The Washington Department of Ecology is seeking comment on what should be considered when preparing an environmental impact statement for a new hydropower project proposed along the Columbia River in Klickitat County.
The states of Oregon and Washington, the Nez Perce Tribe, the Bonneville Power Administration and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers told the Northwest Power and Conservation Council this week that flexible spill in 2020 met all of a flexible spill agreement’s goals in its second year. All were signatories to the 2018 flexible spill agreement.
In its second year, which was an average flow year, the higher flexible spill operations yielded faster travel time for juvenile salmon and steelhead, fewer collisions by juveniles with turbines and better overall survival through Snake River dams, all while the Bonneville Power Administration actually made some money.
Every year about this time, NOAA Fisheries releases a memo detailing preliminary survival estimates for passage of spring-migrating juvenile salmonids through Snake and Columbia River dams – key data for assessing the impact of federal hydropower operations on 13 species of salmon and steelhead listed under the Endangered Species Act. This year, however, due to Covid-19 impacts and more spill for fish, that data took a hit.
A new type of soil created by engineers at The University of Texas at Austin can pull water from the air and distribute it to plants, potentially expanding the map of farmable land around the globe to previously inhospitable places and reducing water use in agriculture at a time of growing droughts.
NOAA’s winter forecast for the U.S. favors warmer, drier conditions across the southern tier of the U.S., and cooler, wetter conditions in the North, thanks in part to an ongoing La Nina.
Dam safety can be a gloomy business at times. In order to protect a dam, engineers must first brainstorm all the different ways the structure could possibly fail. It’s a strategy of predicting and preparing for the worst.
Communities around the state will soon receive grant funds to support projects that protect rivers and improve streamflows. The Washington Department of Ecology is investing up to $22 million in 21 high priority projects located in 16 watersheds.
To date in 2020, 1,217 wildfires have burned 1,473,522 million acres of National Forest System lands in California; 8,486 wildfires have burned over 4 million acres across all jurisdictions in California.
The upcoming rainy season, combined with the historic wildfires in Oregon, set the stage for increased flooding conditions according to Portland District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officials. The potential for damage from these floods in the Willamette Valley, in the Umpqua River Basin, and along the Rogue River are significant.
The Deschutes River Conservancy and Central Oregon Irrigation District this week announced plans for a new on-farm program that will increase on-farm irrigation efficiencies and conserve water.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers report a record return of spring chinook salmon this year at Fall Creek Dam.
Due to multiple fires burning throughout the Willamette Valley, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Portland District is closing several recreation areas it manages near its dams.
For the second consecutive week, fisheries managers at the multi-agency Technical Management Team denied the Port of Clarkston a request to raise the Lower Granite Dam reservoir one and a half feet above the normal minimum operating pool (MOP +2) to provide more depth for barges loading grain at the port’s docks.
With wheat harvest in full swing, the Lewis-Clark Terminal on the lower Snake River at the Port of Clarkston is having difficulties loading barges due to shallow water as the result of sediment buildup at the facilities. On Wednesday, the port requested that river operators raise the Lower Granite Dam reservoir up to a foot-and-a- half more to provide some more wiggle room for loading.
Plans to modernize East Fork Irrigation District’s irrigation infrastructure in Oregon’s Hood River watershed have been approved to move forward into construction.
Uplifting of Columbia River basalts has allowed University of Oregon researchers to better understand of how magma 14-16 million years ago shaped the region and why greenhouse gases released during a series of volcanic eruptions did not trigger a global extinction event.
Because fish that are ready to mate and their young are especially sensitive to changes in temperature, in the future up to 60 percent of all species may be forced to leave their traditional spawning areas, says a new study.
In a new study, researchers from the University of Montana's Flathead Lake Biological Station may have unlocked a mystery surrounding unique aquatic insects in the Flathead watershed.
Drought can mean restrictions for watering the lawn, crop losses for farmers and an increased risk of wildfires. But it can also hit you and your power company in the wallet.
Brett Jones of Rock Springs Wyoming reeled in a new catch-and-release Idaho record for rainbow trout.
Even with heavy May rainfall, most of the Columbia River basin, including the Willamette River basin, is predicted to be at some level of drought – abnormally dry to severe – in the coming months, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
Spring operations at Little Goose Dam on the lower Snake River this last weekend apparently resulted in enough spring chinook passing the dam that Idaho on Monday (June 8) rescinded a request made last week, along with NOAA Fisheries and the Nez Perce Tribe, at the interagency Technical Management Team meeting.
A proposal aimed at reducing travel time and passing more adult spring chinook salmon on the lower Snake River at Little Goose Dam was “elevated” to a higher task force for a decision this week at the interagency Technical Management Team meeting Wednesday, June 3.
BPA exclusively markets the power from the Columbia Generating Station located in southeastern Washington. Owned by Energy Northwest, the nuclear power plant is the third largest energy producer in the Northwest behind Grand Coulee and Chief Joseph dams.
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