Nearly half -- $45 million worth -- of the "high priority" fish and
wildlife project proposals submitted for fiscal year 2001 funding
satisfy criteria set out by the Northwest Power Planning Council,
according to a report released Thursday by the Columbia Basin Fish and
Wildlife Authority.
A bountiful, by recent standards, return of spring chinook salmon last
year has translated into the top spawning count on record for one
unlisted Oregon run and generally improved returns for ESA listed fish
on which much of the Columbia Basin's recovery efforts are focused.
As the Northwest power emergency continues, five federal agencies have
taken control of the federal hydroelectric system's in-season
management, a job that normally is the province of the Technical
Management Team.
The Bonneville Power Administration is on a path to wholesale power rate
increases averaging 60 percent over the next five years unless the
region can identify and take actions to reduce power costs, BPA Acting
Administrator Steve Wright said Thursday.
The Bonneville Power Administration announced Thursday that it began
this week predicting a power shortage of nearly 1,000 megawatts in the
Northwest and would have to run the Columbia River hydropower system
extra hard simply to meet Northwest electricity demand.
The agency increased flows at Bonneville Dam from 130,000 cubic feet per
second to 160 kcfs Thursday to generate more kilowatts and help make up
for the power deficit ...
Columbia Basin electric ratepayers have footed a $3.48 billion bill
since 1978 to help restore fish and wildlife populations in the region,
according to a draft report released this week by the Northwest Power
Planning Council.
The "Annual Report of the Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Program,
1978-1999" is a first-time attempt to detail exactly fish and wildlife
expenditures of the Bonneville Power Administration ...
President-elect George Bush's choice for secretary of energy, Spencer
Abraham, this week assured Northwest senators he no longer advocates
privatizing the Bonneville Power Administration.
Abraham, a defeated Republican senator from Michigan, co-sponsored bills
to abolish the Department of Energy and transfer its programs to other
agencies of government or the private sector.
Steve Wright, acting Bonneville Power Administration chief, told the
Northwest Power Planning Council Wednesday he expected the process of
appointing a new administrator could take up to six months. The
appointment would be made by president-elect George W. Bush's Energy
secretary.
Speakers this week at a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission hearing in
Portland supported the agency's proposal to streamline its hydroelectric
dam licensing process, but worried the shortened process would harm
either the environment or the bottom line.
FERC is required by legislation to look for efficiencies in that process
and is holding six hearings around the country to listen to comments on
its proposal.
With the major task of revamping of the Columbia Basin fish and wildlife
program well under way, and his 65th birthday fast approaching, Idaho's
Todd Maddock in early December decided the time was right to step down
from his position as a member of the Northwest Power Planning Council.
A Northwest Power Planning Council "high priority project" solicitation
intended to "identify immediate actions that will assist Endangered
Species Act-listed anadromous fish" in the Columbia Basin has drawn a
considerable response.
Federal agencies said Thursday that they have put themselves on notice:
If their latest Columbia Basin salmon recovery plan doesn't play out as
envisioned, the National Marine Fisheries Service could play trump cards
as soon as 2003 that might include seeking authorization to breach four
Lower Snake River dams.
The Columbia River treaty tribes have greeted the latest federal salmon
recovery plan with disdain, saying it ignores science and the federal
government's treaty responsibilities to the tribes.
The reaction to the biological opinion of the Columbia River hydro
system released this week by the National Marine Fisheries Service
focused mostly on breaching four lower Snake River dams.
But not all looking at the breaching language in the same way.
Federal officials plan to release the final Columbia Basin salmon
restoration plan and biological opinion on the federal hydropower system
as required under the Endangered Species Act next week.
On the heels of a predicted Northwest power emergency earlier this week,
U.S. Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson ordered the Bonneville Power
Administration to send energy south to help California avert a Stage 3
power emergency that would cause the state to institute rolling
blackouts.
Large-scale manipulations -- such as through dike removal, changes in
hydrosystem-controlled flow regimes and altered predation management --
may be necessary to assess the impact human development has had on
Columbia River estuarine habitats and their fish and wildlife
populations, according to a scientific report released this week.
A plan on what to do if a cold snap causes power shortages in the
Northwest could get its first test next week. The long-term weather
forecast is predicting temperatures in the mid-teens in Portland
beginning early next week. If that happens, it could trigger an
emergency plan power organizations have worked on since September.
One of the major changes the region will see when the National Marine
Fisheries Service releases its final 2000 biological opinion governing
operations of the Columbia River federal hydro system is the exclusion
from the BiOp of Bureau of Reclamation dams in the upper Snake River
basin due to ongoing water adjudication.
Critical of both the science supporting draft federal salmon recovery
plans and the process used to produce it, Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo has
asked the National Marine Fisheries Service to slow its timetable for
implementing the strategies.
Panels made up of regional scientists, researchers and representatives
of economic interests were asked last week to offer their views on the
federal salmon recovery planning "process, science basis and prospects
for success."
The setting was a Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on
Fisheries, Wildlife and Water hearing in Boise chaired by Idaho
Republican Sen. Mike Crapo.
His tenure could, potentially, be brief, but acting Bonneville Power
Administration administrator Steve Wright sees the need to keep the
momentum rolling on a number of related fronts -- among them finding
agreement on a "unified" Columbia Basin fish and wildlife recovery plan
demanded by his predecessor.
The Bonneville Power Administration witnessed a changing of the guard
today (Nov. 17) with Administrator Judi Johansen leaving to become
executive vice president for government affairs and regulation at
PacifiCorp.
Saying that rivers already have too little water to meet flow targets
for salmon migration, environmental groups petitioned the Washington
Department of Ecology to renew a moratorium on issuing water rights
permits on the Columbia and Snake rivers and their tributaries.
The governors of Montana and Oregon on Monday aim to trigger discussions
they hope will eventually give the Columbia Basin states and tribes more
clout in fish and wildlife restoration decisions.
Montana Gov. Marc Racicot and Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber have called a
public hearing take input on a "discussion draft" of proposed
legislation that would amend the Pacific Northwest Electric Power
Planning and Conservation Act.
An Earthwise Knowledge Initiative Publication
