A shot of cold water from Dworshak Dam on the North Fork Clearwater River was released this week to help cool water in the lower Snake River.
Flows from the dam's reservoir, which is nearly full, increased from minimum flows to 14,000 cubic feet per second on Wednesday ( July 9).
The states of Oregon and Washington this week issued the approvals, albeit conditional, that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers needs to proceed with a $133.6 million project to deepen 103 miles of the Columbia River navigation channel from the Pacific Ocean to Portland.
Spill at Snake River dams stopped today according to the clock in NOAA Fisheries' 2000 biological opinion that calls for spring spill, which began on May 3, to come to an end by June 20.
According to counts provided by the Fish Passage Center, nearly all Snake River steelhead and yearling chinook juveniles have already passed the four lower Snake River dams.
Three lower Columbia River counties ruled that much of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineer plan to deepen the Columbia River navigation channel by three feet is not consistent with county comprehensive and coastal management plans.
The Washington Department of Ecology has reopened public comment on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers application for Clean Water Act water quality certification and coastal zone consistency determination for the Corps' $133.6 million plan to deepen the Columbia River navigation channel from Portland to the Columbia River mouth.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers came under criticism from salmon managers at this week's Technical Management Team meeting for how it balances its NOAA Fisheries Biological Opinion obligation to provide spill at lower Snake River and Columbia River dams and its obligation to meet state Clean Water Act regulations for total dissolved gas at the same dams.
With the bulk of the Snake River juvenile migration still in the river, the Technical Management Team this week decided to continue high flows and spill at Dworshak Dam that boosts flows at Lower Granite Dam on the lower Snake River.
TMT will revisit that decision at next week's meeting, but river operating agencies warn that Dworshak water that is helping to push juveniles downstream now will no longer be available as early as next weekend.
The state of Oregon is reopening public comment in its review of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' $133.6 million plan to deepen the Columbia River shipping channel by three feet.
At the same time, the state is floating a complicated new proposal that would alter the Corps' plan to restore shallow water habitat in the lower Columbia River estuary.
March precipitation that in some areas of the Columbia-Snake river basin totaled as much as 200 percent of average did not erase an overall moisture deficit, but it did provide some flexibility for those who will be doling out water in the coming months for irrigation, power generation and to help migrating fish.
Hydro operating agencies and to a lesser extent fisheries agencies agreed this week that operations at lower Snake River reservoirs will remain at higher than the minimum operating pools (MOP) in order to give tugboat operators the depth they need to navigate certain sections of the river.
With a rising water supply forecast and juvenile fish already showing up at dams, the decision this week by the Technical Management Team to begin spill at four dams in the Lower Columbia River was made without challenge.
Federal, state and tribal fisheries managers proposed to federal operating agencies to begin spill at McNary, John Day, The Dalles and Bonneville dams and to start the spill Monday, April 14.
Columbia River Basin power and fish managers decided Thursday that spill at hydroelectric projects as well as transportation of juvenile salmon around dams would begin dams this week.
Fall chinook will emerge from gravel along the 51-mile long Hanford Reach earlier than normal this year due to warmer water in the mid-Columbia River. Grant County Public Utility District is predicting emergence will be complete by April 25, more than two weeks earlier than in 2000 and 2001.
After 10 years of contention, Indians who want more water for fish in the Umatilla River and irrigators who want more water for Hermiston-area crops have reached an agreement designed to satisfy both.
Given the current water supply forecast for the Snake River, fisheries managers and river operating agencies this week determined that spring spill would not begin April 3 at lower Snake River dams.
However, that decision could be reversed at the Technical Management Team's next meeting if the water supply forecast rises as a result of greater than normal March precipitation.
River operators this week spilled water at Bonneville Dam to help 7.5 million tule fall chinook smolts released from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Spring Creek hatchery safely negotiate the dam.
The lower Snake River dissolved gas Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) plan is ready for review.
The Washington Department of Ecology will unveil its plan to improve the levels of dissolved gas in the section of river that is on its 303(d) list and consistently out of compliance with the state's 110 percent TDG limits due to operations at U.S. Army Corps of Engineer dams, at a public meeting in Kennewick, Wash. March 25.
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council is expected next week to decide whether or not to approve amendments for the Columbia River mainstem portion of its fish and wildlife program.
The Council meets Tuesday and Wednesday, March 11-12, in Whitefish, Mont.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has extended the timeline the states of Oregon and Washington have to respond to the federal agency's coastal zone consistency determination for the Columbia River Channel Improvement Project.
An early draft of the spring and summer update for the Technical Management Team's 2003 Water Management Plan is predicting water conditions that could preclude spill and order maximum transportation for smolts at lower Snake River dams this spring.
A report released last week says that Columbia/Snake river managers would be wise to test river management techniques other than flow augmentation as a means to improve in-river survival of, particularly, Snake River fall chinook salmon.
The Independent Science Advisory Board says "a different perspective emerged" from its latest review of one of the Columbia River basin's most frequently debated topics -- the effect of flows on salmon and steelhead survival.
A warming climate the past 50 years has, through early melting, relentlessly reduced the water content of the Pacific Northwest's springtime snowpack, straining the supply of water for drinking, irrigation and other uses during the region's typically dry summers, according to new research at the University of Washington.
Three Northwest Indian tribes filed notices today (Feb. 14) with the Pollution Control Hearings Board of Washington that challenge water rights permits issued in January by the Washington Department of Ecology.
The days are getting longer, but the time is getting shorter for the mountains that ring the Columbia River basin to accumulate enough snowpack to please hydropower producers, farmers and fish managers.
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