Oregon’s governor said Wednesday that evolving Northwest hydrosystem operations proposals would, in large part, leave salmon and steelhead populations high and dry this spring and summer during what is expected to be one of the worst water years on record.
Oregon’s governor said Wednesday that evolving Northwest hydrosystem operations proposals would, in large part, leave salmon and steelhead populations high and dry this spring and summer during what is expected to be one of the worst water years on record.
Northwest tribes asked the Northwest Power Planning Council to do a better job of balancing the interests of fish with power, which it is required to do by the 1980 Northwest Power Act.
An independent scientific panel has advised regional fisheries managers
to proceed cautiously as they decide what to do with an expected tidal
wave of upriver spring chinook salmon arriving at Columbia and Snake
river hatcheries during the next few months.
Using what they say is a “conservative estimate,” state, tribal and
federal officials have pushed upwards the forecast for what was already
predicted to be a record return of upriver spring chinook salmon to the
Columbia River.
A calculation made Thursday, taking into account fish tallies to-date,
estimates that 433,000 upriver chinook adults will turn into the
Columbia this spring.
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.
It’s a “long shot,” but Bonneville Power Administration and Energy
Northwest have agreed to study the feasibility of completing
construction on a Hanford nuclear plant that was mothballed in the
1980s.
The study, which could take up to five months to complete and cost as
much as $1 million, will be conducted at the request of Congressmen Doc
Hastings and George Nethercutt, both Washington Republicans.
Bonneville Power Administration customers will have to cut energy use by
5 percent to 10 percent and aluminum smelters will have to shut down for
up to two years if the federal power marketing agency is to avoid a 250
percent to 300 percent rate increase in October.
Even at that, prices could rise as much as 100 percent, acting BPA
Administrator Steve Wright said Monday at a press conference.
Though clouds again linger over much of the Columbia Basin and
Northwest, most participants in a Tuesday drought workshop agreed that
the region will have to play with the hand dealt by Mother Nature during
a dry fall and winter of 2000-2001.
It would take 225 percent of normal precipitation between now and July
to get the region back on track toward a “normal” water year, according
to Harold Opitz, hydrologist in charge of the Northwest River Forecast
Center.
Northwest House members have come to the defense of an expected $500
million-plus fish credit for the Bonneville Power Administration this
year.
“We believe that the law, sound policy and simple fairness dictate that
Northwest ratepayers are entitled to commensurate reimbursement for
paying fish and wildlife mitigation costs throughout the fiscal year,”
16 members from Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana said in a letter
to Bush administration officials on Monday.
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.
Two Eastern congressmen have agreed to meet with Northwest House members
before opposing the Bonneville Power Administration’s plan to take a
credit from the U.S. Treasury for power costs related to Columbia Basin
salmon recovery.
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 …
More than 200 people turned out in Wenatchee, Wash., Tuesday night to
hear a scientific debate over a key question: Can hatchery stocks be
used successfully to revive naturally spawning Columbia Basin salmon and steelhead populations?
The forum, and one held Wednesday in Winthrop, were intended to air two disparate positions on the issue.
Washington Gov. Gary Locke on Wednesday authorized the Department of
Ecology to declare a statewide drought emergency.
Locke noted that the state’s snowpack is at just 50 to 60 percent of
average for this time of year, which will sharply reduce the amount of
runoff into streams this summer. In fact, the flow in the Columbia River
for April through September is expected to be less than 57 percent of
average.
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 multi-agency Implementation Team and Technical Management Team
provided federal executives this week with their ideas about how the
federal hydropower system should be operated in low water conditions.
Federal agencies this year have taken over operations of the Columbia
and Snake river hydroelectric system due to persistent energy
emergencies.
The multi-agency Implementation Team and Technical Management Team
provided federal executives this week with their ideas about how the
federal hydropower system should be operated in low water conditions.
Federal agencies this year have taken over operations of the Columbia
and Snake river hydroelectric system due to persistent energy
emergencies.
The Bonneville Power Administration agreed during a Technical Management
Team conference call last Friday (March 9) to spill 50,000 cubic feet
per second (50 kcfs) of water for three days, 12 hours each evening, at
Bonneville Dam to help Spring Creek Hatchery tule chinook juveniles move
down river.
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.
