Idaho Fish and Game initiated the first fish salvage order of 2021 in mid-June due to low water, which is earlier than usual and signals more challenges ahead as summer progresses. With drought in some areas and near-record high temperatures throughout the state in late June, conditions may become hazardous for fish.

Idaho proposed today (Friday, July 2) the first of what could be several changes at Lower Granite and Little Goose dams on the lower Snake River to maintain cooler water temperatures in a river facing extreme environmental conditions as endangered sockeye begin to move up the overheated river.

The Department of Energy’s Water Power Technologies Office, Idaho National Laboratory and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have created a new software tool, IrrigationViz, to help analyze the costs and benefits of irrigation modernization.

British Columbia’s Columbia River Treaty Team recently issued a preliminary assessment of the feasibility of building a new dam/weir across the Koocanusa Reservoir to maintain higher water levels on the Canadian side of the border, concluding that increased coordination with the United States is a better option for now. The reservoir is created by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Libby Dam in Montana.

Monthly estimates of available water supply in the Columbia River basin are continuing to drop after a month of record low rainfall in April.

Communities, industries, farms and endangered fish in both Washington and Oregon depend on the Walla Walla River Basin where streamflows and aquifers have steadily declined, despite a decades-long effort to find lasting water solutions in the region.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife is trucking millions of hatchery-raised juvenile Central Valley fall-run chinook salmon this spring to San Pablo Bay, San Francisco Bay and seaside net pens due to projected poor river conditions in the Central Valley. The massive trucking operation is designed to ensure the highest level of survival for the young salmon on their hazardous journey to the Pacific Ocean.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Portland District is anticipating an insufficient water year as it refills its 13 Willamette Valley and two Rogue River Basin reservoirs for the upcoming recreation season.

As of April 3 the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began a controversial operation that raises the Lower Granite Dam reservoir elevation to ensure that it can maintain a 14-foot depth in the federal navigation channel at the Port of Clarkstonwhen Snake River flows are low.

The water supply available to Columbia and Snake river basin rivers from spring and early summer runoff is predicted to be near to below average across the region. While lower Columbia and Snake River water supply is predicted to be below average, further upriver in Idaho and Montana water supply predictions are above average.

Even with a suddenly higher March 1 water supply forecast, operators at Dworshak Dam say they will be able maintain river flows and total dissolved gas levels below Idaho clean water standards so that Clearwater River hatcheries can safely release smolts.