While not specifically endorsing the plan, fish managers agreed that
hydro managers’ proposed Mid-Columbia flow regime for Hanford Reach could
result in reduced entrapment and mortality of juvenile fall chinook fry
this spring.

The hydro managers last week (Friday, March 5) presented the one-season
flow regime to fish managers as a take-it-or-leave-it proposal, stressing
they needed a plan in place this week when fry are expected to emerge from
Hanford Reach redds.

The fry rear …

Assertions that federal agencies violated terms of the Endangered Species
Act with actions related to a 1995 Biological Opinion for Snake River salmon
were rebuffed Monday by the Ninth U.S. Court of Appeals.

The BiOp outlines both short- and long-term measures designed to avoid
putting listed species at risk of extinction. It addresses the fate of
Snake River sockeye, spring/summer chinook and fall chinook salmon.

A goal set out in the BiOp was to decide this year on a long-term …

Reaching agreement on the direction for federal, state and tribal fish
and wildlife restoration efforts is a complicated business — a fact that
surfaced early in discussions of the fledgling Columbia River Basin Forum.

The first gathering of the Forum’s 12-member committee Wednesday in
Portland showed various entities are on similar, though not necessarily
coordinated, tracks toward a common goal of producing a unified, basinwide
recovery plan.

The Forum’s founding document …

. Booker, CPA , mebooker@atnet.net:

Kudos to Ed Woodruff for clearly identifying THE FIRST GORILLA of Snake
River dam removal – The cost to replace power after the dams are removed.

The Columbia Basin Bulletin, 2/26, Part 2 of 2, 7. DRAWDOWN COST ESTIMATE
INCREASED, the third paragraph stated: "The hydropower impact is now
estimated at $251 million to $291 million on an average annual basis using
a medium forecast, which is the most likely outcome," said Ed …

An issue paper released this week sums up a set of scientific conclusions
regarding Columbia/Snake River mainstem fish passage efforts and offers
draft recommendations about how the program might be more effective.

The paper suggests that it may be necessary to continue pursuing "multiple
strategies" for fish passage — surface bypass, smolt transportation,
collection with turbine screens, spill, improved turbine passage — in
order to protect biodiversity among salmon and …

The Drawdown Regional Economic Workgroup is publicly holding to the
end-of-May deadline that it set in January to complete its draft economic
appendix.

May, however, is well beyond DREW’s original goal of completing the
appendix by the end of 1998. The appendix outlines the economic impacts
on the region of removing four lower Snake River dams.

Many of the studies continue to be behind schedule, but Kirby Gilbert,
a consultant with Foster Wheeler, told workgroup members at …

Nine Sierra Club members and staff spent the week of Feb. 22 in Washington
D.C. arguing the case for Snake River dam breaching with every member of
the Oregon, Washington and Idaho delegations or their staff and with numerous
administration officials.

Their message: Partial removal of four federal dams is highly likely
to save endangered upper Columbia Basin salmon and is economically affordable,
whereas the current system will probably lead to extinction, jeopardizing
the region’s …

The legacy of attempts to ease salmon passage through Columbia-Snake
river dams is limited short-term successes and long-term (at least to-date)
failure, according to a scientific panel assigned to review the Corps of
Engineers’ mainstem fish mitigation program.

The panel is recommending a more biologically-driven approach in further
planning of mainstem dam passage improvements.

The Northwest Power Planning Council was directed by Congress in the
conference report for 1998 Energy and

UMATILLA – Farmers and ranchers, economists and politicians offered
new verses but sang the same "hell no" chorus during a pair of
public hearings last week to discuss the Corps of Engineers’ study to determine
whether drawdown of the John Day Pool justifies more research.

The Corps’ $3.3-million "Phase I" study will compare the potential
costs of a John Day Dam drawdown against the potential benefits to salmon
restoration. The Corps is expected to deliver a …

The estimated annual impact of removing four lower Snake River dams
from the hydropower system increased by about $30 million per year when
the economic impact on the transmission system was added into a Drawdown
Regional Economic Workgroup (DREW) analysis this month.

