Currently browsing: Energy

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will hold four virtual listening-only sessions this month and in October to describe how it will operate the Columbia River system of dams after September 2024 if the Columbia River Treaty negotiations fail to reach an agreement.

By legislative requirement, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Portland District is assessing whether it should continue to produce hydroelectric power at its Willamette Valley project dams.

Throughout the summer, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been using the cool water from deep within the Dworshak Reservoir to maintain a maximum 68-degree Fahrenheit tailwater temperature at Lower Granite Dam on the lower Snake River. Temperatures higher than 68 degrees can be lethal to both adult and juvenile salmonids migrating in the river, including endangered Snake River sockeye salmon arriving in late July and early August.

A recent study funded by the Pacific Northwest Waterways Association concludes that breaching the four lower Snake River dams would impact the most vulnerable populations near the dams in Oregon, Washington and Idaho, leading to job losses, impacts to public services and degraded air quality.

As the 2023 sockeye salmon run into the Snake River winds down, fishery managers this week proposed allowing temperatures in the Lower Granite Dam tailrace to rise from the biological opinion upper level of 68 degrees Fahrenheit to a maximum 69.5 F in order to increase the chances that cold water will be available from Dworshak Dam through the end of August.