caucus (federal dam operators, regulators
and fish and wildlife agencies), the multi-agency Implementation Team
(IT) is reviewing what it may have learned this spring and summer from
operating the Federal Columbia River Power System under a system power
emergency.
It is time to regroup, say participants in a multi-agency effort to
relocate a Columbia River estuary Caspian tern colony, and thus reduce
the birds’ predation on listed salmon and steelhead.
State, federal and tribal officials involved for the past three years
say the project has been a success, without causing harm to the
migratory birds.
The agency caught in the middle — the Bonneville Power Administration
— fielded questions Wednesday about how it might mete out “off-site
mitigation” fish and wildlife recovery funding as the lines blur between
federal Endangered Species Act mandates and those under the Northwest
Power Act.
Three federal hydroelectric operating agencies released for public
comment their long-anticipated plan on how they will operate the hydro
system and what they will do in the other “H’s” — hatcheries, harvest
and habitat — to aid salmon recovery.
Columbia Basin state and tribal representatives gathered Wednesday to
discuss how they fit into salmon recovery plans that profess federal
responsibility but stress that success hinges in part on actions taken
outside federal agencies’ direct authorities.
A self-described “five-year blueprint for fish recovery actions by the
three (action) agencies” was released this week in draft form —
detailing how Federal Columbia River Power System operators aim to meet
survival goals for salmon, steelhead and resident fish species listed
under the Endangered Species Act.
Oregon and Washington officials are predicting uncommon success for
sport anglers turned loose Wednesday to pursue salmon returning to the
Columbia River.
Many are already zeroing in on coho near Buoy 10 at the river’s mouth,
where more than one million hatchery coho are predicted to return along
with nearly 300,000 chinook.
Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton on Wednesday announced that she
had authorized the Bureau of Reclamation to release water from southern
Oregon’s Upper Klamath Lake to irrigate area crops that have been left
parched in order to preserve the precious liquid for endangered sucker
fish that inhabit the lake.
A “first-cut” review of proposed fiscal 2002 hydrosystem fish passage
and research projects Wednesday served to shoehorn $100 million in
originally estimated needs into what is expected to be about an $80
million Columbia River Fish Mitigation Project budget.
The Columbia Basin’s four governors received assurances last week that
the Bush administration is committed to implementing federal salmon
recovery strategies completed last year, and that it will do it
hand-in-hand with the states.
Citing the failure of the Bush administration to increase funding for
recovery of endangered Columbia Basin salmon, Rep. Jim McDermott, D
Wash., on Thursday introduced legislation to develop contingency plans
for breaching four dams on the lower Snake River.
The Senate on Thursday passed a spending bill that would authorize $2
billion in new borrowing by the Bonneville Power Administration.
The energy and water development appropriation bill for fiscal 2002 also
provides funds for ecosystem restoration, riparian protection, and fish mitigation on the Columbia River.
Columbia Basin fish and wildlife managers and others watching this
year’s mainstem and tributary flows fear the worst for migrating
juvenile and adult salmon as the summer warms.
The forecast for January-July runoff as measured at The Dalles Dam fell
to 54.7 million acre feet or 52 percent of normal …
Fisheries managers asked hydroelectric operators this week to begin
drafting Lake Roosevelt water now to help raise river flows at McNary
Dam.
However, the Bonneville Power Administration said the change in river
operations may not be possible because it would force BPA to sell
surplus power now and buy power back later, something it may not be able
to do.
A surprisingly low July water supply forecast and the delayed startup of
the Northwest’s only nuclear power plant caused the Bonneville Power
Administration to say no to summer spill at today’s (June 29) combined
meeting of federal executives with states and tribes.
Water should be spilled at Columbia and Snake river dams this summer to
help juvenile salmon and steelhead migrate to the ocean — but only if
the reliability of the region’s electricity system is not jeopardized,
the Northwest Power Planning Council recommended Wednesday.
Water should be spilled at Columbia and Snake river dams this summer to
help juvenile salmon and steelhead migrate to the ocean — but only if
the reliability of the region’s electricity system is not jeopardized,
the Northwest Power Planning Council recommended Wednesday.
Columbia Basin tribes and conservation groups responded angrily this
week to a Northwest Power Planning Council recommendation that says that
water should be spilled for fish passage at federal hydroelectric
projects only if such operations don’t increase the risk of power
outages in the region next winter.
Reducing spill at federal hydrosystem projects below levels outlined in
a National Marine Fisheries Service biological opinion would have
“negligible” impacts on migrating Snake River fall chinook salmon
juveniles, according to a preliminary Northwest Power Planning Council
staff issue paper released for public comment June 13.
