Arguments are ongoing about when and how much water to spill at The
Dalles Dam to provide the optimum survival benefit for migrating Columbia-Snake
river juvenile salmon, but river operators can now weigh the advice of
a third party -- the Independent Scientific Advisory Board.
Columbia Basin fish managers and federal agencies involved in dam operations
are in the process of designing a Year 2000 study plan to help them determine
a spill regime that maximizes juvenile passage survival. ...

Final legal briefs have been filed in a lawsuit that pits environmental
groups against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and could decide whether
Corps operations are the cause of water temperatures and dissolved gas
levels in the lower Snake River that exceed Washingtons water quality
standards.
Environmentalists say they want the Corps to operate the dams in a way
that would result in compliance with the Clean Water Act, but James Buchal,
attorney for the Columbia River Alliance, ...

Politicians and business interests say the Corps of Engineers John
Day Dam recommendation makes perfect sense.
But conservation groups and fishing interests say the Corps ignored
biological logic with its findings that a John Day drawdown would incur
great costs and bring little benefit to threatened and endangered salmon
and steelhead species.
The Corps on Thursday released a summary report of its John Day Dam
Drawdown Phase I study draft report, "Salmon Recovery Through the ...

If the weather phenomenon known as La Nina is to deliver above-normal
precipitation to the Columbia Basin as forecast, it must have saved its
best for last.
After a relatively "dry" December, skies began to pour forth in the
new millennium to push streamflow forecasts for most of the region slightly
above average.
The Basin's northern region seemed to have faired the best in early
winter at building snowpacks that would help fish and farmers during the
dry summer months.
The ...

The National Marine Fisheries Service this week issued a not likely
to jeopardize opinion on a Columbia River project to deepen 105 miles
of shipping channel from 40 to 43 feet.
To get the favorable opinion that allows the dredging project to move
forward, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had to commit to restoring more
than 5,000 acres of estuary wetlands over the next 10 years, monitor the
projects effects on endangered salmon, modify estuary flood gates and
open additional area up ...

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality is studying the impacts
on water quality of deepening the Columbia River channel from Portland
to the coast. What DEQ decides could determine whether the channel project
will be allowed to go forward.
DEQ will host two hearings next week in Portland and Astoria to take
public input on how the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers planned project to
deepen 105 miles of shipping channel will impact water quality in the river.
The Corps applied to ...

Under terms of a compromise agreement reached Monday in U.S. District
Court the water level in Idaho's Lake Pend Oreille will drop, but not as
low as originally planned.
The Corps of Engineers, which operates the lake's Albeni Falls Dam outlet,
announced that it restarted drawdown of the lake Tuesday. The federal agency
intends to hold the lake level at an elevation of 2,053 feed above sea
level for the winter.
The Corps began drawdown of the lake earlier this fall with the ...

An independent group of scientists will be asked to give its opinion
on an issue that continues to spark debate among fish managers and river
operators -- what is the best way to determine the level of spill at The
Dalles Dam spill that maximizes juvenile salmon survival.
A draft letter to the Independent Scientific Advisory Board was circulated
Wednesday among members of the multi-agency System Configuration Team.
The goal, according to SCT co-chair Bill Hevlin, was to gather input so
he

The Corps of Engineers will await peer review of
analytical methods and
biological information before releasing its draft
Phase I John Day
drawdown study.
That preliminary biological information gives a slight
edge -- with
caveats-- to John Day drawdown as the alternative
providing the biggest
potential benefit for Columbia-Snake river salmon
populations.
The Phase I report will recommend to Congress whether
or not further
study of reservoir drawdowns behind John Day Dam
for ...

A council of governments in the lower Columbia
River says a U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers plan to deepen the
river channel three more feet will
cause environmental harm to endangered
fish and other aquatic species,
benefits only 5 percent of ships, does
not comply with federal or local
laws and, using the Corps' own estimates
of costs and benefits, does not
pencil out economically for more than
10 years.
CREST is preparing detailed comments on
the Corps' 8-volume, ...