07. POWER - Columbia Basin Bulletin - Page 124

6. KITZHABER, JOHANSEN EXCHANGE VIEWS ON PATH

October 1, 2003/in 03. HABITAT, 04. WILDLIFE, 07. POWER, 08. LAW

Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber on Nov. 5 issued a strongly-worded, three-page
letter expressing concern over the Bonneville Power Administration's management
of Columbia River flows and Bonneville staffers' statements about the PATH
(Plan for Analyzing and Testing Hypotheses) process.

This week (Nov. 18) BPA Administrator Johansen, in a responding letter
to Kitzhaber, said she welcomes the criticism "as the beginning of
an important dialogue." She hopes the exchange of letters ...

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10. SCT EYES FUTURE OF MAINSTEM CONSTRUCTION PROGRAM

October 1, 2003/in 07. POWER, 08. LAW

Potentially changed directives could well make System Configuration
Team's complicated job even tougher over the coming year.

The multi-agency assemblage of biologists and engineering experts serves
as an advisory body, reviewing Corps of Engineers' annual Columbia River
Fish Mitigation Program mainstem capital construction project proposals
and recommending priorities.

But 1999, when planning takes place for fiscal year 2000, will not be
business as usual. The Corps is scheduled ...

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9. NW ENERGY COALITION ENDORSES DAM BREACHING

October 1, 2003/in 03. HABITAT, 04. WILDLIFE, 07. POWER

The Northwest Energy Coalition has endorsed partially removing four
dams on the Lower Snake River and replacing power from the dams with energy
conservation and new renewable resources such as wind and geothermal power.

The NWEC is a coalition of 80 conservation organizations and utilities.
A NWEC press release stressed that resolutions adopted by the coalition
do not necessarily reflect the positions of every member.

The resolution adopted by the NWEC board says the extinction of ...

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1. ECONOMISTS QUESTION BREACHING BENEFITS THEORY

October 1, 2003/in 03. HABITAT, 07. POWER

An Idaho economist's contention that the region would save $86.7 million
annually by breaching lower Snake River dams was challenged by economists
advising the Northwest Power Planning Council.

A panel of eight economists was asked in September by the Council to
review a year-old study carried out by Philip S. Lansing of Boise and financed
by the Oregon Natural Resources Council.

The Lansing analysis, "Restoring the Lower Snake River: Saving
Snake River Salmon and Saving ...

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3. SPAWNERS BELOW BONNEVILLE GET MORE WATER

October 1, 2003/in 03. HABITAT, 04. WILDLIFE, 07. POWER

Higher Bonneville Dam outflows that started Nov. 4 will give fall chinook
more places to spawn in the mainstem Columbia River near Hamilton, Ives,
and Pierce islands.

However, tribes and other upriver interests worry about the consequences
for Hanford Reach fall chinook and resident fish above Grand Coulee Dam.

Federal hydropower operators and the National Marine Fisheries Service
reversed an earlier decision and granted a request from state and federal
fish managers to maintain ...

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4. COUNCIL OKS TERN RELOCATION PROJECT FUNDING

October 1, 2003/in 03. HABITAT, 04. WILDLIFE, 07. POWER, 08. LAW

Funding for an experimental plan to relocate 20,000 salmon-eating Caspian
terns received the conditional approval Thursday of the Northwest Power
Planning Council despite doubts about whether electric ratepayers' should
be bearing the entire financial burden.

The Council decided to draft a letter recommending that $235,000 from
its 1999 direct fish and wildlife program budget be allocated to address
the emergency request. But Council members from the four Northwest states
made sure ...

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10. IRRIGATORS PUSH WATER MANAGEMENT ALTERNATIVE

October 1, 2003/in 03. HABITAT, 07. POWER

The Columbia-Snake River Irrigators Association is seeking support for
a "water management alternative for the Columbia River Basin"
that would restructure the federal government's flow augmentation program
for juvenile salmon and steelhead.

The irrigators' proposal would: -- eliminate the National Marine Fisheries
Service's "no net loss" water policy that limits future water
withdrawals; -- eliminate spring flow augmentation; -- reduce summer flow
augmentation ...

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9. FRAMEWORK EFFORTS FOCUS ON WORKSHOP

October 1, 2003/in 03. HABITAT, 04. WILDLIFE, 07. POWER

Just as advertised, the Nov. 17-19 Multi-Species Framework workshop
will represent the first step toward the scientific analysis of divergent
"visions" for Columbia River Basin fish and wildlife management.

As of midday Monday (Nov. 8) slightly more than 100 people had signed
up for the policy alternatives workshop, which begins at 9 a.m. on Nov.
17 at the John Q. Hammons trade center at the Holiday Inn Portland Airport
Hotel.