According to the draft hydropower impact report, removal of the four
dams could now cost the region a low of $180 million to a high of $390
million annually, a change from previously-reported impacts that ranged
from …

Under a worst-case economic scenario, the Bonneville Power Administration
stands to lose an estimated $38 million during testing this summer that
is intended to determine what level of spill provides the most benefit
for migrating juvenile salmon.

Power generation — and revenue — are lost when river operators must
spill water through spillways rather than turbines in order to help move
young fish through the Columbia-Snake river hydroelectric system.

Those shifts in power production

Participants in the development of a multi-species management framework
used a Portland public meeting to tout their project’s potential to bring
order to fish and wildlife decision making.

The Monday meeting came at a turning point in the framework committee’s
own processes. Work will now shift from the initial development of a broad
range of policy alternatives to the first scientific scrutiny at those
alternatives’ potential biological and economic consequences.

The initial …

A "scoping" study now under way intends to compare the potential
costs related to John Day Dam drawdown with the chances such measures would
help revive dwindling salmon runs.

Those comparisons are expected to form a recommendation to Congress
— either to drop the issue altogether or investigate drawdown options
in greater detail and at much greater cost.

"It’s going to have to be a black and white answer" project
manager Stuart Stanger said of the study’s …

, mainstem hydrologist, Columbia River Inter-Tribal
Fish Commission:

Re: Feb. 12 CBB article titled "ESTUARY GOVERNMENTS OPPOSE CHANNEL
DEEPENING"

The statement was made "They were supposed to have evaluated dredging
to 41, 42 and 43 feet, a regional port alternative, as well as look at
nonstructural alternatives, such as upgrading the river forecasting system,"
Taylor said. "By its own economic study, upgrading the river forecasting
system is cheaper, …

The most complex, expensive elements of Columbia Basin fish and wildlife
restoration efforts are also the areas that carry the most unsettled scientific
arguments, according to a report released this week.

"Looking for Common Ground" is an attempt to identify areas
of agreement and of disagreement in five major scientific reports released
in recent years. A briefing on the Independent Scientific Advisory Board
"work-in-progress report" was presented to the …

Dissolved gas levels in the Columbia River caused by spill decreased
slightly in 1998, the National Marine Fisheries Service reports.

The decrease is attributed to lower precipitation compared to 1996 and
1997, and to modifications of spillways at Ice Harbor and John Day dams.
Biological monitoring found few signs of gas bubble disease in fish throughout
the year.

NMFS summarized total dissolved gas supersaturation (TDGS) data in a
report on its 1998 spill program submitted last month

Planning 1999 migration season operations at The Dalles and John Day
dams has stirred up a regional debate over how best to manage an experimental
spill regime for fish that has at stake millions of dollars in power revenues.

National Marine Fisheries Service scientists believe their 1997 and
1998 studies of fish passage survival support reducing spill at The Dalles
and testing 24-hour spill at John Day.

Other regional interests, however, are lining up to criticize the …

Columbia River Basin fish managers on Monday heard about a plan to develop
a radio tag that biologists feel has the potential to pinpoint major sources
of stress which increase mortality in migrating salmon.

The "bi-directional" tags used in the envisioned telemetry
system would allow researchers to tap instantly information about an individual
fish’s physical condition, as well as environmental "events"
that may have caused that physical condition to change for …

Oregon Republican Sen. Gordon Smith intends to be an "activist"
chairman of a subcommittee that will play a key role this year in Columbia
River Basin power and fish restoration issues.

The Senate’s Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water and
Power will pursue "oversight of the 1999 Decision," Smith said
in an interview this week with The Columbia Basin Bulletin.

Smith said he expects the subcommittee to conduct several hearings related
to the …

The Columbia River Basin’s fish and wildlife managers say their burdens
have grown in recent years and months with demand for their services increasing
beyond traditional tasks.

The Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Authority is asking that $500,000
be dedicated during the current fiscal year for the extra staff time required
to participate in regional processes designed to shape fish and wildlife
management programs. CBFWA’s membership includes federal, state and tribal
fish and …

The National Marine Fisheries Service is asking the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission to consider the cumulative effects of Idaho Power dams on anadromous
fish in its process of relicensing Snake River dams.

FERC initially proposed to evaluate site specific impacts, not the cumulative
effects suggested by NMFS.

In addition, Idaho Power is already working with FERC on a biological
assessment of the company’s Hells Canyon complex of three dams, four years
before it will apply to …

Lawyers for a coalition of environmental and fishing groups on Monday
said the federal government’s approach to salmon recovery errs by focusing
on "life support" rather than aiming to cure the disease.

American Rivers, in a pair of appeals, is asking the U.S. Court of Appeals
for the Ninth Circuit to require that the document guiding recovery actions
at Columbia-Snake river dams be revamped. The court convened in Portland.

In one case, American Rivers and the other …

Federal officials say though the final version of the Lower Snake River
Juvenile Salmon Migration Feasibility Study will not be completed until
early 2000, it may still be possible to issue, as promised, key recommendations
this year regarding the long-term operations of the federal Columbia/Snake
River hydropower system. Rather than wait for the final feasibility study
document, the federal government could use the "preferred alternative"
in the draft document as the basis …

A compromise reached by The Idaho Department of Fish and Game and the
Bonneville Power Administration on discharge levels at Dworshak Reservoir
has been scrapped due to high precipitation in the region.

Discharge from the powerhouse is set to go to full capacity beginning
Monday and stay there through the rest of the month and into February.

Tensions rose between the state and federal agencies when the Army Corps
of Engineers ordered the reservoir to be lowered by 10 feet late …

Economic advisers for the Northwest Power Planning Council say lack
of information is making difficult for them to fully evaluate the economic
analyses being produced for the Army Corps of Engineers’ Lower Snake River
Feasibility Study.

In comments on the Drawdown Regional Economic Workgroup’s water supply
analysis, the Council’s Independent Economic Analysis Board (IEAB) said
this lack of information hampers the economists ability to fully evaluate
the workgroup’s conclusions regarding

The Bonneville Power Administration on Dec. 21 unveiled its strategy
for selling electricity in a way the agency says will cover up to $721
million a year in fish and wildlife obligations for the 2001-2006 period.

In addition, rates and contracts under Bonneville’s "Power Subscription
Proposal" will be designed to build financial reserves for the post-2006
period, when fish and wildlife costs under certain scenarios could top
the $1 billion a year mark.

Under a federal …

] A man with a long history in Corps of Engineers
fish program planning, and a future in retirement, predicts the tug-o-war
over salmon recovery science and solutions has only just begun.

Dave Geiger, the chief of the Northwestern Division Salmon Coordination
Office, officially retired Jan. 2 after 35 years with the Corps. The Oregon
State University graduate has spent nearly his entire career working out
of either the division or district Corps offices in Portland.

Geiger bows out at

The paper — and computer data – chase is on as reviewing agencies begin
to sort through the 430 Columbia River Basin fish and wildlife restoration
project proposals vying for $127 million in fiscal year 2000 direct fish
and wildlife program funds.

The cycle for fiscal 2000 began Dec. 9, the deadline for submitting
project proposals to the Bonneville Power Administration. The federal power
marketing agency funds the direct program as part of its responsibility
to mitigate impacts to …

 After three years of intensive effort, has the scientific group
working on the Plan for Analyzing and Testing Hypotheses (PATH) helped
the region along toward consensus on salmon recovery?

 PATH facilitator David Marmorek summarized the groups Fiscal
Year 1998 report twice this month — first at a Dec. 10 meeting of the
National Marine Fisheries Services multi-agency Implementation Team, and
to a larger group Wednesday (Dec. 16) at the Northwest Power Planning …

 What is the next step for PATH? What should the scientific group
spend its time and resources on in the first quarter of 1999?