Chum fry incubating in the Ives and Pearce islands channel downstream
from Bonneville Dam could be the first casualty of this low-water year.
So far, about half the fry have emerged from their nests and left the
area, but the last of the fry aren’t expected to complete emergence
until mid-April.
Ten Northwest House members last week requested a meeting with President
Bush’s energy task force to lobby for federal price controls on
wholesale electricity sales in the West.
In a letter sent to Bush on Tuesday, Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., and 25
other members from Washington, Oregon and California urged him to
reconsider his opposition to using temporary price caps to ease the
region’s energy crisis.
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.
Faced with a water year that is heading to an all-time low, federal,
state and tribal officials agreed to reduce the amount of water used to
protect chum salmon redds near Ives and Pearce islands downstream from
Bonneville Dam.
While this cut is expected to leave only a few more redds dry now, a
decision in the next few weeks could pull the plug on chum flows before
emergence of chum fry is complete.
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.
Tentative agreement was reached last week and could be confirmed today
on a revised plan to control fluctuations in river flow as a way to
prevent stranding salmon fry at Hanford Reach on the mid-Columbia River.
This is the third year of such an agreement, but dam operators this year
are seeking greater flexibility in fluctuations than in previous plans.
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.
Faced with low reservoirs and high energy costs, the Bonneville Power
Administration is cashing in an unused credit the agency earned with the
federal government for past fish and wildlife expenditures.
Faced with low reservoirs and high energy costs, the Bonneville Power
Administration is cashing in an unused credit the agency earned with the
federal government for past fish and wildlife expenditures.
State and federal fisheries managers chose this week to draft Lake
Roosevelt through next Thursday in order to provide enough water to keep
chum salmon redds below Bonneville Dam from being dewatered.
The decision to continue drafting the reservoir at a maximum 1-1/2 foot
per day through most of next week could leave it at a dangerously low
level. It may preclude using as much Grand Coulee water as might be
needed in the spring and summer for spill or to augment flows.
Five federal agencies joined the Bonneville Power Administration this
week in recommending how the region should operate the Columbia River
hydro system during the year.
The principles outlined by the agencies expand a proposal made two weeks
ago by BPA and adds into the equation a sensitivity to endangered
species.
Five federal agencies joined the Bonneville Power Administration this
week in recommending how the region should operate the Columbia River
hydro system during the year.
The principles outlined by the agencies expand a proposal made two weeks
ago by BPA and adds into the equation a sensitivity to endangered
species.
Montana’s water watchers are saying reservoir management over the next
few months will be critical in saving or bankrupting precious water
reserves.
Montana and Idaho joined forces in proposing a “2001 Emergency Water
Management Plan” that recommends diligent water conservation at least
through July 1.
That plan has been a topic at recent meetings in Portland involving
power, fisheries and reservoir managers. (See story above.)
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.
Solutions ranging from the cutting off power-hungry industries to a
curtailment of federal water management salmon recovery strategies were
offered Wednesday in answer to Oregon lawmakers’ questions about how
they might protect the region’s economy in the face of skyrocketing
power prices and anticipated summer drought conditions.
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.
Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber’s proposal that the Bonneville Power
Administration be allowed to skip its approximately $730 million payment
to the U.S. Treasury this year drew no immediate support from Northwest
members of Congress.
Kitzhaber suggested the savings would allow Bonneville to purchase more
high cost electricity instead of further using water stored in Columbia
Basin reservoirs that is intended to improve salmon recovery.
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.
Western senators and utility officials this week warned that the
spreading California electricity crisis and dry winter in the Northwest
threaten to cause even worse problems this summer.
The risk of more power outages and price hikes is greater during that
time because California’s electricity demand will be even higher but
reservoirs at Columbia Basin dams are extremely low and may not refill …
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.
A bountiful, by recent standards, return of spring chinook salmon last
year has translated into the top spawning count on record for one
unlisted Oregon run and generally improved returns for ESA listed fish
on which much of the Columbia Basin’s recovery efforts are focused.
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.
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 …
Columbia Basin electric ratepayers have footed a $3.48 billion bill
since 1978 to help restore fish and wildlife populations in the region,
according to a draft report released this week by the Northwest Power
Planning Council.