"It's a very broad cross-section of ...

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1. SCT COMPLETES MAINSTEM PROJECT RANKING

October 1, 2003/in 07. POWER

More than 40 percent of the funds allocated for 1999 Columbia/Snake
mainstem projects intended to improve fish passage has been earmarked for
the effort to reduce juvenile salmon mortality at Bonneville Dam. The multi-agency
System Configuration Team on Monday (Oct. 26) completed its ranking of
projects proposed for fiscal year 1999 under the Corps of Engineers' Columbia
River Fish Mitigation Program. The panel recommended $81.26 million in
spending on a list of 47 projects involving ...

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6. BODI, BPA SHARE FISH AND WILDLIFE GOALS

October 1, 2003/in 07. POWER

Environmental activist-turned-power agency adviser? It's not such an
odd career twist as many imagine, Lorri Bodi told a gathering of Columbia
River Basin fish and wildlife managers Wednesday evening.

Bodi and her employer of eight weeks, the Bonneville Power Administration
share a vision -- the need to establish a regional plan to restore Basin
fish and wildlife populations.

"I've been grappling with that for the 20 years I've been hanging
around," Bodi told ...

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7. NMFS REGIONAL CHIEF URGES CONSENSUS BUILDING

October 1, 2003/in 03. HABITAT, 04. WILDLIFE, 07. POWER, 08. LAW

By presenting a united front, the region increases the chances that
its voice will be heard when it comes time to make key decisions regarding
management of the Columbia River Basin, says Will Stelle, Northwest regional
administrator for the National Marine Fisheries Service. NMFS, in a 1995
biological opinion, specified that changes in operations for the federal
Columbia-Snake river hydroelectric system are necessary to improve in-river
survival of Snake River salmon species listed ...

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9. PATH 1998 REPORT DUE OUT IN DECEMBER

October 1, 2003/in 03. HABITAT, 04. WILDLIFE, 07. POWER, 08. LAW

The scientific group called PATH (Plan for Analyzing and Testing Hypotheses),
will release its final report for Fiscal Year 1998 this December. The report
will cover hypotheses concerning recovery of endangered and threatened
stocks of Snake River spring/summer chinook, as well as preliminary analyses
for Snake River fall chinook and steelhead.

PATH organizers this week have been discussing how best to release the
report. Options now include first presenting the report to the ...

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2. FEDS REJECT PROPOSAL TO AID SPAWNERS BELOW BONNEVILLE

October 1, 2003/in 03. HABITAT, 04. WILDLIFE, 07. POWER, 08. LAW

After weeks of talks, the Bonneville Power Administration and National
Marine Fisheries Service rejected a proposal to provide minimum flows to
protect a naturally spawning population of fall chinook below Bonneville
Dam.

State and federal fish managers say Bonneville, with the National Marine
Fisheries Service's agreement, is actually shaping operations to eliminate
the spawners from the area around Ives, Pierce, and Hamilton Islands in
the mainstem Columbia.

Although the issue was

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3. FEDS, STATES, TRIBES MULL MOA SIGNING

October 1, 2003/in 07. POWER

Some votes are in, but most are still undecided as federal, state and
tribal officials consider signing a proposed "memorandum of agreement"
to create a regional forum for addressing Columbia Basin fish and wildlife
issues.

At least two key participants, the states of Idaho and Montana, have
a adopted a "wait-and-see" position. Representatives say their
governors view the forum as a potential short-term tool to facilitate fish
and wildlife restoration ...

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7. FUNDS EXPAND TERMINAL FISHERIES PROGRAM

October 1, 2003/in 04. WILDLIFE, 07. POWER

The Northwest Power Planning Council last week approved the use of $300,000
in Bonneville Power Administration funds to expand a terminal fisheries
program in the lower Columbia River. The money will be used during the
1999 fiscal year to add 12 net pens at one of the four existing net pens
sites -- Deep River, which is about nine miles east of Astoria on the Washington
side of the Columbia -- and place 12 pens in a new site at Steamboat Slough,
which is about 10 miles farther east. ...

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8. FRAMEWORK ALTERNATIVES WORKSHOP SET

October 1, 2003/in 07. POWER

A scientist known worldwide for work with endangered species has been
called upon to trigger the search for the appropriate management strategies
for Columbia Basin fish and wildlife recovery.

Dr. Ulysses Seal of the World Conservation Union will facilitate a workshop
Nov. 17-19 that is designed, ultimately, to begin scientific and socio-economic
analysis of proposed management alternatives for fish and wildlife restoration
in the basin. The workshop is scheduled at the Portland ...

