U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Wash., criticized two presidential candidates
and Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber for supporting or refusing to rule out
the dam breaching option for Columbia-Snake salmon recovery.
Speaking on the Senate floor on Thursday, Gorton took issue with
Kitzhaber’s surprise endorsement last week of a recovery plan that
includes removal of four federal dams on the lower Snake River in
eastern Washington. Kitzhaber, a Democrat, is the first major elected
official in the …

A process for revamping the $127 million Columbia Basin direct fish
and
wildlife program forged ahead this week despite questions from both
upriver and downriver tribes about whether immediate goals are
appropriate and the timeline realistic.
The program amendment process was launched in January with a request
for
recommendations from the region’s fish and wildlife managers and others
interested in shaping the Northwest Power Planning Council’s program
for
protecting, mitigating …

A new approach to evaluating Columbia Basin fish and wildlife
restoration project proposals was triggered Wednesday with approval
of a
new “rolling review” process and companion fiscal year 2001 interim
renewal process.
At the same time the Northwest Power Planning Council approved a boosted
Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Authority (CBFWA) budget that will
allow its members to feed the evolving processes.
A third process, subbasin plan development, will run in tandem,
according to …

One way to get more water into the river system to aid juvenile migration
and fall mainstem spawning is to change the way federal agencies operate
dams for flood control.
The alternatives, however, could add some risk to those who live downstream
and slow development in some of the fastest growing areas of Oregon.
The region is looking at several ways to get that water. One is to simply
raise the flood control limit. Another way that is being seriously considered
is variable flow …

If the weather phenomenon known as La Nina is to deliver above-normal
precipitation to the Columbia Basin as forecast, it must have saved its
best for last.
After a relatively “dry” December, skies began to pour forth in the
new millennium to push streamflow forecasts for most of the region slightly
above average.
The Basin’s northern region seemed to have faired the best in early
winter at building snowpacks that would help fish and farmers during the
dry summer months.
The …

Co-ownership of two lower Deschutes River hydroelectric dams will settle
a long-standing dispute between Portland General Electric and the Warm
Springs Tribes about who should be licensed to operate the dams. The settlement
had been in the works since the spring of 1999.
Both PGE, which holds the license for the Pelton/Round Butte complex
of dams, and the tribes, which own property bordering the Deschutes River
where the dams are located, have already applied for separate hydro …

The Northwest Power Planning Council Tuesday decided to phase-out funding
for the multi-agency Columbia Basin salmon science team known as PATH —
Plan for Analyzing and Testing Hypotheses.
The broad-based group of scientists had asked for nearly $2 million
to fund seven projects and the Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Authority
had recommended that $1.67 million be spent. The Councils Independent
Science Review Panel, however, said that the group had outlived its usefulness
and …

Winter river flow downstream from Priest Rapids dams has been set at
a level that is expected to protect chinook egg beds throughout the Hanford
Reach in central Washington.
According to Grant County PUD, it is coordinating the effort among mid-Columbia
River dam operators to ensure chinook egg beds are covered with water until
the eggs hatch in spring 2000. A river level of 60,000 cubic feet per second
was determined by a survey of redds in the 1.5 mile section of river below
the dam …

An electronics-packed, rubber-coated juvenile salmon is helping scientists
determine the impact hydroelectric turbines at Bonneville Dam have on the
real thing as they move downstream toward the ocean.
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory scientists developed the bionic
prototype fish in an effort to measure the forces a juvenile salmon encounters
during its passage through a turbine. Called a Sensor Fish, microsensors
installed in the fish measure and store information about the …

A Columbia River users group is trying to enlist the aid of the Northwest
congressional delegation to stall the release of a study expected to describe
the pros and cons of dam breaching compared to other means of improving
salmon passage down through four Lower Snake River hydroelectric dams.
Columbia River Alliance Executive Director Bruce Lovelin calls the draft
Lower Snake River feasibility study biased and says that Corps of Engineers
would be doing river interests and others a …

The Northwest Power Planning Council has canned a plan to net lake trout
from Glacier National Park’s Lake McDonald.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service request for funding was denied after
nearly a year of research, planning and jumping through bureaucratic hoops.
“We felt we were on the right track here with something that people
thought was important work,” said Wade Fredenberg, a federal fisheries
biologist who prepared the proposal. “I feel like we got over all the hurdles
and …

