Record average temperatures across the Columbia River basin, with little to no rain in the western and northern areas of the basin in May, are leaving the region dry with a smaller snowpack than average and declining water supply at the beginning of June.
Negotiating teams for Canada and the United States met in Kelowna, British Columbia for the 17th round of negotiations toward a modernized Columbia River Treaty.
Beginning in June, the Portland District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will begin to gradually drawdown Lookout Point and Green Peter reservoirs to historically low levels.
Water supply prospects in the Columbia/Snake river basin for summer are improving, although not consistently so throughout the basin. While supplies forecasted in May from the Snake River are generally above normal, the upper Columbia River in Canada is providing less water than normal.
The Washington State Legislature this week approved a $14 billion 2023-25 transportation budget that includes $8 million for studying what would be necessary to maintain energy, transportation and irrigation services now provided by the four Lower Snake dams should they be breached to recover Snake River basin salmon and steelhead.
Lead U.S. government negotiators vowed to intensify their work to conclude a new Columbia River Treaty with Canada by early summer as they held a public listening session this week. The two countries have been in negotiations for over four years and a new agreement to upgrade or modernize the Treaty must be reached by the end of summer 2024.
Despite what seems like an endless winter, with heavy spring rains and snow throughout the Columbia River basin, stream flows and the water supply that will help provide spill at dams and water for salmon and steelhead this summer, continue to be below average in most of the Snake and Columbia river basins.
An early estimate of the volume of water available from the upper Snake River basin this year to provide flow augmentation to aid juvenile salmon and steelhead passage in the lower Snake and lower Columbia rivers will for the second year running fall under the 427,000 acre feet required by NOAA Fisheries, according to Joel Fenolio of the Bureau of Reclamation.
Anticipating good conditions for the survival of hatchery-produced Chinook salmon throughout the Sacramento River and tributaries, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife will release both spring and fall-run Chinook during the historic rain and snowfall the state is experiencing. Several releases have already happened, and others are planned over the next few weeks to utilize good in-river habitat conditions for these young salmon.
For the third straight month of forecasts, water supplies in the Columbia River basin are predicted to be far below normal. That could indicate low streamflows this summer, impacting juvenile and adult salmon and steelhead passage.
The Columbia River basin in 2023 is still the only major river basin in the U.S. free of quagga and zebra mussels, largely due to the Northwest’s four-state watercraft inspection efforts, according to a presentation this week at the Northwest Power and Conservation Council by Stephen Phillips, senior program manager at the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission.
A new report recently released by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife calls for new strategies and policy tools to address consequences of increasing human demand for water and the effects of climate change on Washington’s rivers, streams and salmon.
From late Dec. 2022 into Jan. 2023, a series of nine “atmospheric rivers” dumped a record amount of rain and mountain snow across the western U.S. and Canada, hitting California particularly hard. More than 32 trillion gallons of water rained down across the state alone, and the moisture also pushed into much of the Intermountain West.
Snow-capped mountains aren’t just scenic – they also provide natural water storage by creating reservoirs of frozen water that slowly melt into watersheds throughout the spring and summer months. Much of the Western U.S. relies on this process to renew and sustain freshwater supplies, and new research underscores the impacts of extreme weather conditions on this annual cycle.
Despite recent rains and a strong mountain snowpack, Columbia River basin January water supply forecasts are painting a dismal picture for stream flows this spring and summer.
Dredging will begin in areas of the lower Snake River this month that will solve an issue raised in recent years by federal, state and tribal fisheries managers – how to drop the Lower Granite Dam pool to improve summer conditions for salmon and steelhead that are at risk at the same time the Port of Clarkston needs more depth in the river to unload barges.
In mid-September 2022, Central Oregon’s Crooked River became the first river in the state to close to recreational angling specifically due to drought-related low flows. It reopened October 31 after six weeks of extremely low water levels that left as much as 50 to 90 percent of the river’s channels dry.
It was a typical cold, December day in central Idaho with rain down low and snow in the mountains. While many anglers might have been thinking about ice-fishing, winter steelhead, or even putting a fresh coat of wax on their skis and hitting the slopes, Joey Walton had other plans: big Smallmouth bass. Knowing he had to make the long run across the reservoir, he set out early in search of a trophy.
The recent article in the CBB about NPDES permits for the four lower Snake River dams includes a proposal to draw the reservoirs down to reduce heating of the water. This is a fool’s errand based on widespread misinformation.
One way to cool overheated summer and fall Columbia River waters might be to lower reservoir levels at the river’s dams. Drawdowns could reduce the size of the reservoirs so there is less water to heat under the summertime sun and it could reduce travel time for juvenile salmon and steelhead through the dams as the river would take on more of the characteristics of a free flowing stream.
The Washington Department of Ecology has published a new report looking at projected streamflow changes in the state due to climate change and the projected impacts on salmonids.
Snowcapped mountains not only look majestic, they are vital to a delicate ecosystem that has existed for tens of thousands of years. Mountain water runoff and snowmelt flows down to streams, rivers, lakes, and oceans and today around a quarter of the world depends on these natural “water towers” to replenish downstream reservoirs and groundwater aquifers for urban water supplies, agricultural irrigation, and ecosystem support.
Oregon’s U.S. Sens. Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden have announced a total of $5,041,495 million from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation will be awarded to the Nez Perce Tribe, in partnership with the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation and other partners, to restore sockeye salmon habitat connectivity at the Wallowa Lake Dam in northeast Oregon.
For the third straight year, high levels of spill at Columbia and Snake river dams has impacted detection rates of tagged juvenile salmon and steelhead as they migrated downstream through dams.
State and federal biologists and engineers, in partnership with the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, have begun testing an experimental system in northern California’s Shasta Reservoir that could help collect young salmon from the McCloud River in future years.
An Earthwise Knowledge Initiative Publication