The clock began ticking today (June 22) on a process that will allow the
Bonneville Power Administration and its administrator better take a
“comprehensive, consistent and unified approach” toward its
responsibility to fund the multiple Columbia Basin fish and wildlife
recovery efforts.
Environmental groups have filed a motion to compel the U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers to comply with a U.S. District Court order that the agency
must show how it will meet Clean Water Act standards when operating
lower Snake River dams.
The Bonneville Power Administration, the California Department of Water
Resources and the California Independent System Operator have reached
agreement on a plan that outlines when and how BPA may be able to help
California during this summer’s anticipated energy shortages.
The limited spill at four lower Columbia River dams will end tonight
(June 15). Based on a decision made by federal agency executives at a
June 8 meeting, the regional Technical Management Team this week ordered
spill to stop at midnight.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that federal
“biological opinions” sanctioning certain federal timber sales in the
Pacific Northwest did not adequately protect habitat for salmon stocks
listed under the Endangered Species Act.
Emergency measures including industrial power curtailments, reduced
water spills at dams and temporary generators are easing the Northwest’s
electricity shortage, but the crisis is not over, according to the
latest analysis by the Northwest Power Planning Council.
Emergency measures including industrial power curtailments, reduced
water spills at dams and temporary generators are easing the Northwest’s
electricity shortage, but the crisis is not over, according to the
latest analysis by the Northwest Power Planning Council.
An independent scientific panel this week urged regional entities to
learn as much as they can from this good news-bad news year for Columbia
Basin salmon recovery efforts.
The good news is that many of the basin’s salmon stocks are returning
this year in larger, and sometimes record, numbers to spawn naturally or
revisit the hatchery of their origin.
The Bonneville Power Administration began spilling water at two lower
Columbia River dams this week to help juvenile salmon safely negotiate
the dams on their journey to the ocean.
The federal power marketing agency made the decision to begin spill
despite not having a final assurance from Grant County Public Utility
District that it could trade spill for power later in the spring and
summer.
The term “surplus hatchery fish” has, at least for this year, has been
erased from the Methow Basin salmon management dictionary following a
landmark agreement that focuses on the collection of local, naturally
spawning spring chinook to replenish hatchery egg banks and lets
unneeded hatchery stocks seek a spawning niche in the river’s mainstem.
A bill that sponsors say would allow more hatchery salmon to spawn
naturally and require the state to use hatchery salmon eggs to replenish
fish runs was signed into law late Tuesday by Washington Gov. Gary Locke
over the protestations of the federal agency charged with protecting and
rebuilding “wild” salmon and steelhead runs.
Two Oregon leaders are supporting a plan by Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, to
make Northwest salmon recovery a national priority and boost federal
funding by $400 million next year.
Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., this week gave his endorsement, and Gov. John
Kitzhaber praised the overall $688 million plan, which Crapo announced
on May 3.
A lawsuit filed Thursday asks the U.S. District Court to order the
federal government to rethink a Columbia Basin salmon recovery plan that
the plaintiffs say is rife with faulty scientific assumptions and doomed
to failure because of a lack of Bush Administration support for
implementation funding.
The Bonneville Power Administration said it intends to launch within
days a fish and wildlife project solicitation intended to “offset”
adverse impacts of emergency hydrosystem operations on salmon and
steelhead listed under the Endangered Species Act.
BPA officials have said that from $10 million to $20 million could be
made available for the effort.
Federal executives won’t have a final Columbia River operations plan
ready until May 17, but they did promise decisions on four critical fish
operations by the end of this week. Of the four — spring spill,
transportation of juveniles at McNary Dam, lowering Vernita Bar flows
and beginning a pulsing operation at Lower Granite Dam — only two
decisions are made and a third is likely to receive attention today.
Flow “augmentation” via water releases from Snake River reservoirs and
those that feed the Snake should not be abandoned. But a fine-tuning of
research is needed to settle conclusively debates over the practice’s
potential benefit to migrating fall chinook salmon, according to a panel
of independent scientists.
Federal agency executives today said a final operations plan that will be used by in-season managers to guide river operations this spring and summer will not be ready until May 17, but that they will consider some critical fish operations by as early as this coming week.
The discussion took place today at a joint meeting of the federal executives who manage Columbia River operations, along with representatives of the four Northwest states and Northwest tribes in Portland.
The Northwest Power Planning Council on Thursday advised federal Columbia River hydrosystem operators to maximize barge transportation as a means of getting migrating salmon past dams, and weigh carefully the use of any spill passage regimes that would take away from the system’s ability to power the region through the summer, fall and winter.