 A subgroup of the 25 to 30 federal, tribal, state, and independent
scientists the PATH planning group asked the National Marine Fisheries
Services multi-agency Implementation Team for guidance on FY 1999 priorities.

 Agreement on the top priority was reached at the Dec. 10 IT meeting:
The IT wants PATH to complete its analyses of the …

 The pressure to produce was felt anew Monday as those involved
in the multi-species framework development process struggled to identify
the targets that would be subjected to scientific scrutiny.

 The framework process was initiated by the Northwest Power Planning
Council this past summer to produce ecological and economic analyses of
potential strategies for restoring Columbia Basin fish and wildlife stocks.

 A variety of Basin stakeholders, both public and …

 Congress might be willing to loosen the federal governments grip
on how decisions are made regarding the many uses of the Columbia River.
But any drive to achieve regional empowerment must come from within the
region, Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Washington, said Wednesday (Dec. 16).

 Gorton was participating in the fifth Pacific Northwest Public
Affairs Conference at Portland State University. The conference focus was
At-Risk Economy, At-Risk-Environment: The Pacific Northwest …

A recently released scientific report on Columbia Basin hatchery operations
has drawn praise, qualified support and outright criticism from those involved
in a congressionally mandated review of artificial production practices.

The "Review of Salmonid Artificial Production in the Columbia River
Basin" was prepared by the seven-member Science Review Team at the
request of the Northwest Power Planning Council.

The report was described by Chip McConnaha, a SRT member and the …

Three draft studies released by the Drawdown Regional Economic Workgroup
(DREW) offer preliminary estimates of some direct, annual costs to the
region for removing four lower Snake River dams.

According to the draft hydropower impact report, removal of the four
dams could cost the region $150 million to $360 million annually, or a
net present value of $2.1 billion to $7.4 billion over 100 years just to
make up for the power and system reliability that would be lost.

A draft …

The Columbia Basin Multi-Species Framework development process continues
into its next phase with trust-building as lively a pursuit as the collection
of biological, economic and social data.

Framework staff on Monday presented five sketches of basin fish and
wildlife management alternatives to the diverse membership of the framework
management committee. The goal of the process is to define a set of management
alternatives that can be analyzed to determine potential impacts of …

A turbine now being installed at Bonneville Dam is expected to produce
the first full-scale test of a new design that could, in theory, both enhance
survival of migrating juvenile salmon and be a more efficient generator
of electricity.

Dick Fisher of Voith Hydro briefed the Northwest Power Planning Council
Tuesday on innovative turbine technologies being developed. Fisher is vice
president-technology for Voith, one of the nation’s largest manufacturers
of hydroelectric turbines. …

The scientific team known as PATH — Plan for Testing Alternative Hypotheses
— will present its final report for 1998 on Dec. 16 during a briefing
at the Northwest Power Planning Council’s Portland office from 1-4 p.m.

Organizers of the briefing are encouraging participation by regional
tribal and agency policymakers, environmental leaders, utility and industrial
interests and the interested public. Those wishing to participate by phone
should call 503-326-7665.

PATH will present its

The Columbia/Snake River flow augmentation regime prescribed in 1995
as part of the National Marine Fisheries Service’s salmon recovery strategy
will be continued at least through next spring and summer.

That’s the decision agreed to Monday by NMFS’ interagency Implementation
Team (IT), though Idaho’s representative went along somewhat grudgingly.

River flows have for the past several years been augmented in the spring
and summer from Snake River storage reservoirs in Idaho. The …

A hydroelectric project within McNary Dam could become the third in
the region to have its product certified as "green" power under
the newly established Bonneville Environmental Foundation.

The Northwest Power Planning Council this month directed its staff to
review an application for "low-impact hydropower" certification
for the McNary Dam Washington Shore Fishway Hydroelectric Project. The
Council staff was asked by the Bonneville Power Administration and …

The Corps of Engineers made it clear Monday that it is studying a range
of options for improving juvenile salmon migration through the hydropower
system on the lower Snake River.

