When it issues a biological opinion of the federal hydro system, the
National Marine Fisheries Service will attach a work in progress that also
addresses federal Clean Water Act issues in the Columbia River mainstem.
NMFS will release its 2000 BiOp of the Federal Columbia River Power
System in early April for review by other federal agencies. Among other
items, the BiOp will address how operations of the federal hydro system
should be conducted to enhance recovery of 12 endangered …

The four Columbia River treaty tribes took their complaints about the
federal government’s failure to consult with them on salmon issues to Washington,
D.C., this week.
Yakima, Warm Springs, Umatilla and Nez Perce tribal leaders met with
representatives of numerous federal agencies, including the regional director
of the National Marine Fisheries Service and the CEO of the Bonneville
Power Administration. White House Council on Environmental Quality Chairman
George Frampton, who heard …

Federal agencies that operate dams in the Columbia River Basin released
in December their assessment of the effects of the dams on endangered salmon
and steelhead, saying the operations would adversely affect six species
listed as endangered or threatened in 1999. While they chose to not recommend
changes to hydro operations, they did ask to begin consultations with the
National Marine Fisheries Service to develop a new Federal Columbia River
Power System biological opinion.
In the …

With 13 tasks left to finish before its funding runs out March 31, 2000,
scientists with PATH — the Plan for Analyzing and Testing Hypotheses,
a multi-agency Columbia Basin salmon science team — are saying that their
final products will have less detail than planned when they initially submitted
their budget.
At a meeting this week of the multi-agency Implementation Team, Dave
Marmorek, PATH facilitator, reported that PATH will complete the 13 closeout
tasks given it by the …

A new study says increased demand on the Columbia Basin power supply
could reduce hydrosystem operators’ flexibility to provide timely flows
that some say ease passage of migrating salmon and steelhead.
The study concludes the region, absent new generating capability, faces
a high risk of experiencing wintertime power shortages.
The study says there is a 24 percent probability there will be times
during the next few winters when the region’s demand for electricity will
outstrip the …

Water users in Idaho say the evidence connecting stream flow and salmon
smolt survival is so tenuous it doesnt justify augmenting natural flows
with water from the upper Snake River.
The Committee of Nine and the Idaho Water Users Association took up
the issue in their comments on a National Marine Fisheries Service white
paper that supports the idea that additional river flows will help Snake
River salmon runs. The two groups said they found the white paper, Salmonid
Travel Time and …

Estimates of spring and summer chinook juveniles that made it through
the Snake River and Columbia River hydroelectric projects from the mid-1960s
to today clearly show a downward trend in juvenile survival as dams were
added to the river.
More recently, however, the numbers shows a reverse in that trend as
improvements were made at dams to lower the stress on fish.
Preliminary PIT-tag data for 1993 through 1999 show that juvenile survival
is as high or higher now than it was before …

A plan for river operations designed to aid survival of Columbia River
chum salmon was delivered to river operators last week. The interim plan
will guide river operations below Bonneville Dam for chum spawning and
rearing through spring.
A letter outlining the plan to protect chum salmon, which was listed
as an endangered species in March 1999, was sent by the National Marine
Fisheries Service to the three federal agencies responsible for operating
the federal Columbia River power system

Those who judge the potential of suggested fish passage improvements
at federal Snake-Columbia river dams drew the specter of drawdown into
their process Wednesday, choosing to chart two paths for fiscal year 2001
project proposals.
The list of potential FY 2001 Columbia River Fish Mitigation program
projects will be displayed with both a traditional and a “drawdown track,”
the multi-agency System Configuration Team agreed. During the course of
the year the Corps of Engineers and National

The Technical Management Team this week decided to delay a test at McNary
Dam that, if it works, could offer insight into achieving cooler water
temperatures.
The TMT also decided to begin ramping down outflows at Dworshak Dam.
In the process, TMT members acknowledged that river operations decisions
after Aug. 31 will have less to do with endangered species survival and
more to do with other uses, such as power generation, as the National Marine
Fisheries Service biological opinion season

With the bulk of the spring juvenile fish migration completed, the fish
transportation emphasis will soon shift from the Snake River to the
Columbia’s McNary Dam to accommodate summer migrants such as the fall
chinook salmon.
As of June 13, 20.1 million young fish — predominantly spring chinook
and steelhead — had been collected by the Corps of Engineers at three
Lower Snake River dams. Of those, 15.15 million were transported by
barge and released below Bonneville dam, the dam on …

The Idaho Department of Water Resources defended its method of measuring
water withdrawals, while assuring the region that the 427,000-acre feet
of flow augmentation is reaching lower Snake River dams.
Karl Dreher, director of Idahos Water Resources, defended his departments
water withdrawal measurement practices on the Payette River at an Implementation
Team meeting last week. He specifically attended the meeting to challenge
the findings of a 1999 study by Roy Koch, professor of …

Spring tests are still in midstream,
but preliminary numbers from spring spill tests at The Dalles are “not
too dissimilar from last year’s data,” according to the researcher in charge
of the fish survival study.
“We’re right in the middle of our
field work” so results are far from conclusive,” Earl Dawley told members
of the System Configuration Team. The SCT, a multi-agency team that helps
identify hydrosystem passage project funding priorities, heard research
updates at John Day, …

The four Northwest governors expressed concerns this week that a regional
salmon recovery effort could be damaged by the imbalance of power between
regional interests and federal authority.
All four governors met Tuesday (May 4) in the Northwest Power Planning
Councils Portland offices for a briefing on salmon recovery efforts as
well as on the future of the Bonneville Power Administration and its continued
role in providing low-cost electricity to Northwest consumers. It was only
the …

The group responsible for recommending regional spending priorities
to improve fish passage at Columbia-Snake mainstem dams has decided to
tackle the task from three angles — effectively splitting into three delegations
representing the tribes, the states and the federal agencies.

Members of the three groupings were asked Thursday to decide amongst
themselves how to rank a list of 49 proposed Corps of Engineers’ Columbia
River Fish Mitigation Program projects. Each group is to seek …

The Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission expressed to National
Marine Fisheries Service regional administrator Will Stelle its strong
opposition to the NMFS spill program specifically designed for a juvenile
survival study at The Dalles Dam.

"While we understand the purpose of reducing the spill is to conduct
a regionally contentious juvenile survival study, we believe that it is
unnecessarily risky to subject the entire 1999 spring and summer migrations
of listed and …

The National Marine Fisheries Service exercised its authority to break
a stalemate on how the region should study juvenile salmon survival through
spillways at The Dalles Dam by announcing that it will begin to implement
its plan April 19.

The decision will also affect studies at the John Day Dam.

Brian Brown, NMFS’ hydro manager, told NMFS’s multi-agency Implementation
Team about its decision Thursday after the IT failed to reach a consensus
on the issue within the IT.

The …