The “Annual Report of the Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Program,
1978-1999″ is a first-time attempt to detail exactly fish and wildlife
expenditures of the Bonneville Power Administration …
President-elect George Bush’s choice for secretary of energy, Spencer
Abraham, this week assured Northwest senators he no longer advocates
privatizing the Bonneville Power Administration.
Abraham, a defeated Republican senator from Michigan, co-sponsored bills
to abolish the Department of Energy and transfer its programs to other
agencies of government or the private sector.
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.
Speakers this week at a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission hearing in
Portland supported the agency’s proposal to streamline its hydroelectric
dam licensing process, but worried the shortened process would harm
either the environment or the bottom line.
FERC is required by legislation to look for efficiencies in that process
and is holding six hearings around the country to listen to comments on
its proposal.
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 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.
On the heels of a predicted Northwest power emergency earlier this week,
U.S. Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson ordered the Bonneville Power
Administration to send energy south to help California avert a Stage 3
power emergency that would cause the state to institute rolling
blackouts.
Large-scale manipulations — such as through dike removal, changes in
hydrosystem-controlled flow regimes and altered predation management —
may be necessary to assess the impact human development has had on
Columbia River estuarine habitats and their fish and wildlife
populations, according to a scientific report released this week.
A plan on what to do if a cold snap causes power shortages in the
Northwest could get its first test next week. The long-term weather
forecast is predicting temperatures in the mid-teens in Portland
beginning early next week. If that happens, it could trigger an
emergency plan power organizations have worked on since September.
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.
Panels made up of regional scientists, researchers and representatives
of economic interests were asked last week to offer their views on the
federal salmon recovery planning “process, science basis and prospects
for success.”
The setting was a Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on
Fisheries, Wildlife and Water hearing in Boise chaired by Idaho
Republican Sen. Mike Crapo.
His tenure could, potentially, be brief, but acting Bonneville Power
Administration administrator Steve Wright sees the need to keep the
momentum rolling on a number of related fronts — among them finding
agreement on a “unified” Columbia Basin fish and wildlife recovery plan
demanded by his predecessor.
The Bonneville Power Administration witnessed a changing of the guard
today (Nov. 17) with Administrator Judi Johansen leaving to become
executive vice president for government affairs and regulation at
PacifiCorp.
Saying that rivers already have too little water to meet flow targets
for salmon migration, environmental groups petitioned the Washington
Department of Ecology to renew a moratorium on issuing water rights
permits on the Columbia and Snake rivers and their tributaries.
The governors of Montana and Oregon on Monday aim to trigger discussions
they hope will eventually give the Columbia Basin states and tribes more
clout in fish and wildlife restoration decisions.
Montana Gov. Marc Racicot and Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber have called a
public hearing take input on a “discussion draft” of proposed
legislation that would amend the Pacific Northwest Electric Power
Planning and Conservation Act.
The Northwest Power Planning Council and Bonneville Power Administration
issued a solicitation this week for “high priority” fish and wildlife
project proposals expected to bring immediate, on-the-ground benefits
for listed salmon and steelhead.
The two major party candidates for president have staked out sharply
differing positions on the environment, including specifically the proposal to tear down four dams on the lower Snake River to save salmon.
But Green Party standard-bearer Ralph Nader has drawn some environmental support away from Gore in the Northwest by taking a harder line against commercial logging and suggesting he would consider dam breaching …
A report produced by Idaho agency officials and researchers says that
federal studies used as justification for Lower Snake River flow
augmentation do not hold water.
Flow augmentation, called for in existing and proposed federal
hydrosystem biological opinions, is drawn from Idaho reservoirs created
for irrigation, recreation and other uses …
Year-round monitoring, flood control, use of Dworshak Reservoir for
temperature control and power system emergencies were the high points of
the Technical Management Team’s review of this year’s river operations.
It gave its annual review to the policy-making Implementation Team this
week.
At the request of fish and wildlife managers and hydropower customers,
the Northwest Power Planning Council has delayed putting into writing
its desires for a fish and wildlife program budget expansion for the
current fiscal year.
In an attempt to reduce high electricity prices in California, members
of Congress from the state are attacking federal laws and policies that
provide the Northwest with exclusive rights to low-cost power generated
at Columbia and Snake river dams.
A suddenly volatile, and high, energy market has heightened Lower
Columbia River tribes’ fears that basin salmon recovery efforts —
intended at least in part of restore treaty protected resources — will
get short-changed.