The Corps has declared no favorite — yet.

But only one option triggered debate during a study update for the public
in Portland — the prospect of breaching Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental,
Little Goose and Lower Granite dams.

The meeting was the third of five being held in the region to inform
the public on

The Northwest Energy Coalition has endorsed partially removing four
dams on the Lower Snake River and replacing power from the dams with energy
conservation and new renewable resources such as wind and geothermal power.

The NWEC is a coalition of 80 conservation organizations and utilities.
A NWEC press release stressed that resolutions adopted by the coalition
do not necessarily reflect the positions of every member.

The resolution adopted by the NWEC board says the extinction of …

Higher Bonneville Dam outflows that started Nov. 4 will give fall chinook
more places to spawn in the mainstem Columbia River near Hamilton, Ives,
and Pierce islands.

However, tribes and other upriver interests worry about the consequences
for Hanford Reach fall chinook and resident fish above Grand Coulee Dam.

Federal hydropower operators and the National Marine Fisheries Service
reversed an earlier decision and granted a request from state and federal
fish managers to maintain …

The Columbia-Snake River Irrigators Association is seeking support for
a "water management alternative for the Columbia River Basin"
that would restructure the federal government’s flow augmentation program
for juvenile salmon and steelhead.

The irrigators’ proposal would: — eliminate the National Marine Fisheries
Service’s "no net loss" water policy that limits future water
withdrawals; — eliminate spring flow augmentation; — reduce summer flow
augmentation …

The potential for enhancing salmon survival with major operational or
structural changes at John Day Dam will be explored through a yearlong,
$3.3 million study launched this year by the Corps of Engineers.

The congressionally mandated study is intended to analyze mostly existing
information on the estimated economic costs and biological benefits of
two drawdown scenarios. The first is called spillway crest drawdown, from
the reservoir’s normal operating level of 265 feet above sea level

By presenting a united front, the region increases the chances that
its voice will be heard when it comes time to make key decisions regarding
management of the Columbia River Basin, says Will Stelle, Northwest regional
administrator for the National Marine Fisheries Service. NMFS, in a 1995
biological opinion, specified that changes in operations for the federal
Columbia-Snake river hydroelectric system are necessary to improve in-river
survival of Snake River salmon species listed …

After weeks of talks, the Bonneville Power Administration and National
Marine Fisheries Service rejected a proposal to provide minimum flows to
protect a naturally spawning population of fall chinook below Bonneville
Dam.

State and federal fish managers say Bonneville, with the National Marine
Fisheries Service’s agreement, is actually shaping operations to eliminate
the spawners from the area around Ives, Pierce, and Hamilton Islands in
the mainstem Columbia.

Although the issue was

The government will get what it is willing to pay for in terms of dissolved
gas abatement at Grand Coulee Dam, according to a recently completed analysis
of structural alternatives being studied by the Bureau of Reclamation.

Among the conceptual-level designs studied, there seems to be an inverse
relationship between the projected success in gas abatement and the cost,
according to Kathy Frizell, a Bureau hydraulic engineer who co-authored
the report presented Wednesday in Portland …

A scientist known worldwide for work with endangered species has been
called upon to trigger the search for the appropriate management strategies
for Columbia Basin fish and wildlife recovery.

Dr. Ulysses Seal of the World Conservation Union will facilitate a workshop
Nov. 17-19 that is designed, ultimately, to begin scientific and socio-economic
analysis of proposed management alternatives for fish and wildlife restoration
in the basin. The workshop is scheduled at the Portland …

The Three Sovereigns’ proposed Columbia River Basin Forum will bring
improved coordination and decision-making to Basin fish and wildlife restoration
efforts, said a governor, tribal leaders, and senior federal officials
Thursday at an all-day conference on Columbia River governance.

