Deep drawdowns at Green Peter and Lookout Point reservoirs to improve juvenile Chinook salmon and steelhead fish passage on the Willamette River will be explained at virtual public information sessions sponsored by the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers.
The first court-ordered drawdowns at the two dams were last year. The federal agency said it had gathered valuable information during the 2023 deep drawdown and had asked the court to approve revisions to the fall injunction operations for 2024 at Green Peter dam.
U.S. District Court of Oregon Judge Marco Hernandez granted the Corp’s proposed revisions on Sept. 24, 2024. Now, the Corps is reaching out to communities and the public to inform them of the 2024 drawdown operations. The agency also said it is regularly communicating with the cities of Albany, Lebanon, Lowell, Sodaville, and Sweet Home where water quality due to the 2023 drawdowns has been an issue. Also last year, the drawdown resulted in the death of thousands of kokanee at Green Peter reservoir.
See CBB, October 12, 2023, COURT ORDERED DRAWDOWN OF WILLAMETTE RESERVOIR TO AID ESA SALMON LEADS TO DEATH FOR THOUSANDS OF KOKANEE, HTTPS://COLUMBIABASINBULLETIN.ORG/COURT-ORDERED-DRAWDOWN-OF-WILLAMETTE-RESERVOIR-TO-AID-ESA-SALMON-LEADS-TO-DEATH-FOR-THOUSANDS-OF-KOKANEE/
The Corps will have three online sessions, two Wednesday, Oct. 9 and one Friday, Oct. 10 (see below). Corps staff will present current status and planned operations in the Willamette Valley System with a focus on the 2024 deep drawdowns at Lookout Point and Green Peter reservoirs.
A Corps injunction webpage that contains background on the injunction and links to real-time reservoir data for the dams operating under injunction measures is at https://www.nwp.usace.army.mil/Locations/Willamette-Valley/Injunction/
According to a Corps news release, the primary purpose of the Willamette Valley System is flood risk management. Water managers must keep reservoir elevations low to maintain storage space, capture rainfall, and minimize flooding potential through spring. This must be balanced with what seem to be conflicting purposes: refilling the reservoirs before summer for irrigation, hydropower generation, water quality improvement, and recreation.
The Corps’ court involvement is due to a lawsuit by Northwest Environmental Defense Center, WildEarth Guardians and the Native Fish Society. The groups asked the court to order the Corps and NOAA Fisheries to reevaluate the impacts of the Corps’ Willamette Valley dams on wild upper Willamette River winter steelhead and wild Spring Chinook, both listed as threatened under the federal endangered species act. They asked the court to order the two agencies to reinitiate consultation and to make immediate operational adjustments to dams on four tributaries of the Willamette River (North Santiam, South Santiam, McKenzie and Middle Fork Willamette) that the groups say block between 40 and 90 percent of spawning habitat.
In his summary judgement ruling in the case, Aug. 17, 2020, Hernandez said of the Corps that “Far short of moving towards recovery, the Corps is pushing the UWR Chinook and steelhead even closer to the brink of extinction. The record demonstrates that the listed salmonids are in a more precarious condition today than they were at the time NMFS issued the 2008 BiOp.”
— See CBB, July 15, 2021, “Federal Judge Orders Corps To Take Immediate Action To Protect ESA-Listed Willamette Valley Wild Spring Chinook, Steelhead; ‘No Patience For Further Delay,’” https://columbiabasinbulletin.org/federal-judge-orders-corps-to-take-immediate-action-to-protect-esa-listed-willamette-valley-wild-spring-chinook-steelhead-no-patience-for-further-delay/
In his final order, Hernandez wrote: “The Court is disheartened by the fact that, when compared to how the Corps should have proceeded had it complied with the BiOp, much of the injunctive relief that the Court is now ordering can be considered, in many respects, a giant leap backward. Consequently, the Court has no patience for further delay or obfuscation in this matter and expects nothing short of timely implementation of the injunctive measures and the experts’ proposal outlining the parameters for those measures.”
The U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon issued an interim injunction Sept. 1, 2021 that requires the Corps to undertake specified actions to improve fish passage and water quality at several of the agency’s Willamette Valley Project dams for the benefit of the threatened fish. The injunction measures modify operations for improved downstream fish passage and water quality and range from deep reservoir drawdowns to increased spillway releases at various Willamette Valley system dams View real-time data for all Willamette Valley reservoirs.
In 2022, the Corps released a draft operations and maintenance programmatic environmental impact statement in public review until January 19, 2023.draft environmental impact statement for operations at its thirteen Willamette River basin dams in late 2022. Public review ended Jan. 19, 2023.
The draft’s preferred alternative – Alternative 5 – is the fourth costly of the alternatives. It uses improved fish passage through dams using a combination of modifying operations, such as deep drawdowns, and structural changes, along with other measures to balance water management flexibility and meet recovery obligations for fish listed under the Endangered Species Act, the Corps says in its DEIS.
Here are the details for the Corps’ online information sessions:
Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024
Session #1: noon – 1:00 p.m.
Session #2: 5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Friday, Oct. 11, 2024
Session #3: noon – 1:00 p.m.
Join online at: https://usace1.webex.com/usace1/j.php?MTID=m76365654edf175e73457a0803292a29b
Join toll-free by phone: 1-844-800-2712
Meeting number/access code: 2822 001 1537
Meeting password: nyDBJE5x?92
The Corps says it encourages questions, but asks participants to type the questions in the chat window or send an email with your question(s) and which session you will be attending (#1,#2 or #3) to [email protected] the day before the meeting you will be attending (Oct. 8 for Session #1 and #2 and Oct. 10 for Session #3 ).
