The rebuilding of the federal government's Columbia River basin hydrosystem salmon protection plan will stretch to July 31, at least, under an order issued Wednesday by Portland-based U.S. District Court Judge James A. Redden.
A three-judge federal appellate panel on Tuesday denied a request to reconsider their August opinion that said the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers did take the required "hard look" at the environmental consequences before proceeding with a project to deepen the lower Columbia River shipping channel.
Now up and running is a new peer-reviewed process for technical analysis regarding impacts of Federal Columbia River Power System operations upon salmon, steelhead and resident fish.
U.S. District Court Judge James A. Redden at an Oct. 27 hearing said he was "not disappointed" with the status of a year-long collaboration with states and tribes as the federal government works to rebuild its Columbia/Snake river hydrosystem salmon protection plan.
NOAA Fisheries says the long-term benefits for protected Columbia River basin salmon and steelhead outweigh what will be short-term negative effects resulting from the proposed removal of Condit Dam on Washington's White Salmon River.
Construction of the latest "removable spillway weir" to be added to the Columbia/Snake river hydrosystem fish passage toolbox is behind schedule by an estimated 32 days, threatening its installation in time for the 2007 spring juvenile outmigration.
Several ongoing negotiations to resolve Indian water rights in western states appear ready for federal consideration next year.
A congressionally driven process is building momentum toward its goal of delicately balancing Columbia River Basin hatchery production so it provides desired harvest and, at the same time, protects threatened and endangered salmon and steelhead.
Legal punches and counterpunches have begun in no fewer than five lawsuits challenging NOAA Fisheries' methods for determining whether West Coast salmon and steelhead stocks should be protected under the Endangered Species Act.
The Northwest Power and Conservation on Wednesday completed its fiscal year 2007-2009 fish and wildlife project funding recommendations with but a few, albeit sometimes contentious, changes from a draft list produced a month ago.
Documents filed this week in U.S. District Court contend federal agencies are hampering a year-long collaborative process by dismissing the so-called "10-Step Conceptual Framework" as the means for determining whether Columbia River Basin hydro projects jeopardize the survival and recovery of protected salmon and steelhead.
The Entiat National Fish Hatchery spring chinook program should be terminated because it provides little harvest benefit and poses "significant straying genetic risk" to naturally produced, listed stocks in the Entiat River subbasin, according to a report released Oct. 13 by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council next week will ponder a wealth of newly-arrived advice when decides how it wants to allocate available fish and wildlife funding for the next three years across the Columbia River Basin.
Issues have "narrowed" but much work still needs to be done before agencies put together a federal Columbia/Snake river hydrosystem "action " that can be judged as to whether or not it jeopardizes the existence of protected salmon and steelhead, according to a report filed this week in U.S. District Court.
The planned biological analysis for federal upper Snake River irrigation projects "will essentially rearrange the components" from a lower Snake/Columbia hydro project "consultation" to determine if jeopardy is posed to protected salmon and steelhead, according to an initial status report filed Tuesday by NOAA Fisheries and the Bureau of Reclamation in U.S. District Court.
U.S. District Court Judge James A. Redden on Monday put federal agencies on warning that the survival of threatened and endangered salmon and steelhead stocks must be the ultimate priority, not water allocation plans, as they devise a new biological opinion related to Idaho irrigation projects.
A Monday U.S. District Court remand order sets a timetable and reporting requirements for creation of a new upper Snake River biological opinion, but does not dictate what federal agencies must do to assure Idaho irrigation projects don't jeopardize protected salmon and steelhead populations downstream.
Attorneys for the U.S. government and the state of Idaho say a request to have the looming Upper Snake biological opinion remand focused on the augmentation of river flows would undercut federal authorities and go contrary to previous judicial direction.
Draft fish and wildlife project funding recommendations approved this week by the Northwest Power and Conservation Council would largely balance provincial and mainstem on-the-ground/multi-province budgets at allocation targets for fiscal years 2007-2009, and come in at more than $10 million under budget in the basinwide category.
A federal submittal says agencies will do the work necessary to correct "legal deficiencies" in 2005's biological opinion on the operation of upper Snake River irrigation projects, and offers a brief outline of progress reporting tasks and schedule.
U.S. District Court Judge James A. Redden this week gave legal adversaries two weeks to develop a schedule and plan for reworking a biological opinion on federal irrigation projects in the upper Snake River basin that is "coordinated" with an ongoing remand of a BiOp on lower Snake and Columbia river hydro projects.
The Bonneville Power Administration will have the tools to raise power rates in dire times, if need be, to meet Endangered Species Act costs stemming from ongoing litigation in federal court, according to a report filed earlier this month.
A federal appeals panel, on a 2-1 vote, on Wednesday reaffirmed a lower court ruling that judged the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers took the required "hard look" at the environmental consequences before proceeding with a project to deepen the lower Columbia River shipping channel.
Meeting this week in Pendleton, Ore., with some 300 Northwest tribal leaders, officials from EPA’s Region 10 indicated that state water quality standards may not be approved until fish consumption rates are increased to adequately protect Native Americans, who eat a lot more fish than people in the general population.
About 35 percent -- an estimated $29 million -- of the fiscal year 2007 Columbia River Fish Mitigation program budget will be focused on projects to provide surface bypass for juvenile salmon and steelhead at hydro projects on the Columbia and Snake rivers, according to priorities set by the System Configuration Team.
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