Worried that Flathead Lake will fall short of refilling, Pennsylvania
Power and Light Montana officials are curbing releases at Kerr Dam,
possibly in violation of their federal license.
The company has been struggling with the realities of drought, while
trying to balance conflicting license conditions above and below the dam
at the foot of Flathead Lake.
A lawsuit filed Thursday asks the U.S. District Court to order the
federal government to rethink a Columbia Basin salmon recovery plan that
the plaintiffs say is rife with faulty scientific assumptions and doomed
to failure because of a lack of Bush Administration support for
implementation funding.
The Bonneville Power Administration said it intends to launch within
days a fish and wildlife project solicitation intended to “offset”
adverse impacts of emergency hydrosystem operations on salmon and
steelhead listed under the Endangered Species Act.
BPA officials have said that from $10 million to $20 million could be
made available for the effort.
Federal executives won’t have a final Columbia River operations plan
ready until May 17, but they did promise decisions on four critical fish
operations by the end of this week. Of the four — spring spill,
transportation of juveniles at McNary Dam, lowering Vernita Bar flows
and beginning a pulsing operation at Lower Granite Dam — only two
decisions are made and a third is likely to receive attention today.
The Vernita Bar Policy Group decided this week to begin ramping down
flows at Priest Rapids Dam beginning Monday, May 7. Columbia River flows
at the dam have been held at a fairly steady 65,000 cubic feet per
second in accordance with the Vernita Bar agreement to prevent emerging
Hanford Reach fall chinook fry from being stranded in pools at the
river’s edge.
The Vernita Bar Policy Group decided this week to begin ramping down
flows at Priest Rapids Dam beginning Monday, May 7. Columbia River flows
at the dam have been held at a fairly steady 65,000 cubic feet per
second in accordance with the Vernita Bar agreement to prevent emerging
Hanford Reach fall chinook fry from being stranded in pools at the
river’s edge.
The Vernita Bar Policy Group decided this week to begin ramping down
flows at Priest Rapids Dam beginning Monday, May 7. Columbia River flows
at the dam have been held at a fairly steady 65,000 cubic feet per
second in accordance with the Vernita Bar agreement to prevent emerging
Hanford Reach fall chinook fry from being stranded in pools at the
river’s edge.
Flow “augmentation” via water releases from Snake River reservoirs and
those that feed the Snake should not be abandoned. But a fine-tuning of
research is needed to settle conclusively debates over the practice’s
potential benefit to migrating fall chinook salmon, according to a panel
of independent scientists.
Long wary of “so-called independent science committees,” the head of the
Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission has called for the
disbanding of an 11-member group assembled to advise the Northwest Power
Planning Council and National Marine Fisheries Service on fish and
wildlife recovery issues.
Federal agency executives today said a final operations plan that will be used by in-season managers to guide river operations this spring and summer will not be ready until May 17, but that they will consider some critical fish operations by as early as this coming week.
The discussion took place today at a joint meeting of the federal executives who manage Columbia River operations, along with representatives of the four Northwest states and Northwest tribes in Portland.
The Northwest Power Planning Council on Thursday advised federal Columbia River hydrosystem operators to maximize barge transportation as a means of getting migrating salmon past dams, and weigh carefully the use of any spill passage regimes that would take away from the system’s ability to power the region through the summer, fall and winter.
The Northwest Power Planning Council on Thursday advised federal Columbia River hydrosystem operators to maximize barge transportation as a means of getting migrating salmon past dams, and weigh carefully the use of any spill passage regimes that would take away from the system’s ability to power the region through the summer, fall and winter.
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.
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.
For the first time since the late 1960s, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife will open fishing for hatchery spring chinook salmon on the Snake River in southeast Washington, taking advantage of a predicted record upriver run bound for hatcheries and tributary spawning grounds.
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.
The Federal Executives laid a proposal on the table today (April 13)
that, when approved by the end of April, will guide river operations
this spring and summer. There are few surprises in the operations plan
except that it apparently raises the bar on when discretionary water
would be available for spill.
An Earthwise Knowledge Initiative Publication
