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The first scientific instrument Amanda Bowen of the National Weather Service in Portland pulled out of her backpack to predict snowfall this winter on the Willamette Valley floor was a toy, predictive 8-ball. The answer was no snowfall.

NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center provided an update on El Nino climatic influence for the coming winter Thursday that did not veer from predictions in recent months that one of the strongest El Nino patterns seen in the last 60 years will lead to a warmer, drier winter in the Pacific Northwest.

Increased energy efficiency and demand response – programs or contracts to reduce power use during periods of peak demand – plus the increased use of existing natural gas-fired power plants to offset retiring coal-fired power plants offers the Northwest the lowest-cost, lowest-carbon energy future, according to the Council’s Draft Seventh Northwest Power Plan.

NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center released an updated El Nino forecast this week that is in line with previous forecasts in recent months predicting that weather patterns driven by Pacific Ocean water temperatures will rival the strongest El Nino on record in 1997-1998.

A new interactive mapping tool http://cida.usgs.gov/warp/home/ provides predicted concentrations for 108 pesticides in streams and rivers across the United States and identifies which streams are most likely to exceed water-quality guidelines for human health or aquatic life.

The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of Montana officially acquired license control and assets of Kerr Dam on Sept. 5, renaming the hydro operation at the foot of Flathead Lake the “Salish Kootenai Dam,” despite a last-ditch legal effort to block the acquisition.

The Bonneville Power Administration this week adopted a 7.1 percent average wholesale power rate increase and a 4.4 percent average transmission rate increase for fiscal years 2016 and 2017.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Walla Walla District, this week held a commemorative event at Ice Harbor Dam on the Lower Snake River to mark the tenth anniversary of the installation of a spillway weir at the dam.

The water supply picture for the Columbia Basin has continued to deteriorate going into the summer, with some new wrinkles.

Tom Tebb was named this week to head the Washington Department of Ecology’s Office of Columbia River.

A plan to cull thousands of double-crested cormorants from East Sand Island in the lower Columbia River estuary was put into motion over the Memorial Day weekend.

With a higher run estimate of spring chinook salmon, the two-state Columbia River Compact, made up of Oregon and Washington fisheries managers, approved on Tuesday more fishing for treaty and commercial gillnetters, as well as for recreational anglers.

Calling on more water from Grand Coulee Dam, fisheries managers increased the average river flow objective at McNary Dam today (Friday, May 22) from 180,000 cubic feet per second to 210 kcfs for 10 days as a way to assist juvenile salmon past downstream Columbia River dams.

After agreeing last week with hydro operators to drop flows at McNary Dam on the Columbia River to 170,000 cubic feet per second, Technical Management Team fisheries managers increased flows back up to 180 kcfs to 185 kcfs for at least one week.

The increasing need for access to fresh water for drinking, agriculture, fisheries and other uses is at the root of a growing number of geopolitical conflicts around the world, yet there are few resource managers in charge who have training in both water science and diplomacy.

Below-average snowpack in the Clearwater sub-basin and uncertain inflows from future weather conditions add up to an earlier-than-normal fill planned for Dworshak Reservoir, according to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers water-management officials.

An April 9 water supply report issued by the Northwest River Forecast Center paints a picture of varying precipitation across the Columbia Basin, combined with higher than normal temperatures that are resulting in a rapid, early runoff from mountain snowpack across the region.

Engineers at Oregon State University have completed one of the most precise evaluations yet done about the impact of a major tsunami event on the Columbia River, what forces are most important in controlling water flow and what areas might be inundated.

Columbia River basin state and tribal fisheries managers could gain a new tool in their battle to reduce sea lion predation on threatened salmon if legislation proposed this week to amend the Marine Mammal Predation Act passes muster with Congress.

Fish no longer need to go under the knife to help researchers understand exactly how they swim through hydroelectric dams, thanks to a new injectable tracking device described this week in the journal Scientific Reports.

The 2014-2015 snowpack building season started out on a track toward stowing away average water runoff for use in spring and summer, but relatively dry early to mid-January in parts of the Columbia-Snake River basin have seen predictions slip.

The new “water year,” which began Oct. 1, is off to a relatively good start with precipitation totals above average for much of the Columbia River basin.

Many of the worst West Coast winter floods pack a double punch. Heavy rains and melting snow wash down the mountains together to breach riverbanks, wash out roads and flood buildings.

Saying the move is necessary to keep pace with needed investments in the Federal Columbia River Power System, which provides hydropower at cost to Northwest public utilities, the Bonneville Power Administration Thursday proposed a 6.7 percent average wholesale power rate increase for the fiscal year 2016-2017 rate period.

After months of working around the clock to repair and strengthen Wanapum Dam’s spillway, Grant County Public Utility District will soon be able to raise the reservoir behind the dam and move back toward operating the mid-Columbia facility as intended to produce power, feed irrigation pumps, facilitate recreation and ease salmon and steelhead passage.

It is hoped a new synthetic fish will help existing hydroelectric dams and new, smaller hydro facilities become more fish-friendly.