The Bonneville Power Administration announced last week that its amended
rate case for Fiscal Year 2002-2006 wholesale power rates will
officially begin in late November.
The amended process was made necessary when unforeseen and drastic
market shifts skewed the agency’s cost-revenue picture.
Improved ocean and in-river migrating conditions in the past year or two
have added momentum to efforts intended to boost natural production of
Snake River fall chinook above Lower Granite Dam.
A test of hatchery supplementation using the only Snake River basin fall
chinook stock in the Northwest reaped benefits last year and this.
Idaho water users, and the state itself, have challenged proposed
federal salmon recovery plans, saying the strategy has the potential to
bleed the Upper Snake River’s farming economy with no proven benefit to
fish listed under the Endangered Species Act.
Columbia Basin states, tribes and others have all pointed out what they
see as major flaws in two draft federal salmon recovery documents
designed to ensure survive of 12 salmon and steelhead species listed
under the federal Endangered Species Act.
In the face of a presidential veto threat, Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Wash.,
on Thursday agreed to drop his spending bill rider to prohibit studies
of federal dam removal in the Columbia Basin.
The one-year funding restriction was added last week to the final FY01
interior appropriations bill by a vote of 9-5 by the House-Senate
conference committee.
The House of Representatives on Thursday passed a final FY01 spending
bill that includes $4.5 million to improve fish habitat and water
quality in the lower Columbia River.
The restoration of 1,550 acres of wetland and riparian habitat at
Shillapoo Lake, Wash., and elsewhere would mitigate for the impacts of
the Army Corps of Engineers’ project to lower the Columbia River
shipping channel by three feet, to 43 feet.
A draft Northwest Power Planning Council program amendment pays too
little attention to looming Endangered Species Act mandates and aims to
delve inappropriately into state and local watershed and land use
arenas, according to comments submitted last week by Washington state
agencies.
An amendment by Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Wash., that would block federal
agencies from further studying proposals to breach Columbia and Snake
river federal dams has been included in Congress’ final interior
appropriations bill.
The House-Senate conference committee working on the final FY01 spending
measure voted 9-5 on Thursday to add the one-year funding restriction.
The Northwest Power Planning Council on Wednesday endorsed a $135
million spending package for fiscal year 2001 that pares back a majority
of the more than 200 ongoing fish and wildlife projects and leaves
uncommitted an estimated $7.3 million to answer a variety of anticipated
new funding needs.
Much of this week’s Northwest Power Planning Council program budget
discussion focused not on what was on the table, but on expected “new”
demands for fish and wildlife resources during fiscal year 2001.
The Council on Wednesday recommended that the Bonneville Power
Administration fund $135 million worth of fish and wildlife project
renewals.
Three days of hearings before two Senate subcommittees this week
provided the first public forum for a direct exchange of views on the
Clinton administration’s salmon recovery plan between top federal
officials and their strongest critics in the Northwest congressional
delegation.
Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne and representatives of other Northwest
governors and the Northwest Power Council this week went to Washington,
D.C., to seek a greater role for states in salmon recovery.
They testified at a Senate hearing, and Kempthorne met with two Cabinet
members about the issue — Secretary of Commerce Norman Mineta and
Secretary of Interior Bruce Babbitt. Kempthorne was accompanied by Idaho
Attorney General Al Lance.
Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Wash., this week announced he will seek to block
funding for federal agencies to further study the option of breaching
Columbia and Snake river dams to restore salmon.
In a Senate floor speech on Wednesday, Gorton said he would add the
funding restriction to the interior appropriations bill for FY2001.
Gorton chairs the Senate interior appropriations subcommittee.
The federal government’s top regional salmon recovery official has opted
for the private life, leaving his job little more than a month after his
and other federal agencies unveiled their sweeping plan for restoring 12
Columbia Basin salmon and steelhead runs listed under the Endangered
Species Act.
The Bonneville Power Administration skirted another power emergency last
week that could have affected salmon recovery operations at Columbia and
Snake river dams, but at a cost for energy that was four to five times
higher than normal.
A draft federal hydrosystem biological opinion released last month
ventures into new territory and leaves, at least at this point, blurry
lines of funding responsibility, according to Northwest Power Planning
Council staff members.