For background, see:
— CBB, October 12, 2024, COURT ORDERED DRAWDOWN OF WILLAMETTE RESERVOIR TO AID ESA SALMON LEADS TO DEATH FOR THOUSANDS OF KOKANEE, HTTPS://COLUMBIABASINBULLETIN.ORG/COURT-ORDERED-DRAWDOWN-OF-WILLAMETTE-RESERVOIR-TO-AID-ESA-SALMON-LEADS-TO-DEATH-FOR-THOUSANDS-OF-KOKANEE/
–CBB, May 18, 2023, COURT ORDER HAS CORPS DRAWING DOWN TWO WILLAMETTE RESERVOIRS TO HISTORICALLY LOW LEVELS TO INCREASE JUVENILE SALMON PASSAGE, https://columbiabasinbulletin.org/court-order-has-corps-drawing-down-two-willamette-reservoirs-to-historically-low-levels-to-increase-juvenile-salmon-passage/
— CBB, December 2, 2022, CORPS RELEASES DRAFT EIS FOR 13 WILLAMETTE BASIN DAMS INTENDED TO AID ESA-LISTED SALMON, STEELHEAD; DRAWDOWNS, STRUCTURAL CHANGES, LESS POWER, HTTPS://COLUMBIABASINBULLETIN.ORG/CORPS-RELEASES-DRAFT-EIS-FOR-13-WILLAMETTE-BASIN-DAMS-INTENDED-TO-AID-ESA-LISTED-SALMON-STEELHEAD-DRAWDOWNS-STRUCTURAL-CHANGES-LESS-POWER/
— CBB, September 2, 2021, JUDGE ISSUES FINAL ORDER FOR OPERATIONS AT CORPS’ WILLAMETTE VALLEY DAMS TO AID ESA SALMON, STEELHEAD; DEEP DRAWDOWNS, SPILL, HTTPS://COLUMBIABASINBULLETIN.ORG/JUDGE-ISSUE-FINAL-ORDER-FOR-OPERATIONS-AT-CORPS-WILLAMETTE-VALLEY-DAMS-TO-AID-ESA-SALMON-STEELHEAD-DEEP-DRAWDOWNS-SPILL/
— CBB, July 15, 2021, “Federal Judge Orders Corps To Take Immediate Action To Protect ESA-Listed Willamette Valley Wild Spring Chinook, Steelhead; ‘No Patience For Further Delay,’” https://columbiabasinbulletin.org/federal-judge-orders-corps-to-take-immediate-action-to-protect-esa-listed-willamette-valley-wild-spring-chinook-steelhead-no-patience-for-further-delay/
— CBB, August 26, 2021, “Willamette River Reservoirs Far Below Average As Parties Move Forward On Court-Ordered Interim Measures To Address Listed Steelhead, Chinook,” https://columbiabasinbulletin.org/willamette-river-reservoirs-far-below-average-as-parties-move-forward-on-court-ordered-interim-measures-to-address-listed-steelhead-chinook/
— CBB, November 12, 2020, “Corps Modifies Operations At Willamette Valley Dam To Improve Juvenile Salmon Passage As Court Case Continues On ‘Remedies’ For Wild Salmon/Steelhead,” https://columbiabasinbulletin.org/corps-modifies-operations-at-willamette-valley-dam-to-improve-juvenile-salmon-passage-as-court-case-continues-on-remedies-for-wild-salmon-steelhead/
— CBB, August 19, 2020, “Federal Judge Rules Corps Not Moving Fast Enough To Halt Continued Decline of ESA-Listed Upper Willamette River Wild Spring Chinook/Steelhead; ‘Significant Measures Never Carried Out,’” https://columbiabasinbulletin.org/status-review-esa-listed-in-1999-upper-willamette-spring-chinook-winter-steelhead-nowhere-near-recovery-need-better-passage-at-dams/
— CBB, November 21, 2019, “NOAA Says Corps’ Draft Proposal On Managing Willamette Dams/Reservoirs Likely To Jeopardize Salmon, Steelhead,” https://columbiabasinbulletin.org/noaa-says-corps-draft-proposal-on-managing-willamette-dams-reservoirs-likely-to-jeopardize-salmon-steelhead/
— CBB, May 30, 2019, “Details On Proposed Detroit Dam Water Temperature Control Tower, Fish Passage Facility To Boost ESA-Listed Steelhead, Spring Chinook,” https://columbiabasinbulletin.org/details-on-proposed-detroit-dam-water-temperature-control-tower-fish-passage-facility-to-boost-esa-listed-steelhead-spring-chinook/
— CBB, April 6, 2019, “Court Hears Arguments For Immediate Changes At Willamette Dams To Aid ESA-Listed Salmonids,” https://columbiabasinbulletin.org/court-hears-arguments-for-immediate-changes-at-willamette-dams-to-aid-esa-listed-salmonids/
— CBB, March 15, 2019, “Corps Proposal For Downstream Fish Passage At McKenzie River’s Cougar Dam Out For Review,” https://columbiabasinbulletin.org/corps-proposal-for-downstream-fish-passage-at-mckenzie-rivers-cougar-dam-out-for-review/