They said a federal-state-tribal forum offers the quickest way for Northwest
interests to collaborate with the federal government on the National Marine
Fisheries Service’s 1999 decision on long-term …

Idaho’s fish and game commissioners have asked their Washington and
Oregon counterparts to join them in declaring that the "best available
science" points to the breaching of four lower Snake River dams as
the only management option being considered likely to recover Columbia
and Snake river salmon and steelhead stocks.

Top officials from the three states’ fish and wildlife agencies, as
well as four Oregon, three Washington and one Idaho fish and wildlife commissioners
met …

The National Marine Fisheries Service is taking another look at the
role of flow augmentation in Columbia River salmon recovery.

Recent scientific data on the relationship between river flow levels
and salmon survival were presented at the October 2 meeting of the Implementation
Team, a policy group representing federal and state agencies. NMFS hydro
manager Brian Brown said that at the team’s next meeting, November 5, he
would ask the group "whether we need to reconsider the …

President Clinton’s threatened veto has prompted Sen. Slade Gorton to
pull from the Interior spending bill his provision aimed at strengthening
congressional authority over modifications to Columbia/Snake River dams.

At the same time, the Washington Republican yanked from the bill something
Clinton wanted — $2 million to study the removal of the dam on the lower
Elwha River on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula.

The senator will revisit the Columbia River issue next year, said …

The four Northwest governors agreed Monday (Oct. 5) that the way the
Columbia-Snake river system is managed needs to be changed — and that
they might be the ones to coordinate a regional plan.

The governors and their advisers will spend the next few weeks deciding
if they should advance a legislative proposal to address long-term river
governance issues, and what sort of proposal that should be. They’ll also
focus on how the region can better address looming fish and wildlife issues
in

An independent scientists’; report indicates that drawdown of the four
lower Snake River dams is more likely to produce salmon recovery than transportation
of juveniles past the dams.

The long-awaited results of the peer review of the "weighting of
evidence" process were presented to the October 1 meeting of the National
Marine Fisheries Service’s Implementation Team.

The scientists assessed evidence related to three possible actions for
recovery of Snake River chinook …

"Do the preliminary tests in prototype indicate that the surface
flow bypass technology shows sufficient promise to warrant continuing development?"

Under the presumption that the system of hydroelectric dams retains
its present configuration and operations, the answer is "Yes."

That’s the latest word from the 10-member Independent Scientific Advisory
Board. The panel of scientists outlined comments and recommendations on
the current technology in a report to …

The governors of the four Northwest states gather in Boise Monday to
discuss a variety of Columbia/Snake River Basin issues.

Phil Batt of Idaho, Marc Racicot of Montana, John Kitzhaber of Oregon
and Gary Locke of Washington are scheduled to convene at 9:30 a.m. Oct.
5 at the Centre on the Grove in downtown Boise.

The governors will first hear a briefing on the activities of the Transition
Board and on the Bonneville Power Administration’s ongoing subscription
process. Dick Watson, the

The Senate’s $13.4 billion Interior Appropriations Bill, which addresses
congressional authority over modifications to Columbia Basin federal hydropower
projects, was pulled from the floor this week.

It will now become part of an "omnibus spending bill" that
will include several appropriations bills, say Northwest congressional
staffers. The final package will be shaped by a House-Senate conference
committee.

The Interior spending bill, largely crafted by Washington …

Funding requests for tribal law enforcement projects were rejected Wednesday
as the Northwest Power Planning Council stressed the need to better define
how the proposed activities would to help achieve the goals of its direct
fish and wildlife program.

The Council followed the advice of its Fish and Wildlife Committee in
deciding not to reserve funding for law enforcement in the $131.4 million
1999 direct program budget.

The decision on the law enforcement portion of the budget …

RE: SCT article and Decision Process Coordinating Group article in last
week’s Columbia Basin Bulletin

From BOB HEINITH, hydro coordinator for the Columbia Inter-Tribal Fish
Commission:

I find it completely ironic that while the region’s fish and wildlife
policy makers are moving toward a multi-species approach through the framework
and Decision Process groups, mid-level, technical, fishery agency managers
and the Corps are continuing to advocate spending the lion’s share of the
FY99

Recent comments from regional interests reflect substantial differences
of opinion over how the Bonneville Power Administration should proceed
with its proposal to finance the future costs of salmon recovery.