The fish and wildlife program amendment process the Northwest Power
Planning Council expects to trigger as soon as Dec. 8 will be engineered
like never before to guide proposals toward common goals.
“We’d like to structure that call” for program recommendations, John
Shurts, the Council’s general counsel, said Wednesday. The required notice
asking for amendment proposals would describe the Council’s plan to adopt
a scientific and policy framework into which the proposals of fish …

, hydro coordinator for Columbia River Inter-Tribal
Fish Commission:
RE: Governors and EPA Launch Estuary Plan
I find this plan no more than the standard “happy talk and hand holding.”
. While EPA and the governors ostentatiously congratulate themselves on
the collaborative plan with the Ports of Vancouver and Portland standing
in the background, they won’t mention their support for what could be the
most disastrous action ever on the living estuary. This is the Corps proposal
to …

A $460,000 niche will be found in the Fiscal Year 2000 Columbia River
Fish Mitigation Program budget to investigate the potential of raised crest
spill passage mechanisms that could offer similar benefits, but without
the huge costs, of a John Day Dam skeleton bay surface passage scheme.
Both concepts are intended create strong surface flow field to take
advantage of the fact that most salmon migrate downstream in the upper
portion of the water column. Most believe fish fare better through

A study for American Rivers by a former
top Army Corps of Engineers
official concludes it is feasible and
desirable to replace the barge
shipping system on the lower Snake River
with other transportation
alternatives for grain and other commodities
after breaching four
federal dams.
Public and private investments in highway
and rail infrastructure would
keep grain transportation rates affordable
during and after dams are
removed, a project that would take eight
years, economist …

 
By Jim Mann
A boat rigged with deep-water nets may
be plying the waters of Lake
McDonald by next spring, with the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service waiting
to see what comes up.
Wade Fredenberg, a fisheries biologist
with the agency, anticipates the
“experimental” netting would show that
Glacier’s most famous lake is
choked with exotic lake trout, and that
native cutthroat and bull trout
have been displaced. It would also show
how effective netting techniques
imported from the

Jeff Stier was named this week the new vice president of national relations
for the Bonneville Power Administration.
Stier has worked for Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-OR, for 12 years, the last
eight as legislative director. He was the lead staff when Rep. DeFazio
chaired the 1993 task force on BPA as part of the House Natural Resources
Committee and has been one of the key organizers of the Pacific Northwest
Energy Caucus, which is addressing issues associated with Bonneville in
electricity …

The final recommendations are expected to go to
the Secretary of the Army in the year 2000. The
report will help Congress determine the best
course of action towards recovery of Snake River
endangered and listed salmon.
Loss of the four dams would reduce the output of
the federal power system by 1,231 average
megawatts in an average water year, or about 11
percent of the federal system’s production and
about 5 percent of total energy production in the
Northwest.
That loss will …

The House commerce, state and justice
appropriation bill does not include any money for
President Clinton’s proposed Pacific Salmon Fund
for West Coast states. The Senate has approved
$100 million to be shared by the Alaska,
Washington, Oregon and California, and Indian
tribes for endangered coastal salmon recovery
projects and implementation of the recent
U.S.-Canada salmon treaty.
Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., an Appropriations
Committee member, plans to push for the money …

The Northwest Power Planning Council has promised
to try bridge a communication gap that many direct
program project sponsors believe exists between
themselves and a panel that reviews their
projects.
During the recently completed review, scientists
scanned the 400 project proposals with a “finer
level of detail” than in past years, Fish and
Wildlife program director Bob Lohn told the
Council July 21. That scrutiny produced a
complicated set of dilemmas for policy makers …

The state of Idaho agreed to criteria this week on when to begin ramping-up
discharges from Idahos Dworshak Dam to augment flows and cool water at
Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River.
An Idaho representative said the state expects that Dworshak water will
be needed sometime this weekend to ensure flow targets set by the multi-agency
Technical Management Team, but asked that the Dworshak reservoir be allowed
to fill at least through Friday, or as long as possible.
“We anticipate that some