Conservation groups and individuals on Wednesday asked the Northwest
Power Planning Council to take up the pro-dam breaching cause as part of
its amended Columbia Basin fish and wildlife program.
Breaching of four Lower Snake River hydroelectric dams “is the most
viable solution” to give impetus to salmon recovery efforts, Karie
Korporaal said during a public hearing on the Council’s draft amendment
to its fish and wildlife program. “You need to take a stand.”
Federal agencies intend to keep a closer eye on how available Columbia
Basin fish and wildlife funds are spent to ensure decisions are made
with Endangered Species Act recovery goals in mind.
The Bonneville Power Administration for the second week continued its
control of Columbia River operations as it declined to set absolute
river flow targets for upcoming weeks, but did say its intentions were
to operate the river according to projections by the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers’ Reservoir Control Center.
Bonneville Power Administration representatives this week said a
presidential order to ensure West Coast power system reliability
requires the agency to take control of operations at federal hydropower
dams.
As a result, a request by fisheries managers to continue higher flows at
McNary Dam to aid fish passage became moot at this week’s Technical
Management Team meeting.
The Northwest Power Planning Council approved for public comment
Thursday a draft regional fish and wildlife program that aims to use
habitat restoration and protection as a first tool for undergirding the
Columbia Basin’s fish and wildlife populations.
Maintaining water quality at federal dams is a requirement of the
federal Clean Water Act, not just an aspirational policy, according to a
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency letter sent this week to the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers.
Recent research on the effects of toxic substances on salmon suggests
that even low levels of toxins impair salmon survival instincts.
The study by the National Marine Fisheries Service Science Center in
Seattle, Wash., will be published in the Canadian Journal of Fisheries
and Aquatic Sciences in September. It says that contaminants can cause
impaired growth, suppression of the immune system and increased
mortality in salmon following exposure.
State and federal officials expected to share in implementation duties
were briefed Thursday on a federal plan intended to ward off extinction,
and foment recovery, of listed salmon and steelhead species through a
combination of goals-oriented hydrosystem improvements and “off site”
mitigation actions.
Funding and the need for coordination of federal and regional salmon
recovery efforts surfaced as key issues for Northwest governors
following cursory reviews of a just-released federal draft hydrosystem
biological opinion and companion conceptual recovery strategy.
A hatchery system “overhaul” and short-term habitat improvement actions
aimed at reaping quick salmon survival benefits are key to a Columbia
Basin salmon recovery strategy outlined in draft form Thursday by
federal officials.
The draft plan, which a top White House officials says will “clearly
cost hundreds of millions” more to implement than is currently being
spent on recovery efforts, does not include dam breaching …
A Thursday morning session with a top Administration official produced
little satisfaction for Columbia Basin tribes who insist federal salmon
recovery plans miss a major mark by forestalling a decision to breach
four hydroelectric projects on the Lower Snake River.
“Today I was obliged to deliver the message to Mr. George Frampton,
representing the White House, that the federal decision not to breach
the lower Snake River dams is a purposeful and conscious decision to …
A new biological opinion for the Columbia River Basin federal hydropower
system calls for increased flows to get more water into rivers, improved
spill and passage for juvenile salmon as they travel through the dams
and more work at the dams to improve fish passage.
It also addresses improved management of flow, spill and operations of
the Columbia River hydro system …
The four Northwest governors revealed their strategy for salmon recovery
this week, which focuses on those areas where they agree and leaves dam
breaching to another forum.
By releasing the plan now, the governors say they hope to begin moving
the region toward recovery of salmon and steelhead listed under the
Endangered Species Act …
A biological opinion that governs hydropower operations to protect bull
trout and white sturgeon listed under the Endangered Species Act was
released this week at the same time federal agencies released a BiOp and
All-H paper for endangered salmon and steelhead.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released the draft BiOp on Thursday for a 60-day public review. It applies to bull trout …
Clinton administration officials this week said they will not seek
removal of four lower Snake River federal dams to restore endangered
salmon but will continue to study and plan for the option for the next
10 years in case it proves to be necessary to avoid extinction.
The administration’s alternative to dam breaching will be …
The Clinton administration’s announcement this week that it would not
seek to tear down Snake River dams to aid endangered salmon was
criticized by both environmental advocates and dam supporters.