Tribes, environmentalists, and the Environmental Protection Agency say
Bonneville’s approach may not adequately finance the only recovery alternatives
that will meet the mandates of the Endangered Species Act and the Clean
Water Act.

But utilities and industrial customers …

One certainty faces those setting the agenda for the 1999 Columbia River
mainstem capital construction program aimed at salmon recovery — some
of the desired projects will go unfunded.

The multi-agency System Configuration Team is charged with ranking those
projects, with the highest ranking going to those considered most critical
to restoring Basin salmon and steelhead species.

But members of a House-Senate conference committee this month are wrangling
over the amount that will …

It’s not often that a committee offers to disband – but the Decision
Process Coordinating Group did, and its offer was rejected.

"Do we still need this group?" asked consultant and coordinating
group facilitator Ed Sheets at the September 10 meeting of the Implementation
Team, a multi-agency policy group set up by the National Marine Fisheries
Service.

"There are lots of reasons to dissolve it – it has accomplished
the tasks it was set. But you also might want to …

A biological opinion issued late Thursday (Sept. 10) indicates that
Columbia River fish harvest levels have not yet reached a threshold that
would "jeopardize" threatened steelhead stocks.

It does say that threshold would be surpassed if tribal fishers, who
are pursuing primarily fall chinook, stick strictly to the terms of a harvest
agreement reached in negotiations with federal agencies.

The biological opinion drafted by the National Marine Fisheries Service
addresses …

Contentious debate is expected in coming days as Sen. Slade Gorton tries
to win Senate passage for a $13.4 billion Department of Interior spending
bill that includes language which Gorton says defines Congress’ role in
protecting the Columbia-Snake River hydroelectric system’s primary functions.

The bill was brought to the Senate floor Tuesday, though debate was
not expected to begin until late this week, said Gorton spokesman Rob Nichols.

The legislation faces the continued threat …

An attempt to gain court approval for a tribal commercial harvest of
fall chinook on the Columbia River was shot down Thursday over concerns
about the impact on steelhead listed as threatened under the Endangered
Species Act.

In denying his approval of a "stipulated agreement" for harvests
to begin Sept. 7, U.S. District Court Malcolm F. Marsh chastised the federal
government for what he called an attempt to circumvent the mandate of the
ESA.

Attorneys for the states of …

A call for comments on prospective Columbia River governance options
drew a wide range of opinions. Now the four Northwest governors and their
staffs will have to decide to what practical use, if any, those opinions
will be applied.

Some suggest the U.S. government, with Canada, should have total control
of river management decisions. Others desire an increase in the states’
authorities. Some say those with the largest economic stake should have
the most input in river governance. …

Federal and state salmon managers have requested Columbia River operations
in September that would continue to aid juvenile and adult fish migrations.
Hydro operators say they are not obligated past Aug.31 to meet these requests.

The salmon managers presented System Operational Request (SOR) 98-34
to a Sept. 2 meeting of the National Marine Fisheries Service’s interagency
Technical Management Team (TMT). The TMT’s last official meeting was Aug.
26; members agreed, however, to meet …

The Bonneville Power Administration released for public comment this
week a revised set of "fish and wildlife funding principles"
intended to guide the agency’s future use of revenues for Columbia Basin
salmon restoration.

"The principles are intended to ‘keep the options open’ for future
fish and wildlife decisions that are anticipated to be made in late 1999,"
says BPA in the preamble to the principles.

"The agreement resulting from these principles is …

Fish mortality at McNary Dam this summer could not have been reduced
by switching from barging to spill during periods of high water temperatures,
says an "information alert" distributed to the media last week
by the Army Corps of Engineers’ Portland office.

"The water temperature issue has not been portrayed accurately,"
said the two-page report titled "The Untold Story Behind the Headlines."

