The 2008 season so far has been full of surprises -- some good and some bad -- for Columbia River mainstem fishery managers, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife's Bill Tweit told the Northwest Power and Conservation Council Thursday.
Radical changes to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's stormwater program are necessary to reverse degradation of fresh water resources and ensure progress toward the Clean Water Act's goal of "fishable and swimmable" waters, says a new report from the National Research Council.
The state of Washington this week officially joined the legal defense of the latest federal Columbia/Snake river hydro system salmon protection plan.
The federal departments of Commerce and Education are forecasting a serious shortage of scientists trained to do the high-quality research required to rebuild fish stocks and restore marine species in the next decade.
An unexpectedly strong return of upriver bright chinook this year has allowed the opening of a fall chinook salmon sport fishery on the lower Snake River for the first time in 20 years.
The new federal plan to protect salmon and steelhead migrating through the Columbia/Snake river hydro system employs a "newly lowered bar" that fails to properly assess, in scientific or legal terms, the listed species' chances of recovery, according to motions for summary judgment filed in U.S. District Court Sept. 19 by a coalition of fishing and conservation groups and the state of Oregon.
NOAA's Fisheries Service, the federal agency charged with protecting salmon listed under the Endangered Species Act, is now seeking public comment on a proposed recovery plan for threatened steelhead in the middle Columbia River.
The Washington Department of Ecology on Thursday issued final decisions that pave the way for more water to be made available to cities and industry along the Columbia River and replace groundwater currently pumped from the Odessa Subarea aquifer.
Funding for a long-running habitat restoration project in Oregon's John Day River basin is on the ropes following a split vote last week by the Northwest Power and Conservation Council.
U.S. Sens. Maria Cantwell, D-WA, Lisa Murkowski, R-AK, and Gordon Smith, R-OR, introduced legislation this week to establish a federal program to support the protection and restoration of a network of the healthiest remaining wild Pacific salmon ecosystems in North America, the so-called “Salmon Strongholds.”
The Bonneville Power Administration this week responded to three 2007 Ninth Circuit court rulings with a decision that will lower its wholesale power rates by 1 percent for fiscal year 2009, return an additional quarter of a billion dollars in past overcharges to the region's consumer-owned utilities in 2009, return additional overpayments in future years, and re-establish Residential Exchange Program benefits to most of the region's investor-owned utilities.
CBB Shorts: Washington's Office Of Columbia River; NOAA Administrator Resigns; UW Prof Gets MacArthur Grant
--- Ecology's New Office of Columbia River Pursues New Water For Basin
The Bonneville Power Administration expects to increase its "integrated" Columbia River basin fish and wildlife program spending by 55 percent during the fiscal years 2009-2011 period, agency officials told the Northwest Power and Conservation Council Wednesday.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Thursday approved a controversial proposal to build and operate a liquefied natural gas import terminal and related pipeline near the mouth of the Columbia.
Clean Water Act arguments have been added to the slate as attorneys this autumn debate whether a newly devised strategy adequately protects salmon and steelhead that migrate up and down the federal Columbia/Snake river hydro system.
An Idaho economist had charged that the Bonneville Power Administration exceeded its authority and took other legal missteps this spring in making commitments to states and tribes to spend nearly $1 billion in electricity ratepayer revenues over the next 10 years on fish and wildlife projects over the next 10 years.
Reaches of southwest Washington's White Salmon River devoid of salmon for 90 years should again be teeming with spawners this autumn.
An attempt to inject Clean Water Act claims into the long-running Columbia River basin salmon protection lawsuit should be rejected, according to a brief filed by federal attorneys Wednesday in Portland's U.S. District Court.
After three hours of legal debate, U.S. District Court Judge Michael W. Mosman said Wednesday that his "tentative thoughts now" were that NOAA's Fisheries Service had complied with federal law in granting authority for the lethal removal of California sea lions from below the Columbia River's Bonneville Dam.
A settlement has been reached in long-running litigation over the best way to recover the Kootenai River white sturgeon.
A coalition of fishing and conservation groups is seeking to expand litigation that challenges the federal government's salmon protection plan with charges that the Columbia/Snake river hydro system is being operated in violation of the Clean Water Act.
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council Thursday has issued its draft 2008 Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program for public review and comment through Oct. 30.
Draft amendments to the Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program won approval Thursday by a 6-2 vote during a special meeting of the Northwest Power and Conservation Council.
Tribal, state and federal representatives explained why Oregon’s fish consumption rate should be dramatically increased to protect public health when the Oregon Environmental Quality Commission met in Hermiston Friday, Aug. 22.
"A bunch of volunteers" from south-central Washington continues to make the pitch for construction of the so-called Black Rock Dam and reservoir to store water for fields, cities and salmon in the Yakima River watershed.
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