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12. PROJECT PROPOSAL PROCESS, SCHEDULE EVOLVES

October 1, 2003/in 07. POWER

Columbia Basin fish and wildlife managers and researchers are working
to "improve their proposals" for Northwest Power Planning Council
Fish and Wildlife Program funding.

And the principal drivers of that annual $127 million program are working
at the same time to "improve the process."

The Council and the Bonneville Power Administration earlier this month
issued a request for proposals for fiscal year 2000 funding. The request
was issued a month earlier than ...

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1. CONFERENCE TACKLES RIVER GOVERNANCE

October 1, 2003/in 07. POWER

The Three Sovereigns' proposed Columbia River Basin Forum will bring
improved coordination and decision-making to Basin fish and wildlife restoration
efforts, said a governor, tribal leaders, and senior federal officials
Thursday at an all-day conference on Columbia River governance.

They said a federal-state-tribal forum offers the quickest way for Northwest
interests to collaborate with the federal government on the National Marine
Fisheries Service's 1999 decision on long-term ...

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3. STATE COMMISSIONS STUDY ‘BEST SCIENCE’

October 1, 2003/in 07. POWER

Idaho's fish and game commissioners have asked their Washington and
Oregon counterparts to join them in declaring that the "best available
science" points to the breaching of four lower Snake River dams as
the only management option being considered likely to recover Columbia
and Snake river salmon and steelhead stocks.

Top officials from the three states' fish and wildlife agencies, as
well as four Oregon, three Washington and one Idaho fish and wildlife commissioners
met ...

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6. RESEARCH LOOKS AT BYPASS FACILITIES

October 1, 2003/in 07. POWER

Results from a scientific review of prototype fish passage facilities
show that these facilities can improve the survival rate of juvenile salmon
and steelhead during their downstream passage.

This information and more was revealed during the Army Corps of Engineer-sponsored
three-day Anadromous Fish Evaluation Program annual research review in
Portland, Oct. 13 through 15.

Much of the research on fish passage facilities was done at the Lower
Granite Dam on the Snake River. The ...

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1. SCIENTISTS DEFEND PATH PROCESS

October 1, 2003/in 07. POWER

Several scientists associated with the "PATH process" reacted
sharply this week to suggestions that an independent science review panel
was "sandbagged " when evaluating hypotheses related to the mortality
and recovery of spring/summer chinook salmon.

A "Weight of Evidence" report released last week suggested
that breaching the four Lower Snake River dams would be a more effective
recovery strategy than continuing with current river operations or ...

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3. SCT DEADLOCKED OVER JOHN DAY SCREENS

October 1, 2003/in 07. POWER, 08. LAW

A technological -- and philosophical -- tug of war over funding for
further testing of John Day extended length screen prototypes ended Monday
in a draw.

State and federal representatives to the System Configuration Team met
in a special morning session to finalize funding recommendations for 1999
fish passage projects at mainstem Columbia-Snake river hydroelectric projects.

They left in agreement about how to spend most of the $60 million allotted
by Congress for mainstem ...

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5. NW GOVERNORS PURSUE RIVER MANAGEMENT

October 1, 2003/in 07. POWER

The four Northwest governors agreed Monday (Oct. 5) that the way the
Columbia-Snake river system is managed needs to be changed -- and that
they might be the ones to coordinate a regional plan.

The governors and their advisers will spend the next few weeks deciding
if they should advance a legislative proposal to address long-term river
governance issues, and what sort of proposal that should be. They'll also
focus on how the region can better address looming fish and wildlife issues
in

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2. SCT BEGINS CUTTING CORPS MAINSTEM PROJECTS

October 1, 2003/in 07. POWER, 08. LAW

In response to deep cuts in the Army Corps of Engineers' salmon recovery
budget, federal, state and tribal representatives met Wednesday to shed
about $30 million in proposed fish passage projects at Columbia/Snake River
mainstem dams.

The System Configuration Team, a multi-agency technical team, is charged
annually with recommending Columbia River Fish Mitigation program spending
priorities. The Corps, as the action agency, ultimately decides which programs
to carry out.

The ...

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4. SCIENTISTS ENCOURAGE SURFACE BYPASS RESEARCH

October 1, 2003/in 07. POWER

"Do the preliminary tests in prototype indicate that the surface
flow bypass technology shows sufficient promise to warrant continuing development?"

Under the presumption that the system of hydroelectric dams retains
its present configuration and operations, the answer is "Yes."

That's the latest word from the 10-member Independent Scientific Advisory
Board. The panel of scientists outlined comments and recommendations on
the current technology in a report to ...

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