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Salmon and hydro managers decided Wednesday to increase the flow of cooling water from Dworshak Dam's reservoir for three days in anticipation of what could well be the last heat wave of the season in the southeast Washington/west-central Idaho region.

A $22.3 million estimated expenditure to complete an 830-foot fish guidance wall at the The Dalles Dam tops the list of work that will be funded in fiscal year 2010 through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Columbia River Fish Mitigation Project.

Flows out of west-central Idaho's Dworshak Dam were increased this week in an attempt counteract the effects of a hot spell and increased flows from the Hells Canyon Complex of dams on lower Snake River water temperatures.

Spill levels were pushed up late Wednesday morning at west-central Idaho's Dworshak Dam in order to flush more cooling water into the lower Snake River ahead of advancing temperatures there.

A "proposed order" filed Tuesday pledges that summertime spill operations this year to facilitate juvenile salmon passage at federal Columbia-Snake river hydro projects will mimic as closely as possible -- as a federal judge requested -- those of 2008.

Precious water behind west-central Idaho's Dworshak Dam has been at the center of a tug of war over the past two weeks between competing, though mutual, biological interests.

U.S. Bureau of Reclamation will likely be able to provide desired flow augmentation volumes for salmon this spring and summer, according to agency officials.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers next week will conduct spill tests at Chief Joseph to evaluate the effectiveness of recently installed flow deflectors at reducing total dissolved gas concentrations downstream of the dam.

Changed conditions will allow an early opening after all of the "corner collector" at Bonneville Dam's second powerhouse to provide a safer passage route for spawned-out steelhead kelt and for any early migrating juvenile salmon and steelhead that approach the hydro project.

The proposal has evolved, but opinions are unchanged about whether Bonneville Dam's "corner collector" should be opened earlier than scheduled to provide another passage route at the project for steelhead kelt making a run down the Columbia River.

A proposal to open Bonneville Dam's "corner collector" early in order to facilitate downstream passage for spawned-out steelhead kelt got mixed reviews Wednesday from members of the Columbia River basin's Technical Management Team.

First-year construction costs for The Dalles Dam's "spillwall" -- an estimated $27.2 million -- will eat up nearly one-third of fiscal year 2009 Columbia River Fish Mitigation program's anticipated budget.

Legal arguments about how the federal Columbia/Snake river hydro system will be operated this year to accommodate migrating salmon and steelhead have been put on hold while U.S. District Court Judge James A. Redden mulls the big picture -- a 10-year strategy for avoiding jeopardy to the protected fish.

The lower Columbia River's "chum flow" balancing act could become even more difficult with the recognition of a new hydro system management constraint in the form of another project intended to help improve salmon survival -- the construction of a $45 million spillway wall at The Dalles Dam.

Lake Koocanusa and Hungry Horse Reservoir will drop 20 feet below full pool over the next couple months, and it will happen in a way that has been long fought for by the state of Montana.

A total of 35,000 cracker shells, rubber bullets and seal bombs were fired off last year in what was a doubling of the effort to discourage sea lion predation on salmon and steelhead below the Columbia River's Bonneville Dam.

A total of 35,000 cracker shells, rubber bullets and seal bombs were fired off last year in what was a doubling of the effort to discourage sea lion predation on salmon and steelhead below the Columbia River's Bonneville Dam.

Despite having a meager water supply to work with, fish and hydro officials have managed to keep water temperatures relatively in check for Snake River juvenile fall chinook migrants through a first summer heat wave.

The Bonneville Power Administration has distributed to the region and federal court a letter describing "the process that BPA will follow if requested to support a neighboring system's load/resource imbalance emergency."

Human safety, and mechanical issues, will prevent the collection and transportation of migrating juvenile fall chinook salmon and steelhead downstream aboard barges from the Mid-Columbia's McNary Dam to the estuary this summer.

Despite conditions that are "no longer springlike," the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was asked this week to delay the start of fish collections and transportation at the Columbia River's McNary Dam.

An application for state authority to lethally remove salmon-hungry California sea lions from the Columbia River has drawn literally hundreds of comments from fishing interests, animal rights groups, tribes and others.