The Northwest Power Planning Council on Thursday advised federal Columbia River hydrosystem operators to maximize barge transportation as a means of getting migrating salmon past dams, and weigh carefully the use of any spill passage regimes that would take away from the system’s ability to power the region through the summer, fall and winter.
President George Bush’s first budget maintains current funding levels
for Pacific salmon recovery programs, but they are more than $400
million below the amount estimated to be needed to implement the
Columbia Basin salmon recovery plan.
In February, Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber asked Bush administration
officials for an increase of $566 million – $438 million in FY02 and
$128 million as a supplemental add-on in FY01.
President George Bush’s first budget maintains current funding levels
for Pacific salmon recovery programs, but they are more than $400
million below the amount estimated to be needed to implement the
Columbia Basin salmon recovery plan.
In February, Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber asked Bush administration
officials for an increase of $566 million – $438 million in FY02 and
$128 million as a supplemental add-on in FY01.
President George Bush’s first budget maintains current funding levels
for Pacific salmon recovery programs, but they are more than $400
million below the amount estimated to be needed to implement the
Columbia Basin salmon recovery plan.
In February, Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber asked Bush administration
officials for an increase of $566 million – $438 million in FY02 and
$128 million as a supplemental add-on in FY01.
A coalition of fishing and conservation groups on Thursday gave notice of their intent to file a series of lawsuits unless the federal agencies act immediately wring water from the upper Snake River to help migrating salmon in what is shaping up to be a drought year.
The Federal Executives laid a proposal on the table today (April 13)
that, when approved by the end of April, will guide river operations
this spring and summer. There are few surprises in the operations plan
except that it apparently raises the bar on when discretionary water
would be available for spill.
Although record numbers of spring chinook adults are passing Bonneville
Dam, many native American fisherman who are fishing the spring treaty
fishery for the first time in years, are not catching enough fish.
The Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission asked this week for
biological opinion-level spill hoping that some salmon would be drawn
towards the river’s edge so that platform fishermen could catch them.
Continued drought-like weather, near record low river flows and the West
Coast power shortage aligned this week, causing the Bonneville Power
Administration to conclude that the impact on the power system of
spilling water through dam spillways to aid fish passage would be too
negative.
Therefore, BPA instead declared a power system emergency and announced
it would not spill at dams at least beyond next week.
A Northwest Power Planning Council biological analysis released this
week suggests that in 2001 — with Columbia and Snake river flows
predicted at near-record lows — barging most juvenile salmon and
steelhead through the federal hydrosystem will result in survival as
high or higher than if the fish were left in the river to migrate.
With all signs pointing to a reduction in the amount of water normally
spilled at Columbia Basin hydroelectric projects to help migrating
juvenile salmon, a panel of scientists is suggesting that decision
makers utilize spill methods which use less of the precious liquid.
The National Marine Fisheries Service is completing a biological opinion
that would allow collection and transportation of juvenile salmon smolts
at McNary Dam. Although federal executives have not made a decision to
begin barging at the dam, NMFS said that having the BiOp in hand gives
them the flexibility to begin when the decision is made.
A 2001 Columbia Basin upriver spring chinook salmon run expected to set
a modern day record is, indeed, passing Bonneville Dam counters at an
unprecedented pace.
“All of the counts so far are much higher than anything in our data
sets,” said Mike Matylewich of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish
Commission …
An attempt by federal fish management agencies to document good habitat
works in the interior Columbia River Basin has been withdrawn, drawing
fire from some who say the action is another example of the Bush
Administration’s studied erosion of environmental protections.
Federal officials this morning decided to make no changes in this
weekend’s operation that tribal officials feared would reduce flows in
the Hanford Reach and destroy hundreds of redds in the Vernita Bar.
The federal executives met today with state and tribal officials to get
their ideas on how the federal hydropower system can be operated with
some sensitivity to endangered and threatened species in a year when
water is scarce and the hydroelectric system has little flexibility.
The Bonneville Power Administration in two forums this week described a
water supply situation that barely supports the federal power system and
has little if any water left to aid endangered salmon this spring and
summer.
“We are now hitting close to rock bottom,” BPA Administrator Steve
Wright told the Northwest Power Planning Council Wednesday …
Two preliminary Northwest Power Planning Council studies that look at
the power situation and its effects on endangered salmon found that the
cost to the region of spilling water to pass migrating salmon this year
would be high, but the benefits would be low.
