The potential for enhancing salmon survival with major operational or
structural changes at John Day Dam will be explored through a yearlong,
$3.3 million study launched this year by the Corps of Engineers.

The congressionally mandated study is intended to analyze mostly existing
information on the estimated economic costs and biological benefits of
two drawdown scenarios. The first is called spillway crest drawdown, from
the reservoir's normal operating level of 265 feet above sea level

The government will get what it is willing to pay for in terms of dissolved
gas abatement at Grand Coulee Dam, according to a recently completed analysis
of structural alternatives being studied by the Bureau of Reclamation.

Among the conceptual-level designs studied, there seems to be an inverse
relationship between the projected success in gas abatement and the cost,
according to Kathy Frizell, a Bureau hydraulic engineer who co-authored
the report presented Wednesday in Portland ...

Less spill means better fish survival at The Dalles Dam.

That's the conclusion of a pair of reports summarized Wednesday in Portland
during the Corps of Engineers annual research review of its Anadromous
Fish Evaluation Program.

"Project survival may be as much as 10 percent greater at 30 percent
than 64 percent spill," according to an abstract presented by the
Corps Marvin Shutters on "The Effect of Spill Level on Fish Passage
Efficiency at the Dalles Dam in ...

Many of the Drawdown Regional Economic Workgroup studies evaluating
economic impacts of drawdown or breaching the four lower Snake River dams
are behind schedule.

Several of the schedules have slipped because parts of the DREW study
rely on the results of the National Marine Fisheries Service's PATH report,
which itself is behind schedule. A report on PATH's 1998 activities is
due next month.

Other studies are simply dealing with difficult issues that take time
and are slowing ...

A scientific report released Tuesday backs the Army Corps of Engineers
Gas Abatement program as an important tool in reducing dissolved gas supersaturation
levels in the mainstem Columbia and Snake rivers.

The program should continue, with high priority, according to a report
by the Independent Scientific Advisory Board. The report is the latest
in series produced by the 10-member panel at the request of the Northwest
Power Planning Council.

The Council, in turn, was responding to ...

Preliminary numbers finding their way out of the Drawdown Regional Economic
Workgroup indicate that breaching Lower Snake dams could result in $158
million in direct costs to irrigators.

DREW has come up with estimated costs of various activities that would
be needed to implement drawdown or breaching of the four dams. Among those
activities are the costs to modify groundwater wells and pumping systems,
purchasing irrigated land, and establishing cattle watering corridors.
Other ...

Fish mortality at McNary Dam this summer could not have been reduced
by switching from barging to spill during periods of high water temperatures,
says an "information alert" distributed to the media last week
by the Army Corps of Engineers' Portland office.

"The water temperature issue has not been portrayed accurately,"
said the two-page report titled "The Untold Story Behind the Headlines."

The Corps said it was responding to inaccurate newspaper ...

A decision to funnel an additional 1 million acre feet of water out
of the Snake River Basin would, if that scenario ever came to pass, have
to be accompanied by decisions about who exactly would feel the most pain.

"It became obvious very early. There isn't a pain-free course,"
said Rich Rigby, activity manager for the Bureau of Reclamation's "1
Million Acre Feet" study. He was asked to give an update on the study,
now in midstream, to the Northwest Power ...

The Army Corps of Engineers is now transporting fish daily from McNary
Dam, rather than every other day.

The change comes partly in response to concerns that warm water temperatures
were contributing to an increase in mortality of fish in McNary's forebay
and the collection/holding facilities. "We'd rather err on the side
of doing what we can to address the mortality issue," said Doug Arndt
of the Corps.

Previously, fish were transported every other day, which required ...

Army Corps of Engineers fish transportation operations at McNary Dam
will continue as originally scheduled despite tribal demands that spill
be incorporated to move subyearling chinook downstream.

Rising water temperatures and their potential effect on fish mortality
produced the concerns. The issue erupted following a sharp rise in fish
mortality in McNary's transportation collection system during the period
from July 10-12 when 34,905 juvenile fish died at the ...

(Editor's Note: The Columbia Basin Bulletin will periodically keep readers
posted on river operations during the spring/summer salmon and steelhead
migration season. Most of the information comes from weekly reports by
the Fish Passage Center.)

River hydropower operations shifted from spring to summer mode at the
end of June. Salmon managers and river operators struggled to coordinate
summer flow augmentation for migrating salmon with storage needs in the
Upper Columbia and Snake River

...