National and Northwest environmentalists said the administration’s
proposed non-breaching salmon recovery strategy could lead to
extinctions, while Republicans criticized it for leaving the door open
to possible future dam removal.
The extended ruminations over dam breaching’s salmon recovery potential
could be time well spent, according to a panel of economists called on
to critique the economic component of the Corps of Engineer’s draft
Lower Snake River Juvenile Salmon Migration Feasibility Study and
environmental impact statement.
The Colville Tribe announced this week that it is taking the first step
in assessing the production potential for salmon and steelhead in the
Columbia River upstream from Chief Joseph Dam — an area blocked to
upriver fish passage since the late 1950s.
Tribal resource specialists will begin examining salmon habitat on the
river and connected tributaries, in waters on reservation land. The
assessment is intended to help judge the feasibility …
The future is now for outmigrating Snake River fall chinook
subyearlings, which are expected to get a cooler ride to Lower Granite
Dam following a decision this past weekend to increase the outpouring of
water from the depths of Dworshak Reservoir in Idaho.
And according to a flow “shaping” plan discussed Wednesday by the
multi-agency Implementation Team …
Those managing the Columbia-Snake river hydrosystem to balance fish
passage, power generation, irrigation and recreational needs find
themselves dealing with a rapidly dwindling resource — water.
A five-fold increase in sockeye salmon run expectations has enabled
non-Indian commercial fishers their first sockeye salmon fishing
opportunity since 1989 below the Columbia River’s Bonneville Dam.
The planned release of the National Marine Fisheries Service’s
biological opinion regarding federal hydrosystem impacts on listed
Columbia Basin salmon species has been pushed back from late June to
late July as federal agencies continue to wrangle over the final details
of the document.
Those charged with recovering salmon and steelhead stocks listed under
Endangered Species Act say the significance of this year’s high fish
counts at Bonneville Dam has yet to be determined.
About 75,000 soon-to-be smolted Snake River fall chinook salmon treaded
hatchery water this past week while the agencies and tribes debated the
merits of using the little fish in proposed research aimed at gauging
survival.
The slippery schedule for completing a draft biological opinion
governing operations of Columbia River hydroelectric projects slid
again, this time to June 30. Once coined the 1999 BiOp by the National
Marine Fisheries Service, it is now the 2000 BiOp and was last scheduled
for release in draft form May 22.
White House officials have assured state representatives that two federally-instigated Northwest salmon recovery plans would soon be ready for review. While those studies do not immediately recommend removing four lower Snake River dams, they do set performance standards, which if not met, could trigger removal of the dams within five or ten years.
By the May 12 deadline, the Northwest Power Planning Council had
received 55 submissions recommending amendments to the Council’s
regional fish and wildlife management program, last revised in 1994.
A flood of comments — many of them raising “significant issues” — may
push a Corps of Engineers recommendation on lower Snake River dam
breaching into year 2001.
A request from Columbia Basin salmon managers to “spread the risk” to
migrating juvenile salmon by increasing the amount of water voluntarily
spilled at the Lower Snake River’s Little Goose Dam was rejected
Wednesday by the National Marine Fisheries Service.
Federal agencies’ lack of progress in sorting out conflicting mandates,
and a meddlesome Clinton Administration, have brought into question the
agencies’ ability to make sound salmon recovery decisions, according to
Northwest members of the U.S. House of Representatives Resources
committee.
Wide ranging suggestions on the near-term direction of Columbia Basin
salmon recovery efforts were offered Thursday by witnesses called to
testify at a U.S. House of Representatives Resources Committee hearing
in Pasco. All but a few said dam breaching should be dropped from
consideration.
Breaching four Lower Snake River dams is not the answer for reviving
Columbia Basin salmon populations, a trio of Northwest lawmakers said
Tuesday at a Senate hearing at Bonneville Dam.
The annual debate on how and when to use water from Dworshak Dam to
augment flows in the lower Snake River has gotten off to a more vigorous
start this year than in past years.
Two Northwest Republican senators this week said they suspect the delay
of federal agencies’ recommendation for modifying or removing lower
Snake River dams to improve salmon recovery is aimed at helping Vice
President Al Gore’s presidential campaign.
A proposed federal land management plan for roughly 63 million acres in
Idaho, Oregon, Montana and Washington is intended to leave a lighter
footprint both on the land and on the resource-based economies within
that territory.
