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A Washington state public review process that was to close February 19 for nine draft water quality permits at Columbia and Snake river dams took an unusual turn late last week when the federal government withdrew the permits without saying why.

A flexible spill agreement signed in December by federal agencies, states and a tribe promises additional spring spill to total dissolved gas limits, known as gas caps, beginning this spring at Columbia and Snake river dams. The additional spill is thought to aid juvenile salmon passage.

Seeking to cut some $30 million from its future fish and wildlife expenses, the Bonneville Power Administration has completed its review of fiscal year 2019 programs, arriving at cuts to 35 programs totaling $6,391,576 along with more than $3 million from the Columbia River Fish Accords.

Following the orders of an October Presidential memorandum, federal agencies charged with producing an environmental impact statement analyzing the impacts of 14 federal Columbia/Snake river dams on salmon and steelhead released a schedule this week that shortens the time they will take to complete the EIS by one year.

Every day, between April 3 and June 20 last year, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had to determine what amount of spill would bring the lower Snake and Columbia rivers up to state-mandated total dissolved gas limits while not exceeding those limits.

An anticipated lower than average rainfall in the Columbia River basin led the interagency Technical Management Team to reduce the tailwater elevation requirement put in place to protect spawning chum salmon downstream of Bonneville Dam by 0.2 feet.

A Presidential memorandum released Friday, October 19, directs federal agencies to reduce regulations at West Coast dams, including water projects in California, the Klamath River and federal dams in the Columbia River basin.

Though a federal court is not requiring it, NOAA Fisheries said last week it will complete by the end of the year a 2018 biological opinion for Columbia/Snake river salmon and steelhead.

The U.S. House of Representatives Wednesday approved a bill that would until at least 2022 require congressional authorization for any structural modification or action -- including court-ordered spill for fish -- at Columbia/Snake river federal dams that would restrict power generation or navigation.

A three-judge federal appeals court panel ruled this week in favor of an Oregon U.S. District Court injunction ordering more spill at eight lower Snake and Columbia river dams intended to benefit migrating juvenile salmon and steelhead.

The assertion that spilling more water at four lower Snake River and four lower Columbia River dams would result in more salmon and steelhead returning to the rivers is now being argued in the Ninth Circuit Court.

A five-year federal review of the Columbia/Snake River power system will not produce a finished environmental impact statement until 2021. That has U.S. District Court Judge Michael H. Simon asking whether a new biological opinion for salmon and steelhead, scheduled for 2018, should simply be suspended until the EIS is completed.

A winter upgrade to Foster Dam’s fish weir is expected to provide a safer passage over the dam for juvenile salmon and steelhead.

Plaintiffs in the challenge to the biological opinion for Columbia Basin salmon and steelhead -- the state of Oregon and National Wildlife Federation – along with federal defendants last week filed briefs in U.S. district court opposing a petition by eastern Washington irrigators to convene an evidentiary hearing on spill and transportation for juvenile fish.

The House Appropriations Committee this week approved a 2018 Energy and Water bill that includes language prohibiting the removal of federal dams unless previously authorized by Congress.

Federal dam operating agencies and advocates for more spill for fish are making progress on devising a 2018 spill plan at federal dams on the lower Snake and lower Columbia rivers, according to a status review submitted to U.S. District Court of Oregon last week.

Defendants gave notice in the U.S. District Court of Oregon that they are appealing to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals an April 3rd order to provide earlier spill for juvenile fish passage beginning next spring at lower Snake and Columbia river dams.

Advocates of more spill at Columbia/Snake river dams for juvenile fish passage and federal dam operating agencies have agreed to a schedule for periodic status conferences and a protocol in a federal court case.

A juvenile bypass system orifice at Little Goose Lock and Dam became plugged early Wednesday because of abnormally high seasonal debris from the lower Snake River, according to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officials.

Under court order, the operators of eight federal dams on the lower Snake and lower Columbia rivers will begin to spill water for fish earlier next year, beginning April 3, to possibly improve survival rates for juvenile salmon and steelhead through the hydroelectric system.

The federal court judge who rejected last May the Columbia River hydropower system’s 2014 biological opinion for salmon and steelhead is leaning towards ordering more spring/summer spill at mainstem dams aimed at aiding juvenile fish passage-- but not until 2018.

Saying that the U.S. District Court lacks “subject matter jurisdiction to resolve this suit,” Portland General Electric filed last Friday in the court to dismiss a suit filed in August by the Deschutes River Alliance that claimed the utility is not in compliance with its clean water responsibilities.

U.S. District Court of Oregon Judge Michael H. Simon will allow the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to continue culling double-crested cormorants, as well as oiling the birds’ eggs and destroying nests on East Sand Island in the lower Columbia River estuary.

As many as 16,000 nesting double crested cormorants abandoned their nests and eggs on East Sand Island in the lower Columbia River estuary and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers does not know why they left.

Culling of double-crested cormorants near East Sand Island in the Columbia River estuary resumed on April 7 and already the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is more than two-thirds of the way to the number of culled birds allowed this year by a permit it received from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

A cascading series of events this week resulted in reduced spill for fish at Ice Harbor Dam on the lower Snake River.

A teleconference was held Tuesday in Portland to provide an update on some of the water management gymnastics that federal agencies are engaged in to optimize river flows for fisheries and other purposes throughout the Columbia/Snake river basin in one of the worst low-water years seen in decades.

Hot weather, warm water and lower than average flows in the Snake River dominated the regional Technical Management Team meeting this week, but Russ Keifer of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game also had good news about Snake River sockeye adults passing Bonneville Dam.

The Bonneville Power Administration says it is positioned during this low-flow spring and summer to meet the ongoing power needs of its customers, as well as its non-power obligations, including those aimed at protecting fish.

The Technical Management Team, charged with the difficult task in a low water year of balancing spring juvenile fish passage with water and power needs in the region, dropped McNary flow objectives for the second week running and briefly raised flows from Dworshak Dam to help pass juvenile chinook salmon through lower Snake River dams.

Faced with one of the worst water supply forecasts in over 50 years, the Technical Management Team this week agreed to lower the flow target at McNary Dam from 220,000 cubic feet per second to 180 kcfs, beginning today (May 1).

The Walla Walla District of the Corps of Engineers placed Dworshak Dam's hydroelectric generator Unit 3 back in service Monday after completing repairs of damage due to a short circuit in the stator winding on Aug. 15.

Measuring juvenile salmon passage at Columbia/Snake River dams, and hitting survival targets, is a key directive in the federal government’s biological opinion for Columbia Basin salmon and steelhead listed under the Endangered Species Act.