Several environmental and taxpayer groups this week said an increase in
federal borrowing by the Bonneville Power Administration should be
eliminated from next year's budget.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said it will recalculate the economics
of deepening the lower Columbia River channel using costs and benefits
that more closely describe the project as it has evolved since its 1999
report.

The Corps, along with lower Columbia River ports, is proposing to deepen
the river by three feet in order to accommodate deeper draft boats.

A Benton County judge in Washington ruled in favor of eastern Washington
irrigators in late January when he prohibited the state's Department of
Ecology from using water flow limits in the National Marine Fisheries
Service's biological opinion as the standard by which the state
restricts water rights.

Three Northwest environment groups on Thursday released an internal
cost estimate prepared by the National Marine Fisheries Service in
2000 that indicates the federal government is spending only half of
what is needed to implement the Columbia Basin salmon recovery plan.