The public record has closed, but deliberations go on as the Northwest Power Planning and Conservation Council tries to settle on its vision of how it would like federal agencies to operate the federal Columbia/Snake river hydrosystem for the best benefit of fish and wildlife.
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.
Pressured by biological opinion deadlines, the Bonneville Power Administration and its federal partners are pushing for speedy funding and scientific decisions that, to the distress of others involved, go outside the normal process for choosing Columbia River Basin fish and wildlife projects.
Northwest Power and Conservation Council members on Wednesday postponed action on "mainstem" amendments to its fish and wildlife program, hoping to forge in the next two weeks enough agreement on water management and other issues to win the needed supermajority for passage.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declined this week to list burbot, a species of freshwater cod located in the Kootenai River in Idaho, as endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act.
But work by a coalition of parties to develop a conservation agreement for the species will continue and that may result in better circumstances for the species than if it were listed.
The issue of whether the Bonneville Power Administration is willing, and able, to borrow money to fund the acquisition of fish and wildlife habitat became more pointed this week with project sponsors urging a policy shift so the agency can follow through with prior commitments.
Federal agencies this week revealed that overall they will spend more in 2003 and 2004 for Columbia River Basin salmon and steelhead recovery activities than they did in 2002.
A final tally of data from last spring's initial test of a "removable spillway weir" at the Snake River's Lower Granite Dam shows that the device attracts young salmon and steelhead better, is more efficient in its use of water and sends the juvenile on their way faster than other means of passage, including spill.
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.
A small public utility that owns a big mid-Columbia River dam was surprised by an invoice of over $950 million from the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation charging the utility for the use of tribal lands since the dam first flooded the Columbia and Okanogan river basins.
Members of Congress from four states served by the Bonneville Power Administration have asked the White House budget office to retract its criticism of the low-cost energy supplier.
The Independent Scientific Review Panel pulled no punches in what was its first technical review of a subbasin plan submitted through Northwest Power and Conservation Council's fish and wildlife program amendment process.
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council this week is to offer its recommendations -- with caveats -- for balancing a fiscal year 2003 budget that the Bonneville Power Administration estimated in December would spend $40 million more than the federal agency can afford.
A longstanding assumption that the more efficient a hydroelectric turbine is run, the higher the survival for juvenile salmon that pass through the churning action of the turbine was challenged this week by Dr. John Skalski of the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences at the University of Washington.
Intensive number crunching and a reliance on the capitalization of planned land acquisitions would push Columbia Basin fish and wildlife expenses under a $139 million spending limit without the need for large-scale project terminations, according to a proposal developed by the Northwest Power and Conservation Council staff.
Congress has finally passed an annual spending bill to fund most departments of government for this fiscal year, which began Oct. 1.
The catchall appropriations bill for FY2003 includes a $700 million increase in the Bonneville Power Administration's borrowing authority as well as funding for numerous salmon recovery programs that were sought by Northwest members of Congress.
The Bonneville Power Administration announced today that, due primarily to poor water conditions and lower-than-expected secondary (surplus power) revenues, it expects to raise wholesale power rates for utilities and large industrial customers.
Criticism of the Bonneville Power Administration by the White House's budget office this week raised fears in the Northwest congressional delegation about possible moves to sell off the federal electricity wholesaler.
President George W. Bush in his budget for fiscal year 2004 is asking Congress for less spending by federal agencies on Columbia Basin salmon recovery than he requested last year.
Last year, Bush requested a total of $506 million for FY03, but a catchall spending bill now moving through Congress would cut that by more than $50 million
A closer look at the data from a Jan. 16 test at Bonneville Dam showed that lowering the tailwater elevation below 11.5 feet could potentially put as many as 20 percent of the lower Columbia River chum redds in the Ives Island area below the dam at risk, far more than the previous estimate of 2 percent.
The process to cut the Northwest Power and Conservation Council's fish and wildlife program's 2003 budget to the $139 million cap imposed by the Bonneville Power Administration could be making some progress.
The process to squeeze the Northwest Power and Conservation Council's fish and wildlife program under a $139 million budget cap lurched forward this week with thorny policy issues and ever-changing ledger sheet continuing to complicate things.
Tribal officials and other Columbia River basin fish and wildlife officials on Monday again stated the case that their programs are already under-funded and are inappropriately being targeted for budget cuts as a remedy for the Bonneville Power Administration's financial missteps.
The Senate has approved an additional $700 million line of credit for the Bonneville Power Administration, mainly to finance new electricity transmission lines and improvements.
Fishery officials, as well as those who catch salmon, steelhead and other species, have stressed this week that the money and effort spent to revive Columbia River basin fish stocks is a wise investment.
And Mother Nature has given that theory validity, according to a panel assembled Wednesday to address the fish and wildlife managers that make up the Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Authority's membership.
An Earthwise Knowledge Initiative Publication
