The Vernita Bar Policy Group decided this week to begin ramping down
flows at Priest Rapids Dam beginning Monday, May 7. Columbia River flows
at the dam have been held at a fairly steady 65,000 cubic feet per
second in accordance with the Vernita Bar agreement to prevent emerging
Hanford Reach fall chinook fry from being stranded in pools at the
river's edge.

Federal agency executives today said a final operations plan that will be used by in-season managers to guide river operations this spring and summer will not be ready until May 17, but that they will consider some critical fish operations by as early as this coming week.

The discussion took place today at a joint meeting of the federal executives who manage Columbia River operations, along with representatives of the four Northwest states and Northwest tribes in Portland.

It's a "long shot," but Bonneville Power Administration and Energy
Northwest have agreed to study the feasibility of completing
construction on a Hanford nuclear plant that was mothballed in the
1980s.

The study, which could take up to five months to complete and cost as
much as $1 million, will be conducted at the request of Congressmen Doc
Hastings and George Nethercutt, both Washington Republicans.

Bonneville Power Administration customers will have to cut energy use by
5 percent to 10 percent and aluminum smelters will have to shut down for
up to two years if the federal power marketing agency is to avoid a 250
percent to 300 percent rate increase in October.

Even at that, prices could rise as much as 100 percent, acting BPA
Administrator Steve Wright said Monday at a press conference.