A legal challenge to the Northwest Power and Conservation Council’s “Sixth Power Plan” is misdirected, and should be rejected, say intervenors in a consideration process now before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
The 42 parties that originally signed the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement early this week approved a first amendment to the settlement that, among other things, extends by two years the time allowed to gain congressional authorization, and funding to implement restoration actions.
A judge in the U.S. District Court in Yakima Dec. 14 issued a ruling that says Canadian mining and smelting company Teck Metals Ltd. is liable under U.S. environmental law for contaminating the Columbia River with millions of tons of smelting waste.
A Montana district judge has issued an order that puts a planned vote on a Flathead Reservation water rights compact on hold.
Planning and implementation is going well, yet a “more robust discussion is needed” to cement efforts to recover depleted Columbia River salmon and steelhead populations that are now protected under the Endangered Species Act, according to Barry Thom, deputy administrator for NOAA Fisheries’ Northwest Region.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers this week offered for public review its preferred plan for managing – in large part through dredging – sediment buildup on the lower Snake River that it says interferes with navigation and other federally authorized purposes of four dams on the river.
Jane Lubchenco, on leave from her position as professor of zoology at Oregon State University, is stepping down from her position as NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) administrator in February and returning to the Pacific Northwest.
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council and Bonneville Power Administration planned this week to launch a review of about 87 habitat-based projects proposed for continued funding in “anadromous” – salmon, steelhead, lamprey – areas of the Columbia/Snake river basin.
Arguments that its “Sixth Power Plan” failed to prescribe adequate fish and wildlife mitigation for Columbia River hydro system impacts are “outside the pale” of Congress’ intent in creating the Northwest Power Act, according to a legal brief filed Nov. 21 by the Northwest Power and Conservation Council.
Nearly 200 people packed a room in Kalispell Tuesday night, most of them leery or critical of a recently proposed water rights compact for the Flathead Indian Reservation.
Critiques of the process are well taken and are helping move toward the goal of satisfying requirements that the federal Columbia/Snake river hydro system avoid jeopardizing the survival of salmon and steelhead stocks that are protected under the Endangered Species Act, notes a brief filed Nov. 9 by the U.S. Department of Justice in Oregon’s U.S. District Court.
The Bonneville Power Administration asked for help this summer in reining in Columbia River basin fish and wildlife spending, and got it to the tune of an estimated $15 million in projected project deferrals and efficiencies for fiscal years 2012 and 2013.
One effort to end commercial gill-net fishing on the lower Columbia River came to an end during Tuesday’s general election with two-thirds of Oregon’s voters saying no on Ballot Initiative 81.
In an attempt to bring economies and efficiencies to its Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program, the Northwest Power and Conservation Council on Tuesday recommended that funding for a number of data management projects be cut back and that one, the Northwest Habitat Institute, be phased out.
High public interest has prompted the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the state of Washington to make adjustments to its schedule of public meetings to accommodate comments on a proposal to develop a bulk-cargo shipping terminal and rail spur improvements on the Puget Sound shore at Cherry Point near Bellingham, Wash..
Oregon’s Environmental Quality Commission has rejected a petition that called for more restrictions on pesticide use, hoping instead that farmers will voluntarily limit their use of pesticides that could compromise the health of humans as well as salmon and steelhead listed under the Endangered Species Act.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has kicked off a public scoping process to determine how to best manage a large salmon-munching colony of double-crested cormorants nesting on East Sand Island in the Columbia River estuary.
Legal adversaries say that implementation of a federal Columbia/Snake river salmon protection plan is lagging, not producing the intended benefits and that the agencies are plunging ahead without acknowledging that significant changes are needed to meet the requirements of both fish and the law.
A Sandy Hatchery operation proposed by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife that includes the trapping of hatchery and wild spring chinook salmon and, presumably, the safe release of the naturally produced fish so that they can continue upstream to spawn, has gained the qualified endorsement of the federal agency charged with enforcing the Endangered Species Act.
A petition now being debated in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit asks the court to “reverse” the Northwest Power and Conservation Council’s Sixth Power Plan and “issue a tailored remand of the Power Plan to the Council to bring the Plan into compliance with the requirements of the Power Act.”
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued a ruling Monday that says the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service violated federal law -- both the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act -- in sanctioning the construction of the 700-mile Ruby pipeline from natural gas fields in Wyoming to southern Oregon.
U.S. government representatives in late September informed the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation that a federal negotiation team has been assigned to help work toward a long-sought water rights settlement for region.
Cowlitz County, the Washington Department of Ecology and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have signed a formal agreement to jointly oversee the preparation of an environmental impact statement for a proposal from Millennium Bulk Terminals to develop a coal export terminal at the site of the previous Reynolds aluminum smelter near Longview, Wa., on the lower Columbia River.
“Performance standard testing” at The Dalles, McNary and Bonneville dams on the lower Columbia River showed marked improvements in survival of outmigrating juvenile spring chinook and steelhead during 2011, according to the annual progress report released Sept. 28 by federal agencies engaged in efforts to boost the status of 13 salmon and steelhead stocks listed under the Endangered Species Act.
A lawsuit filed Sept. 27 in federal court challenges clean-up plans developed by Oregon under the Clean Water Act to address what the plaintiff – the Northwest Environmental Advocates – describes as widespread temperature pollution of the state’s waters.
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