Deciding now is as good a time as ever, the Northwest Power Planning
Council decided Wednesday to launch the next phase of its Columbia Basin
fish and wildlife program amendment process with a request for
recommendations on a coordinated mainstem plan.
Faced with a water year that is heading to an all-time low, federal,
state and tribal officials agreed to reduce the amount of water used to
protect chum salmon redds near Ives and Pearce islands downstream from
Bonneville Dam.
While this cut is expected to leave only a few more redds dry now, a
decision in the next few weeks could pull the plug on chum flows before
emergence of chum fry is complete.
Montana's water watchers are saying reservoir management over the next
few months will be critical in saving or bankrupting precious water
reserves.
Montana and Idaho joined forces in proposing a "2001 Emergency Water
Management Plan" that recommends diligent water conservation at least
through July 1.
That plan has been a topic at recent meetings in Portland involving
power, fisheries and reservoir managers. (See story above.)
Solutions ranging from the cutting off power-hungry industries to a
curtailment of federal water management salmon recovery strategies were
offered Wednesday in answer to Oregon lawmakers' questions about how
they might protect the region's economy in the face of skyrocketing
power prices and anticipated summer drought conditions.
Shifting long-established Columbia-Snake river flood control operations
to regimes that are more fish friendly is easier said than done,
according to the federal hydrosystem's managers.
Any proposed changes to flows and reservoir flood control capacity could
face resistance in the region and in Congress if the overall level of
protection for floodplain development downstream, and in the Portland
area in particular, is reduced.
Reacting to the Bonneville Power Administration's contingency power
operations proposal, the regional, multi-agency Implementation Team
decided to work with their in-season counterpart, the Technical
Management Team, to set priorities for refilling Northwest storage
reservoirs and to discuss the timing of using that water this spring and
summer.
Increased flows correlate highly with increased survival rates of
migrating Snake River subyearling fall chinook salmon, National Marine
Fisheries studies continue to show, but only drastic tests would settle
debates about the importance of flows augmented by releases from
upstream reservoirs.
Montana's snowpack situation went from bad to worse when January failed
to produce any precipitation recovery.
Mountaintops across Montana are still showing snowpack concentrations no
higher than 60 percent of normal. In northwest Montana, conditions are
even worse, and runoff forecasts for the region's two hydroelectric
projects are steadily dropping.
A potential water crunch in the Columbia Basin has Montana officials
concerned about downstream demands that could develop.
Water from Montana and Canada is considered the most valuable, both for
the Columbia Basin's hydroelectric network, and for biological needs.
The headwaters that cascade from western Montana's mountains can pass
through as many as 15 hydro projects, and it can deliver biological
benefits along the way.
An atypically dry start to the winter season means that without a big
mid-winter outpouring Columbia-Snake river fish managers and hydro
operators could next spring and summer face serious dilemmas about how
to mete out a limited water supply.
An interim Corps of Engineers dredging plan intended to remove an
estimated 244,269 cubic yards of sediment from the federal navigation
channel at the confluence of the Snake and Clearwater rivers this winter
has drawn fire of conservation groups and tribes concerned about water
quality and impacts on ESA-listed and other fish.
A report produced by Idaho agency officials and researchers says that
federal studies used as justification for Lower Snake River flow
augmentation do not hold water.
Flow augmentation, called for in existing and proposed federal
hydrosystem biological opinions, is drawn from Idaho reservoirs created
for irrigation, recreation and other uses ...
Year-round monitoring, flood control, use of Dworshak Reservoir for
temperature control and power system emergencies were the high points of
the Technical Management Team's review of this year's river operations.
It gave its annual review to the policy-making Implementation Team this
week.
Reaction to Washington's and Oregon's denial of water quality permits
for deepening the Columbia River estuary ranged from proposed
celebrations in Astoria to a belief in Portland the process will still
work.
"Please pinch me, I might be dreaming," said Peter Huhtala, executive
director of the Columbia Deepening Opposition Group in Astoria.
The Senate gave final approval Monday to a $23.6 billion energy and
water spending bill, which includes $5.5 million for the Columbia River
channel deepening project.
The vote was 57-37, short of the 67 needed to override the veto that
White House officials have vowed because the bill would block the Army
Corps of Engineers from implementing a plan to alter the flow of the
Missouri River. The House passed the FY01 energy and water
appropriations measure last week, 301-118.
The House of Representatives on Thursday passed a final FY01 spending
bill that includes $4.5 million to improve fish habitat and water
quality in the lower Columbia River.
The restoration of 1,550 acres of wetland and riparian habitat at
Shillapoo Lake, Wash., and elsewhere would mitigate for the impacts of
the Army Corps of Engineers' project to lower the Columbia River
shipping channel by three feet, to 43 feet.
A plan to deepen the Columbia River channel from Portland to the ocean
was put on hold last week when the National Marine Fisheries Service
reversed its "not likely to jeopardize" biological opinion on the
project in order to reopen a consultation process with the Army Corps of
Engineers.
Some hope NMFS' reversal dooms the $196 million channel dredging
project, while others believe the decision will, at most, delay it.
A decision at this week's interagency Technical Management Team meeting
will result in water spilling at McNary Dam, which could divert move
juvenile salmon over the dam instead of into the transportation
collection system.
A new biological opinion for the Columbia River Basin federal hydropower
system calls for increased flows to get more water into rivers, improved
spill and passage for juvenile salmon as they travel through the dams
and more work at the dams to improve fish passage.
It also addresses improved management of flow, spill and operations of
the Columbia River hydro system ...
The future is now for outmigrating Snake River fall chinook
subyearlings, which are expected to get a cooler ride to Lower Granite
Dam following a decision this past weekend to increase the outpouring of
water from the depths of Dworshak Reservoir in Idaho.
And according to a flow "shaping" plan discussed Wednesday by the
multi-agency Implementation Team ...
The grumbling is starting, from lower Lake Koocanusa on up to its mud
and rock shorelines in Canada.
The reservoir is obviously low this year, and it will not be refilled to
levels that recreationists are accustomed. And northwest Montana's other
reservoir at Hungry Horse will be drawn down 20 feet over the next
month, another victim of a low water year in the Columbia Basin.
Those managing the Columbia-Snake river hydrosystem to balance fish
passage, power generation, irrigation and recreational needs find
themselves dealing with a rapidly dwindling resource -- water.
River operators and fish managers this week wrestled with the
ingredients of a four-part dilemma: Aggressive flood control measures
that have left reservoirs low; cooler weather that has slowed snowmelt
and reduced river flows; a juvenile smolt migration that is reaching a
peak; and the need to refill reservoirs.
A request from Columbia Basin salmon managers to "spread the risk" to
migrating juvenile salmon by increasing the amount of water voluntarily
spilled at the Lower Snake River's Little Goose Dam was rejected
Wednesday by the National Marine Fisheries Service.
The annual debate on how and when to use water from Dworshak Dam to
augment flows in the lower Snake River has gotten off to a more vigorous
start this year than in past years.
An Earthwise Knowledge Initiative Publication