The Corps said it was responding to inaccurate newspaper …

Federal and state salmon managers have requested special operations
at Bonneville Dam starting Sept. 1 to facilitate collection of "tule"
fall chinook spawners for the Spring Creek National Fish Hatchery. Bonneville
Power Administration and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have agreed to
cooperate.

The tule fall chinook trapping program would "help achieve several
conflicting management objectives," according to a System Operational
Request (SOR) submitted to the …

To reduce juvenile salmon mortality from stranding-or power peaking-the
Bonneville Power Administration and mid-Columbia Public Utility Districts
should maintain stable flows out of Priest Rapids Dam during the period
when Hanford Reach fall chinook emerge as fry, says the Independent Scientific
Advisory Board in an August 3 report.

But BPA officials say many questions need to be addressed before they
would agree to a flow regime that could cost ratepayers and PUDs millions
of …

The Bonneville Power Administration is prepared to offer a range of
potential Fish and Wildlife Program costs, instead of a specific number,
when it presents its rate case for the period 2002 to 2006.

BPA has been assembling what its describes as planning assumptions-estimated
costs that drive its rate requirements-in preparation for a mid-September
presentation to the Administration, according to Bob Lohn, BPA manager’s
for fish and wildlife.

The unsettled direction of the region’s

Scientists charged with evaluating alternatives for Snake River salmon
recovery released this week revised results showing better survival of
spring/summer chinook from "natural river" or drawdown conditions
than from transportation around the dams in barges.

These results are still preliminary, said David Marmorek, the technical
facilitator of the working group of scientists called PATH (Plan for Analyzing
and Testing Hypotheses). "Further changes are likely," …

PENDLETON, OR-At a Senate subcommittee field hearing Tuesday, river
users and agricultural interests endorsed Oregon Republican Sen. Gordon
Smith’s legislation mandating that an industry-oriented advisory group
be included in the Three Sovereigns pact or any other "memorandum
of agreement" regarding management of the Columbia/Snake River Basin.

But representatives of federal agencies, tribes, the state of Oregon
and the sportfishing industry expressed skepticism that …

In an opinion piece published last week in The Seattle Times, the Clinton
Administration’s top environment official sharply criticized legislative
language crafted by Washington Republican Sen. Slade Gorton that would
limit the ability of federal agencies to modify the Columbia/Snake River
hydropower system without congressional authorization.

And this week, Gorton fired back with op-ed of this own, saying "no
one can tell whoppers like the Clinton Administration." Gorton, …

The Bonneville Power Administration this week is taking
a post-2001 fish and wildlife funding proposal to the public that includes
both future fish costs and revenue-raising strategies the agency could
employ to meet all of its financial obligations for the 2002-2006 rate
period.

BPA’s fish costs are now capped at an average $435 million a year for
the 1996-2001 period. Fish costs for 2002-2006 are estimated to range from
$438 million to $727 million a year. The final number will …

An $894,500 funding request for multi-species framework development
has been delayed until four tribal representatives can meet with the management
team guiding the work.

The Northwest Power Planning Council last week approved a letter asking
that the Bonneville Power Administration fund the first phase of the development
project, but held off delivering it while discussions continued among the
treaty tribes and the Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Authority.

Neither the tribes …

Whether as smolts they are transported or migrate in-river, adult spring/summer
wild chinook are returning to the Snake River Basin in numbers far lower
than needed for recovery, according to preliminary results of smolt transportation
research by the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Scientists believe Columbia Basin wild salmon stocks need an adult return
rate of 2-6 percent to reverse population decline.

Preliminary research results show transported wild and hatchery …

New, preliminary data from the National Marine Fisheries Service indicates
a strong relationship between higher river flows, colder water temperature,
and subyearling Snake River fall chinook survival through the hydropower
system.

NMFS fisheries biologist Chris Ross presented some of the data at a
recent meeting of the Implementation Team, a group of senior level state
and federal policymakers. NMFS reports are posted on the Bonneville Power
Administration’s website (see link …