Some Melting In March But Columbia Basin Water Supply Forecast Improves, 90 Percent Of Average At Dalles Dam (April-Sept)
April 12th, 2025
Warmer temperatures with some snowmelt and near- or wetter-than-normal precipitation in much of the Columbia River basin in March led to some early runoff but overall resulted in higher April-Sept. water supply forecasts and a better outlook for stream flows in the basin that will aid juvenile and adult salmon and steelhead migrations this summer, according to a NOAA water supply briefing last week.
Corps Still Determining How To Implement Changes At Willamette Valley Dams With Funding Still Uncertain
February 25th, 2025
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is still determining “how to proceed” in implementing actions directed by the 2024 Water Resources Development Act and a new jeopardy biological opinion for its 13 Willamette River projects completed by NOAA Fisheries Dec. 26. The Corps says that it still needs funds from Congress that it could get through the annual federal budget that is working its way through the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate, but that the efforts are also complicated by the change in administration at the federal government. “We are working with our headquarters (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers … Continue reading
Lawsuit Challenges Proposed Massive Gold Mine On Idaho’s South Fork Salmon River
February 25th, 2025
Local and national conservation groups have sued the U.S. Forest Service to challenge its approval of the Stibnite Gold Project, an open-pit cyanide leach gold mine in Idaho’s Salmon River Mountains. The groups say the mine would jeopardize public health and clean water, harm threatened plants and animals, and permanently scar thousands of acres of public land in the headwaters of the South Fork Salmon River.
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Though Doesn’t Feel Like It Right Now, Columbia Basin Water Supply Forecast For April-September Still Dropping
February 7th, 2025
A drier than normal January is contributing to February’s lower Columbia River basin water supply forecasts for the months ahead.