The “adjusted” white sturgeon consumption estimate (147) in the waters just below the lower Columbia River’s Bonneville Dam this year was the lowest by visiting sea lions since predation on the big fish was first observed in the hydro project’s tailrace in 2005, according a 2014 annual report released Sept. 16 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Tuesday, Sept. 16, marked the 50th anniversary of the ratification of the Columbia River Treaty, an international agreement between Canada and the United States that was created with the goal of developing Columbia River water uses – specifically for power generation and flood control -- for the benefit of both countries.

Levels of pesticides continue to be a concern for aquatic life in many of the nation’s rivers and streams in agricultural and urban areas, according to a new USGS study spanning two decades (1992-2011). Pesticide levels seldom exceeded human health benchmarks.

Three federal agencies are leading a project aimed at improving the design of hydroelectric turbines in Northwest dams to make them friendlier to future generations of fish.

Federal government attorneys and those representing the conservation group Columbia Riverkeeper this week filed a proposed settlement agreement in Eastern Washington’s U.S. District Court that would, as planned, ward off a legal battle about whether Columbia and Snake river hydro projects are releasing pollutants in violation of the Clean Water Act.

Sedating fish to implant radio tags, instead of collecting and restraining them without sedation, significantly reduces the impacts of the procedure on fish used throughout fishery research.

Lt. Col. Timothy R. Vail assumed command last week of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Walla Walla District, during a ceremony held in Walla Walla.

California brown pelicans are showing up in the Columbia River estuary in larger numbers than ever for this time of year, and exhibiting courting behavior on an island that is hundreds of miles from their northernmost known breeding grounds.

“A mathematical error during the pre-construction design of Wanapum Dam” on the mid-Columbia River has been determined as the primary contributing factor to a fracture discovered this late winter that had developed within the dam’s spillway and forced major changes to hydro and fish passage operations there.

Upstream routes past dams for salmonids have proven effective since the middle of the 20th century and before. However, passage for juvenile yearling and subyearling salmon has only recently been deemed adequate, according to a series of articles published over the past four years.

The National Hydropower Association on Wednesday presented Portland-based Northwest RiverPartners, central Washington’s Grant County Public Utility District and Portland General Electric with national Outstanding Stewards of America’s Waters Awards for projects that have provided “extraordinary operational, recreation, historical, environmental or educational value.”

On Wednesday all 26 lawmakers representing the states of Washington, Oregon, Montana and Idaho delivered a letter to President Barack Obama urging him to make the future of the 1964 Columbia River Treaty a priority for 2014.

Think of the pressure change you feel when an elevator zips you up multiple floors in a tall building. Imagine how you’d feel if that elevator carried you all the way up to the top of Mt. Everest – in the blink of an eye.

Col. Jose L. Aguilar became district commander of the Portland District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at a ceremony this week.

The Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission in an April 2 letter to two federal agencies stresses the need to involve treaty tribes in processes to address issues posed by a fractured mid-Columbia River dam that has the potential to affect survival rates for migrating salmon and steelhead.

“March was a great month for the Pacific Northwest” as regards the collection of mountain snowpack that will feed the Columbia and Snake rivers and their tributaries this spring and summer, according to Joanne Salerno, a senior hydrologist for the Northwest River Forecast Center.

While investigations are continuing to identify the extent and cause of a 65-foot-long crack across a Wanapum Dam spillway pier monolith, fishery experts, engineers and others are scurrying to assure passage for fast-approaching salmon spawners.

After a lengthy rate proceeding, BPA officials have decided to allocate oversupply costs to generators within its balancing authority area based on their scheduled use of transmission during oversupply events.

Discharge flows from Dworshak Dam on the North Fork of the Clearwater River in west-central Idaho were increased on Sunday from approximately 14,100 cubic feet per second to about 17.1 kcfs to make room for anticipated above average inflows resulting from spring rainfall and snowmelt, according to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers water-management officials.

Fear of a blowout has been reduced, but Grant County Public Utility District officials are still puzzling over what to do about a worrisome 2-inch, 65-foot long horizontal crack discovered late last month along one of the 12 spillways at central Washington’s Wanapum Dam on the Columbia River.

The snowy blanket that builds in winter and feeds Columbia River rivers and streams through spring and summer has shown a much desired growth spurt thanks to a wet February and continued precipitation in early March.

The American Arbitration Association’s panel has made a final ruling regarding the estimated conveyance price that Energy Keepers, Incorporated (EKI) will pay on behalf of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes to PPL Montana in order for CSKT to acquire the Kerr Hydroelectric Project.

By adjusting water discharges in ways designed to boost salmon productivity, officials at a dam in central Washington were able to more than triple the numbers of juvenile fall chinook salmon downstream of the dam over a 30-year period, according to a study published Tuesday (Feb. 25) in the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences’ online edition.

Clearer views of waters along the U.S. and Canadian border are now possible with new seamless digital maps. These maps make it easier to solve complex water issues that require a thorough understanding of drainage systems on both sides of the international boundary.

Newly sworn-in Bonneville Power Administration Administrator Elliot Mainzer announced this week he has selected Greg Delwiche to serve as BPA’s deputy administrator and Claudia Andrews to serve as chief operating officer.