The forecast for how much water is available in the Columbia and Snake
river systems to use for power, endangered species preservation,
recreation, irrigation and navigation — January through July — dropped
again this month to 58.6 million acre feet. If trends hold, this year
could have the second worst water supply outlook on record. Only 1977,
which had a water supply of 53.8 maf, was worse.
Deciding now is as good a time as ever, the Northwest Power Planning
Council decided Wednesday to launch the next phase of its Columbia Basin
fish and wildlife program amendment process with a request for
recommendations on a coordinated mainstem plan.
The Northwest Power Planning Council said this week it feels the states
are inappropriately being left on the sidelines while federal agencies
ponder tough choices about the best use — for power generation and fish
operations — of a limited water supply.
Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber’s request for a $500 million increase in
federal spending on Columbia Basin and other Northwest salmon recovery
efforts is unrealistic, according to Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore.
But in a meeting in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, Kitzhaber, Smith and
the rest of the state’s congressional delegation agreed to make salmon
funding a top priority and to work together to obtain as much as
possible, an aide to Smith said.
A meeting this week to decide short and long-term principles for
operating the Northwest hydroelectric system in a low water year fell
far short of any binding decisions, but went a long ways in helping
parties understand their differences.
The multi-agency Implementation Team and the Technical Management Team
met this week to review the several proposals for operating the hydro
system placed on the table over the past weeks …
Some say push ahead, while others, including the National Marine
Fisheries Service, are urging the Northwest Power Planning Council to
take its time in revising the Columbia-Snake mainstem portion of its
fish and wildlife program.
A federal judge ruled last week that the Army Corps of Engineers has not
considered its obligations under the Clean Water Act at four lower Snake
River dams in any of its decision documents and ordered the agency to
draw up a plan within 60 days outlining how it will bring the dam
operations into compliance with water quality laws.
With the largest upriver spring chinook run in recorded history poised
to enter the Columbia River, fishery officials say they have reached an
agreement that is both geared toward rebuilding depleted, wild stocks
and affording increased fishing opportunities on hatchery fish during
such times of abundance.
With the largest upriver spring chinook run in recorded history poised
to enter the Columbia River, fishery officials say they have reached an
agreement that is both geared toward rebuilding depleted, wild stocks
and affording increased fishing opportunities on hatchery fish during
such times of abundance.
Shifting long-established Columbia-Snake river flood control operations
to regimes that are more fish friendly is easier said than done,
according to the federal hydrosystem’s managers.
Any proposed changes to flows and reservoir flood control capacity could
face resistance in the region and in Congress if the overall level of
protection for floodplain development downstream, and in the Portland
area in particular, is reduced.
A power operations proposal by the Bonneville Power Administration would
leave reservoirs partially filled in June and would reserve for summer
valuable flow augmentation water needed both to cool the lower Snake
River and to help speed juvenile salmon downstream on their way to the
ocean.
Reacting to the Bonneville Power Administration’s contingency power
operations proposal, the regional, multi-agency Implementation Team
decided to work with their in-season counterpart, the Technical
Management Team, to set priorities for refilling Northwest storage
reservoirs and to discuss the timing of using that water this spring and
summer.
Increased flows correlate highly with increased survival rates of
migrating Snake River subyearling fall chinook salmon, National Marine
Fisheries studies continue to show, but only drastic tests would settle
debates about the importance of flows augmented by releases from
upstream reservoirs.
A planned test of selective commercial harvest gear this spring won
Northwest Power Planning Council approval Wednesday, jumping ahead of a
pack of some 96 fish and wildlife proposals hoping to gain fiscal year
2001 “high priority” project funding.
Lawyers for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers this week asked U.S.
District Court Judge Helen J. Frye to dismiss a suit seeking it comply
with the clean water standards when operating four lower Snake River
dams. They said provisions added to the National Marine Fisheries
Service 2000 biological opinion address federal Clean Water Act
requirements and make the case unnecessary.
Washington state Sen. Bob Morton, vexed by a situation last year that
saw tens of thousands of hatchery “surplus” fish killed while streams
within his own district hold only remnant populations, says he is
pursuing accountability.
He has authored legislation in the Washington Senate that calls for a
two-year moratorium on federal fishery agency orders to destroy
“surplus” hatchery fish or their progeny returning the state’s
hatcheries.
Montana’s snowpack situation went from bad to worse when January failed
to produce any precipitation recovery.
Mountaintops across Montana are still showing snowpack concentrations no
higher than 60 percent of normal. In northwest Montana, conditions are
even worse, and runoff forecasts for the region’s two hydroelectric
projects are steadily dropping.
Environmental groups withdrew this week a petition asking for a
moratorium on handing out water withdrawal permits when Washington Gov.
