Fisheries managers are seeking public comments through Oct. 17 on a state proposal to reinstate a year-round fishing season on the Colville River in northeast Washington.
Attorneys general from a dozen western states want the Trump administration to halt a proposal by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that they say usurps states' authority over their own water.
July turned out to be the warmest month on record for the planet, and Washington continues to be a hot spot for drought in the contiguous United States, but the state has gotten some recent relief with cooler and wetter weather.
Three runs of Pacific Northwest coho salmon and two runs of fall chinook have been added to the overfished list in NOAA Fisheries 2018 Report to Congress on the Status of U.S. Fisheries.
Consecutive low snow years may become six times more common across the Western United States over the latter half of this century, leading to ecological and economic challenges such as expanded fire seasons and poor snow conditions at ski resorts, according to a study.
The Washington Department of Ecology is now taking comments on a draft Environmental Impact Statement that would allow more spill at lower Snake River/ Columbia River dams during juvenile salmon migration by adjusting the water quality standard for total dissolved gas.
It’s been one of the driest years recorded in the Kootenai River Basin, but recent rains have delivered some relief with increased inflows into Lake Koocanusa, helping to maintain minimum bull trout flows on the Kootenai River and maintain the reservoir elevation, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers representative informed the Technical Management Team on Wednesday.
Irrigation diversions move some water into a canal or pipeline where it can be used for irrigation, but they pose challenges for fish due to changes in water flow, damaged habitats, and blocked migration routes. A specific concern are the millions of fish that could be “entrained” or travel into a harmful environment and outside the natural flow of water because of such structures.
While recent rain is helping many parts of the state, more than a few scattered showers are needed to fix Washington's drought. For the past few months, Washington’s weather has been all over the map, says a Washington Department of Ecology blog post.
In Oregon’s fertile Willamette River Basin, where two-thirds of the state’s population lives, managing water scarcity would be more effective if conservation measures were introduced in advance and upstream from the locations where droughts are likely to cause shortages, according to a new study.
River temperatures in the tailrace of Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River rose above 67 degrees this week and the air temperature is predicted to rise above 90 degrees this weekend. That prompted the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to increase releases of water from Dworshak Dam to keep Lower Granite tailwater temperature under 68 degrees, partially as an aid to the few adult sockeye salmon expected to return to the Snake River and Sawtooth Basin this year.
While the water supply forecast for the mainstem Columbia River at The Dalles Dam is near average, watersheds in western Washington, northwest Montana and the Canadian headwaters are sorely lagging behind historic flows.
With lower water and the switch to summer spill operations at lower Snake River dams June 21, a chain of changes in dam operations that began May 21 and were designed to encourage better passage of adult spring chinook salmon at Little Goose Dam, effectively ended.
In one of the driest years recorded for the Kootenai River Basin, extremely low spring precipitation combined with well below average winter snowpack and runoff will keep Lake Koocanusa significantly lower than normal this summer.
One silver lining to emerge from the severe drought that impacted California earlier this decade was that it whetted an appetite to study the event and compile data designed to help fish and aquatic species better weather future droughts.
The Columbia River Basin is in the midst of a robust runoff period that will level out with near-average flows on the lower Columbia through September, according to the last water supply briefing of the year from the Northwest River Forecast Center in Portland.
The number of adult spring chinook passing Little Goose Dam on the lower Snake River has picked up, largely due to a continuous 8-hour reduced spill regime requested last week by salmon managers of the interagency Technical Management Team.
Mineral prospectors will now need to get a Hydraulic Project Approval (HPA) to suction dredge in Washington. The new HPA requirement, effective Nov. 1, will help protect fish and reduce the risk of spreading invasive species.
Responding to the reasonable and prudent alternative outlined in NOAA Fisheries’ 2008 biological opinion for federal Willamette Valley dams, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers last week proposed to build a selective withdrawal structure at Detroit Dam at a cost of about $100 to $200 million.The SWS would provide water temperature control downstream of Detroit and Big Cliff dams on the North Santiam River and it would provide downstream juvenile fish passage. The Corps would continue to transport adult chinook salmon and steelhead upstream of both dams where they can spawn naturally.
In a second step to encourage passage of adult spring chinook salmon at Little Goose Dam on the lower Snake River, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers agreed to reduce spill at the dam for a continuous eight hours. That operation began Wednesday, May 29, at 4 am and will continue through June 5.
Idaho Power has taken a significant step toward a new federal license for its largest hydroelectric project with the states of Idaho and Oregon certifying the company’s plan for meeting water quality standards in the Snake River as part of its operation of three dams in Hells Canyon.
Responding to the reasonable and prudent alternative outlined in NOAA Fisheries’ 2008 biological opinion for federal Willamette Valley dams, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers last week proposed to build a selective withdrawal structure at Detroit Dam at a cost of about $100 to $200 million.The SWS would provide water temperature control downstream of Detroit and Big Cliff dams on the North Santiam River and it would provide downstream juvenile fish passage. The Corps would continue to transport adult chinook salmon and steelhead upstream of both dams where they can spawn naturally.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released a draft environmental impact statement today that identifies as the preferred alternative the construction of a selective water withdrawal structure at the Detroit Dam reservoir as part of an effort to reintroduce anadromous fish upstream.
With the snowpack melt-out well underway, water supply forecasts have held up throughout much of the Columbia Basin, but drought conditions persist in Western Washington and parts of Oregon, to a lesser degree.
A new study finds that the low-cost, extreme draining of a reservoir in Oregon aided downstream migration of juvenile chinook salmon – and led to the gradual disappearance of two species of predatory invasive fish in the artificial lake.
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