The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is extending the review period for the Willamette Valley reservoir storage reallocation study. The review period now ends December 28, adding six days to the original 45 day review period.

After long-developing documentation of high levels of selenium, a bi-product of mining in British Columbia’s Elk Valley, and the failure of a water treatment plant to curb the problem, the state of Montana and tribal governments are weighing in on the matter.

A decades-long process to relicense the Hells Canyon Complex of hydroelectric dams on the Snake River has one more delay as Idaho Power analyzes additional data requested by the dams’ bordering states.

Timothy R. Petty has been nominated to be the Assistant Secretary for Water and Science at the U.S. Department of the Interior, a position responsible for overseeing the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

Meteorologists at last weekend’s annual winter weather forecast conference came to near agreement on three things: the 2016-17 winter was unusually nasty, weather this coming winter will likely be influenced by a neutral to weak La Nina, as it was last year, and there will be near normal snowfall or more at higher elevations in the northern Cascade Mountains in Oregon.

The Bureau of Reclamation awarded a $21.7 million contract to Greenberry Industrial LLC in Vancouver, Washington, to replace reverse flow gates at the John W. Keys III Pump Generating Plant, a feature of the Grand Coulee Power Complex in Grand Coulee, Washington.

A contract to build a 1,250-foot tunnel for fish passage at Cle Elum Dam was awarded August 30 by the Bureau of Reclamation — which operates the dam in the upper Yakima River basin — to a Vancouver, Washington contractor.

The Bureau of Reclamation has begun its annual “flip-flop” operation in the Yakima Basin by gradually reducing flows out of Keechelus and Cle Elum reservoirs in the upper Yakima River basin and increasing flows from Rimrock Reservoir.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers operations officials at Lower Monumental Lock and Dam this week investigated and confirmed a suspected oil leak in hydroelectric generator unit number 2.

More than 1,400 new dams or water diversion projects are planned or already under construction and many of them are on rivers flowing through multiple nations, fueling the potential for increased water conflict between some countries.

U.S. Reps. Dan Newhouse (R-WA) and Kurt Schrader (D-OR) were joined this week by U.S. Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), Peter DeFazio (D-OR), Greg Walden (R-OR), Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA), and Dave Reichert (R-WA) in a bipartisan letter urging President Trump to commence negotiations with Canada over the Columbia River Treaty as soon as possible.

An acoustic tag developed by a Seattle firm may be the answer to more accurate reports of predation on juvenile fish, according to a recent report.

A settlement last week of a 2015 clean water case in a Tri-City federal court will fund projects by three conservation groups.

Oregon experienced very low snowpack levels in 2014 and historically low snowpack levels in 2015; now a new study suggests that these occurrences may not be anomalous in the future and could become much more common if average temperatures warm just two degrees Celsius.

A petition filed this fall by Idaho Power asking the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to declare federal law preempts Oregon’s fish passage requirements was dismissed, leaving uncertainty over studying the feasibility of salmon and steelhead passage at the Snake River’s Hells Canyon Complex.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation settled a lawsuit last week initially filed June 29, 2016 by Columbia Riverkeeper. The suit asked the agency to stop leaking “uncontrolled toxic oil pollution” at Grand Coulee Dam on the upper Columbia River.

As spawning of chum salmon near Bonneville Dam has come to an end, fisheries managers are saying the numbers of the salmon returning this year appears to be nearly as high as last year.

Oregon State University’s Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center this week was awarded up to $40 million from the U.S. Department of Energy, to create the world’s premier wave energy test facility in Newport.

For the first time, NOAA and partner scientists have connected the concentration of human-caused carbon dioxide in waters off the U.S. Pacific coast to the dissolving of shells of microscopic marine sea snails called pteropods.

The Bonneville Power Administration has released its initial rate proposal, which it says will support investments in the Federal Columbia River Power System that provides hydropower to 142 Northwest public utilities.

The Bonneville Power Administration has selected Janet Herrin as its next chief operating officer. Herrin will bring over 30 years of energy industry experience and leadership to BPA. She will replace Claudia Andrews, who is retiring from BPA this month after 26 years of federal service.

Five U.S. Senators and 17 U.S. House members from the Pacific Northwest have sent a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry urging the U.S. Department of State to hasten its progress towards negotiations to modernize the Columbia River Treaty.

The Bureau of Reclamation has awarded a $19 million contract to American Hydro of York, Pennsylvania that calls for replacing and updating equipment for pump generating units 5 and 6 at the John W. Keys III Pump Generating Plant at Grand Coulee Dam.

During high flow years the number of dams juvenile chinook salmon and steelhead pass on their downstream passage to the sea determines their downstream migration survival, according to a recent study.