Gary Locke announced plans to sponsor a regional initiative that would
develop a state water management strategy for the mainstem Columbia and
Snake rivers
Nearly half — $45 million worth — of the “high priority” fish and
wildlife project proposals submitted for fiscal year 2001 funding
satisfy criteria set out by the Northwest Power Planning Council,
according to a report released Thursday by the Columbia Basin Fish and
Wildlife Authority.
As the Northwest power emergency continues, five federal agencies have
taken control of the federal hydroelectric system’s in-season
management, a job that normally is the province of the Technical
Management Team.
The Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission this year will increase
direct contacts with members of Congress and federal officials in
Washington, D.C., on salmon recovery funding and other issues, members
and staff said this week.
Columbia River Compact members balked Thursday at putting the financial
onus on commercial fishers for an experimental fishery intended to test
live capture methods that might increase harvest opportunities without
further imperiling ESA listed stocks.
The Compact, delegates representing the Oregon and Washington fish and
wildlife commissions and departments, is charged with setting mainstem
commercial fishing seasons.
The Bonneville Power Administration announced Thursday that it began
this week predicting a power shortage of nearly 1,000 megawatts in the
Northwest and would have to run the Columbia River hydropower system
extra hard simply to meet Northwest electricity demand.
The agency increased flows at Bonneville Dam from 130,000 cubic feet per
second to 160 kcfs Thursday to generate more kilowatts and help make up
for the power deficit …
Steve Wright, acting Bonneville Power Administration chief, told the
Northwest Power Planning Council Wednesday he expected the process of
appointing a new administrator could take up to six months. The
appointment would be made by president-elect George W. Bush’s Energy
secretary.
The four lower Columbia River treaty tribes have offered a 2001 spring
fishing proposal they say will share an expected a wealth of returning
hatchery-produced upriver spring chinook salmon without blunting a
parallel resurgence in wild, Endangered Species Act listed fish numbers.
A bridge construction work stoppage in Oregon’s Clackamas County is a
signal that Pacific Northwest salmon restoration has entered a new era,
with new rules now in effect intended to protect Endangered Species Act
listed stocks.
Over the past four months new National Marine Fisheries Service habitat
rules have taken effect that aim to protect 14 populations of threatened
salmon and steelhead ranging from Southern California to the Canadian
border.
A potential water crunch in the Columbia Basin has Montana officials
concerned about downstream demands that could develop.
Water from Montana and Canada is considered the most valuable, both for
the Columbia Basin’s hydroelectric network, and for biological needs.
The headwaters that cascade from western Montana’s mountains can pass
through as many as 15 hydro projects, and it can deliver biological
benefits along the way.
An atypically dry start to the winter season means that without a big
mid-winter outpouring Columbia-Snake river fish managers and hydro
operators could next spring and summer face serious dilemmas about how
to mete out a limited water supply.
With the major task of revamping of the Columbia Basin fish and wildlife
program well under way, and his 65th birthday fast approaching, Idaho’s
Todd Maddock in early December decided the time was right to step down
from his position as a member of the Northwest Power Planning Council.
A Northwest Power Planning Council “high priority project” solicitation
intended to “identify immediate actions that will assist Endangered
Species Act-listed anadromous fish” in the Columbia Basin has drawn a
considerable response.
Federal agencies said Thursday that they have put themselves on notice:
If their latest Columbia Basin salmon recovery plan doesn’t play out as
envisioned, the National Marine Fisheries Service could play trump cards
as soon as 2003 that might include seeking authorization to breach four
Lower Snake River dams.
The Columbia River treaty tribes have greeted the latest federal salmon
recovery plan with disdain, saying it ignores science and the federal
government’s treaty responsibilities to the tribes.
The reaction to the biological opinion of the Columbia River hydro
system released this week by the National Marine Fisheries Service
focused mostly on breaching four lower Snake River dams.
But not all looking at the breaching language in the same way.
Federal officials plan to release the final Columbia Basin salmon
restoration plan and biological opinion on the federal hydropower system
as required under the Endangered Species Act next week.
One of the major changes the region will see when the National Marine
Fisheries Service releases its final 2000 biological opinion governing
operations of the Columbia River federal hydro system is the exclusion
from the BiOp of Bureau of Reclamation dams in the upper Snake River
basin due to ongoing water adjudication.
Critical of both the science supporting draft federal salmon recovery
plans and the process used to produce it, Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo has
asked the National Marine Fisheries Service to slow its timetable for
implementing the strategies.
An Earthwise Knowledge Initiative Publication