Federal scientists conclude that drastic action must be taken soon to
head off extinction for Columbia Basin salmon runs in the worst shape,
and decision-makers must take that plunge without the certainty that
those actions will work.
The Bonneville Power Administration’s top official admitted Tuesday that
ESA-spawned mandates may increase immediate Columbia Basin fish and
wildlife program needs, but she showed a reluctance to juggle funds from
one account to another to answer those needs.
Fishermen in Southeast Alaska have finally found unity on a salmon
management issue, thanks to federal consideration of Alaska harvest
cutbacks in order to restore chinook runs in the Snake River.
Juvenile salmon and steelhead passed through Bonneville Dam’s No. 1
powerhouse fared better when encountering a newly designed turbine than
they did when passing through traditional turbines, according to results
from a recently completed $2.5 million biological study.
Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber on Thursday met with Eastern Oregon
constituents for the first time since he publicly supported breaching
the four lower Snake River dams as a viable option for salmon recovery.
In an effort to drum up more public support for breaching federal dams
to “halt salmon extinction,” a national conservation group has declared
the lower Snake River its most endangered river for the second year.
It was almost classic “East versus West” Tuesday as political officials
from Washington’s “dry side” urged rejection of dam breaching as an option. More to follow.
Despite his controversial stand in favor of breaching Snake River dams,
Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber this week continued to work with fellow
Northwest governors and members of Congress on how best to restore
salmon.
Major changes are foreseen for the region’s hatchery operations as fish
managers make adjustments to protect a growing list of threatened salmon
and steelhead populations while still providing promised treaty, and
other, fisheries, according a National Marine Fisheries Service
official.
With Snake River and Columbia River dams in place, augmenting mainstem
flows with upstream water does not do much for achieving a natural river
hydrograph, nor does it have much of an effect on speeding smolts on
their journey downstream.
At least some members of the group charged with judging the
Columbia-Snake river hydrosystem’s technical fixes for fish want more
time to evaluate what they call “questionable conclusions” drawn in a
Corps of Engineer Phase I report on potential John Day reservoir
drawdown.
The Columbia River estuary offers the region an important opportunity to
improve salmon survival.
A new incarnation of a massive plan for federal lands in the Northwest
will be released for comment in the next month.
U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman on Thursday
proposed a new USDA Forest Service road management policy for the
380,000 miles of forest roads.
Nearly all speakers at the Federal Caucus’ “All-H” hearing in Boise
Wednesday were in favor of taking measures that would lead to salmon
recovery, but they were split as to how to proceed.
Breaching Four Lower Snake River dams is not the only way, but it’s the
best way to start rebuilding threatened and endangered Columbia Basin
salmon and steelhead stocks, Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber said last Friday
afternoon (Feb. 18).
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.
A coalition of conservation and fishing groups on Tuesday asked
Portland’s U.S. District Court to order federal agencies to comply with
their own directives to provide Columbia Basin water flows to aid
migration of salmon and steelhead listed under the Endangered Species
Act.
A comprehensive Columbia Basin fish and wildlife recovery plan that
includes the breaching of the four lower Snake River dams is Oregon Gov.
John Kitzhaber’s preferred option, according to notes from a speech he
was expected to deliver today in Eugene to the American Fisheries
Society.
Opponents of dam breaching, accusing federal officials of threatening
their livelihoods and Indians of overharvesting, came out in force
Thursday at an emotionally charged federal hearing in Pasco.
Federal officials were bombarded Tuesday with comments from tribal,
sport and commercial fishers who said their communities and cultures had
been plundered by hydrosystem development aimed at benefiting upstream
interests and by salmon recovery plans that ignore the obvious —
A yearlong lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Portland could decide in
the next month whether the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers must comply with
Clean Water Act standards when operating four lower Snake River dams.
Umatilla Mayor George Hash led the cheers Wednesday when the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers shared its draft recommendation for no further study
and, consequently, no drawdown for the John Day Dam.
Federal officials who say decisions will be based on pure science and
economics were met with a flood of emotional pleas Tuesday during a
meeting in Spokane to discuss, among other things, dam breaching’s
potential for aiding salmon and steelhead recovery.
The National Marine Fisheries Service would increase spending on
Northwest salmon recovery by $9 million in FY2001, under the final
budget of President Clinton’s term.
