A report by the RAND Corporation says removal of the four lower Snake River dams and replacing the lost power with at least 20 percent conservation and renewable energy would have a negligible effect on the Northwest's economy and could even add up to 15,000 new jobs.
Bonneville Power Administration administrator Steve Wright last week challenged the Columbia Basin's federal, state and tribal fish and wildlife managers to identify potential cost reductions that could help the agency limit future power rate increases.
Dam operators and fisheries managers this week agreed at a multi-agency Implementation Team meeting to swap a reduced level of spill in August at some dams so that biologists can conduct a spill test at The Dalles Dam in October.
Public utility customers of the Bonneville Power Administration demanded this week deep cuts to the agency's budgets and questioned the value of continued spill at federal dams to aid salmon recovery.
The anticipation of funding from the Bonneville Power Administration for fish and wildlife projects recommended by the Northwest Power Planning Council has become, in some cases, as maddening as Chinese water torture, according to one Council member.
The Northwest Power Planning Council sorted through sometimes conflicting advice in making a decision to recommend that 10 projects be funded under its "innovative" fish and wildlife project category during the current fiscal year at cost of nearly $2 million.
Persistence has paid off for project proponents who will test whether a Umatilla River basin aquifer could, essentially, be pumped brimful in winter when surface water is plentiful and seep out during the summer's dry months to enhance stream flows for fish and feed irrigation pumps.
A panel of economists handpicked by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and meeting this week in Portland, Ore., determined that the agency's economic analysis of the Corps' $149 million project to deepen the Columbia River shipping channel by 3 feet overall is reasonable and prudent.
Northwest Power Planning Council members from Idaho and Montana say they are willing to accept -- with qualifications -- a federal document's prescriptions for running the Columbia-Snake federal hydrosystem as a baseline for the Council's own fish and wildlife program mainstem strategy.
A list of 104 systemwide and mainstem fish and wildlife project proposals have started down the final gauntlet in the Northwest Power Planning Council' "rolling provincial review" funding approval process, with only 14 passing muster in an initial technical review by the Independent Scientific Review Panel.
Already behind schedule, implementation of the Columbia Basin salmon recovery plan would slip further under an annual federal funding bill recently approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Plans and actions taken by key federal agencies to implement a 10-year Columbia River Basin salmon and steelhead recovery program are -- for the most part -- on schedule to meet the first major benchmark in the plan -- a major 2003 evaluation, the National Marine Fisheries Services announced Tuesday.
There was no middle ground this week as members of the public got their first chance to express their opinion about an updated $156.2 million proposal to deepen the lower Columbia River's shipping channel to accommodate the deeper draft vessels that are becoming more common in maritime trade.
There was no middle ground this week as members of the public got their first chance to express their opinion about an updated $156.2 million proposal to deepen the lower Columbia River's shipping channel to accommodate the deeper draft vessels that are becoming more common in maritime trade.
The National Marine Fisheries Service on Wednesday released a preliminary draft hatchery policy that reaffirms the agency's emphasis on building self-sustaining salmon and steelhead populations in their natural ecosystem with careful consideration of the risks and benefits that hatchery fish might bring to the recovery process.
Senate appropriators have agreed to increase the Army Corps of Engineers' budget for the Columbia River salmon mitigation by $6 million next year, to $87 million.
The Northwest Power Planning Council on Wednesday recommended the expenditure of $462,000 to have its artificial production review process complete draft documents that are necessary for Columbia Basin salmon hatcheries to gain "coverage" under the Endangered Species Act.
The Bureau of Reclamation said that it can deliver this summer to Snake River dam reservoirs owned by Idaho Power Company only about two-thirds of the water required to augment river flows in the lower Snake River.
Endangered species listings, jeopardy opinions and related major decisions by federal agencies would be required to undergo scientific peer review under a bill approved Wednesday by the House Resources Committee.
Drawdown at Cascade Lake, north of Boise, Idaho, is one of several options the Bureau of Reclamation could choose to move water into the lower Snake River for flow augmentation this summer, but the idea is strongly opposed by local residents and Idaho Republican Sen. Larry Craig.
The Bush administration has changed its position and now supports legislation to require fish and wildlife agencies to give greater weight in making endangered species listings and other decisions to peer-reviewed and field-gathered scientific information.
An abundant Methow River Basin spring chinook salmon return has allowed federal, state and tribal fishery officials to again implement a plan that involves the capture of naturally spawning fish to reinvigorate hatchery programs and allows any "surplus" hatchery returns to find spawning grounds in the wild.
The premises underlying three controversial fish passage strategies employed in the Columbia-Snake mainstem hydrosystem have not, in many cases, been scientifically justified.
The Technical Management Team this week determined conditions are right to end spring spill at lower Columbia River and lower Snake River dams and that barging at lower Snake River dams is unnecessary until stream flows drop and the water temperature rises.
An envisioned 10-year plan for managing the federal Klamath Project failed to clear its final hurdle this week with the Bureau of Reclamation's regional chief criticizing federal fish agencies' strategies for protecting fish listed under the Endangered Species Act.
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