A draft agreement mediated by the Biden Administration outlining investments in Columbia River basin salmon and steelhead recovery that was to remain confidential until mid-December was leaked early this week by Washington and Oregon members of Congress.

Republican U.S. Rep. Cliff Bentz, chairman of the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife, and Fisheries, held a field hearing Monday in Richland, Washington titled “The Northwest at risk: the environmentalist’s effort to destroy navigation, transportation, and access to reliable power.”

An Idaho U.S. District Judge Wednesday approved a consent decree between Snake River Waterkeeper and Idaho Power Company that will see more than $500,000 go to the Nez Perce Tribe for projects enhancing water quality in the Snake River basin.

Urgent and comprehensive large-scale actions in the Columbia River basin will be needed to meet mid-range salmon and steelhead abundance goals set by the Columbia Basin Partnership Task Force in 2020, according to a draft report by NOAA Fisheries released nearly a month ago by the White House. The agency is now taking comments until the end of the month on a report that could play a key role in the Biden Administration’s efforts to collaboratively move forward on Columbia/Snake river salmon recovery.

A federal court approved this month details on the “how” of fish passage, drawdowns and spill designed to aid salmon and steelhead passage at Willamette River dams, even as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is preparing a new environmental impact statement for the agency’s 13 Willamette Valley Project dams.

A Northwest conservation group is suing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for operating the agency’s lower Columbia River dams without U.S. Environmental Protection Agency pollutant permits.

Following up on its intentions announced in June, the Washington State Pollution Control Hearings Board last week rejected the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers challenge to state water quality rules for temperature and other pollutants for Columbia/Snake River dams and reservoirs. The rules are aimed at protecting salmon and steelhead.

A settlement was reached this week that requires the state of Oregon to develop a plan to limit methylmercury pollution and accelerate remediation of water temperature impacts at the Hells Canyon Complex of dams on the Snake River.

The state of Oregon, as well as nearly a dozen conservation and fishing groups, filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Portland a request for a preliminary injunction that, if granted, would significantly increase spill next year at lower Columbia and Snake river dams and lower the operating pools behind the dams. The measures are intended to aid juvenile and adult salmon and steelhead migrating in the river.

While stressing its commitment to regional collaboration, the state of Oregon at the same time has announced its intent to sue the federal government over the new environment impact statement and biological opinion for Columbia River salmon and steelhead, alleging violations of the Endangered Species Act. The state says it is preserving “legal options” in case collaboration falls short.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is modifying operations at the Willamette Valley’s Detroit Dam to improve juvenile salmon downstream passage survival by releasing water exclusively through the upper regulating outlets when downstream passage rates are high.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Reclamation and Bonneville Power Administration signed a joint Record of Decision on Monday that commits the agencies to implementing immediate and long-term actions identified in July in a final environmental impact statement for operations of 14 Columbia/Snake River mainstem dams. The Columbia River Systems Operations EIS also includes a new biological opinion for 13 species of salmon and steelhead listed under the Endangered Species Act.

Opposing sides argued before a three-judge panel at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Seattle whether the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency should complete regulations for temperature, known as Total Maximum Daily Load, for the Snake and Columbia rivers, or whether completing the TMDL is the responsibility of Oregon and Washington.

The Environmental Protection Agency is challenging a 2018 lower court decision at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that ruled the agency must complete temperature limits for the Columbia and Snake rivers.