When it issues a biological opinion of the federal hydro system, the
National Marine Fisheries Service will attach a work in progress that
also addresses federal Clean Water Act issues in the Columbia River
mainstem.
The Northwest Power Planning Council this week unveiled preliminary
analysis of seven river management schemes that shows all the options
producing positive change for chinook salmon populations in the Columbia
River Basin.
The Multi-Species Framework process drew polite applause this week from
Columbia Basin interest groups that for the most part like the potential
and intent but withheld judgment on its usefulness in guiding salmon
recovery processes.
Federal officials heard pleas about the need to restore salmon
populations, and preserve the economic functions of the Columbia
Basin’s hydroelectric system during the first public meeting planned around the region to gather public comment on fish recovery planning efforts.
A first attempt to describe what the future Northwest Power Planning
Council fish and wildlife program might contain did what the “strawman”
is intended to do — stimulate discussion about how to produce the best
results from the expenditure of hydroelectric dollars.
The Corps of Engineers judged that benefits to fish are too few, and the economic costs too great, to pursue further studies aimed at determining the viability of either breaching John Day Dam or drawing down its reservoir to enhance the survival of listed Snake River salmon and steelhead species.
Politicians and business interests say the Corps of Engineers’ John Day Dam recommendation makes perfect sense.
The four Columbia River treaty tribes took their complaints about the federal government’s failure to consult with them on salmon issues to Washington, D.C., this week.
The National Marine Fisheries Service on Thursday told tribal and non-tribal fishers that there might not be enough Columbia-Snake river spring chinook salmon to satisfy everyone’s harvest desires this year.
The Columbia Basin Forum Committee this week met for the first time in
three months, setting for itself an ambitious agenda to begin its policy
level exploration of the region’s four Hs — hydro, harvest, habitat and
hatcheries
The federal caucus will be taking its developing salmon recovery
products on the road next month, spotlighting three Corps of Engineers studies of Lower Snake River hydrosystem configuration options. More follows.
Objections from Idaho and Oregon fish and wildlife officials have left
in question planned pilot studies intended to explore impacts of dam
passage on adult salmon’s survival and reproductive success.
The process of amending the Columbia Basin’s $127 million regional fish
and wildlife program began Wednesday with a call for broad rules to live
by, not specific measures for managing fish and wildlife populations.
Despite a stand-offish policy stance reiterated this week by Washington
Gov. Gary Locke, the governors of Oregon, Idaho and Montana decided
Thursday to forge ahead with a plan to bring the region more authority
in fish and wildlife recovery decision-making.
The Columbia Basin Forum will meet Jan. 19 without representation from
Montana. As it set an ambitious agenda, Stan Grace, who represents
Montana on both the Forum and on the Northwest Power Planning Council,
declined to attend, saying most of the issues are being debated in other
forums.
About 30 people offered opinions Tuesday during the National Marine
Fisheries Service’s first of 15 scheduled public hearings in the
Northwest to accept comments on its proposed “4(d) rules” for 14 species
of steelhead and salmon listed as threatened under the federal
Endangered Species Act.
Federal agencies operating dams in the Columbia River Basin released a
December assessment that dams adversely affect six species listed as endangered or threatened in 1999. They recommend a new Federal Columbia River Power System biological opinion.
Second-year Council member Larry Cassidy of Washington was elected
Wednesday as chairman of the Northwest Power Planning Council as it
prepares to reshape its Columbia Basin fish and wildlife program and
establish new procedures for allocating funding of fish and wildlife
restoration projects.
The National Marine Fisheries Service has released a draft of a
supplemental biological opinion on operation of the Columbia River
federal power system to federal and state agencies, along with tribes,
for quick review. It hopes to complete the BiOp by the spring 2000
juvenile migration.
Washington’s Gov. Gary Locke will not be in lock step with his peers
from Idaho, Montana and Oregon in their efforts to claim more regional
clout in fish and wildlife recovery planning decisions.
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.
A supplemental biological opinion completed last month blesses a plan to
continue federal operations which times the release of 427,000 acre feet
of reservoir water in Idaho to coincide, primarily, with the migration
of Snake River fall chinook salmon listed Endangered Species Act.
An Earthwise Knowledge Initiative Publication
