Oregon Water Online
© Oregon Water CoalitionWyden bill to up water quality for Hermiston, Umatilla River
On August 4, Senator Ron Wyden made the following statement on the floor of the U.S. Senate on legislation he is introducing to authorize the City of Hermiston to participate in a water reclamation program.
Mr. President, today I am introducing legislation to provide more clean water for the city of Hermiston, for irrigators in the area and for the Umatilla River. It’s good for framers, fish and in-stream flows.
My legislation amends the Reclamation Wastewater and Groundwater Study and Facilities Act-P.L.-575 – to authorize the City of Hermiston, Oregon, to participate in what is known as the Title XVI water reclamation program. This long-standing U.S. Bureau of Reclamation program encourages the reclamation and use of municipal, industrial and agricultural waste water. In this case, the City of Hermiston will treat municipal waste water and deliver it to a local irrigation district – the West Extension Irrigation District – for agricultural use. My bill is a companion bill to legislation already introduced for the same purpose in the House of Representatives by Rep.Greg Walden (H.R.2714). As with other Title XVI projects, this, legislation would authorize the Bureau to assist the City in developing this project and provide cost-share of 25% for the project.
The current Hermiston Water Plant discharges “Class C” water that can be used only for limited amount of off-project pastureland irrigation or discharged into the Umatilla River. Beginning in December 2010, a new National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System limit will go into effect, changing the water temperature and pollutants requirements of treated water being put back into the river. Although the City is currently in compliance, once the new limits take effect, the City’s current plant will not allow the City to meet the new requirements. As a result, the City will need to construct a new treatment plant, but it would still have difficulty meeting the water temperature requirements.
An upgrade of the plant would not only bring the City into compliance with the new discharge requirements, but it would increase the quality of the recycled water output from “Class C” to Class ”A” water, making it suitable for all irrigation needs, not just pastureland. Further, the proposed new plant would be configured to discharge its treated water to the West Extension Irrigation District, a Bureau of Reclamation-supported irrigation project. This will significantly increase the amount of water available to the District and will have a beneficial, long-term impact on a regional farming community that faces dwindling water supplies. Acreage available to utilize the City’s recycled water discharge would increase from roughly 550 acres to nearly 11,000 acres.
Finally, by ending the discharge of warmer, lower quality water into the Umatilla River, the project will improve the habitat for wildlife and fish in the River, especially for endangered and threatened species. I am pleased that the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, which has fishing rights in the Umatilla River, supports the City’s efforts in this regard.
Hermiston waste treatment plant now 30 years old
It has been upgraded many times of over the years to stay in compliance with environmental requirements most related to the disposal of treated effluent onto pastureland as irrigation water and into the Umatilla River.
The Hermiston Waste Water plant treats a million gallons of effluent per day. The City will install a membrane barrier filtration system to produce class ‘A’ water from the effluent which will flow by pipeline and canal to the ten thousand acre West Extension Irrigation District located between Umatilla and Boardman, to be used to irrigate crops. The need to discharge any treated water into the Umatilla River will be greatly reduced.
This Wastewater Treatment Plant upgrade will cost about $20 million but promises to keep the City of Hermiston in compliance with all EPA, DEQ and fisheries requirements for many years.
2009 summer steelhead run third best in 70 years
The Columbia River basin’s 2009 “upriver” summer steelhead run is muscling its way toward elite status as the count of the silvery spawners climbing Bonneville Dam’s fish ladders approaches 400,000.
Only two yearly summer steelhead counts at the dam have surpassed 400,000 – the record total of 630,200 in 2001 and a follow-up run of 478,000 in 2002.
This year’s counts were idling along until last week. Then the Aug. 11 tally started a run of seven straight days in which the upriver steelhead counts were higher than any known counts of the past. Counts began at Bonneville in 1938, the same year the construction on the hydro project was completed. Those daily upriver steelhead counts were 18,671; 28,314; 34,053; 25,059; 22,135; 17,553, and then 16,626 this Tuesday.
“As far as I can tell the record count was in 2001, which was 14,432” on Aug. 3, said Stuart Ellis, a fishery management biologist for the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission and chair of the Technical Advisory Committee. TAC’s federal, state and tribal fishery experts develop run-size forecasts for the basin’s salmon and steelhead stocks.
Wednesday’s count was a mere 12,624, a total commonly seen during peaks of steelhead passage but one that brought the 2009 total since April 1 to 351,518. A Wednesday count of 9,134 lifted the seasonal total to 360,652.
The total 2009 count so far since Jan. 1 is 361,218, which includes winter steelhead passing the dam before April 1. That total compares with the 206,283 steelhead that passed over Bonneville through Aug. 19 last year and a 10-year average of 203,664 through that date, according to data posted online by the Fish Passage Center.
Summer steelhead passage so far this year already matches expectations for the entire season. The preseason forecast was for an upriver steelhead run this year of 351,800 as counted at Bonneville.
Prior to the weeklong surge the highest daily steelhead count this year at Bonneville had been 8,600.
The summer steelhead are starting to surge upstream. The count jumped to 13,812 at The Dalles on Monday. And fishery officials are reporting fishing on the Deschutes River, which drains into The Dalles pool, has been good from the mouth to above Macks Canyon. During their late summer trek the steelhead often stall for awhile at the mouths of tributaries to enjoy the cooler water often found there.
There have been signs that the steelhead run would be strong. Just over 8,300 steelhead were estimated kept in the sport fishery from Bonneville Dam down to the mouth of the river during July 2009, according to Joe Hymer of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. That’s the largest one-month total since at least 1975.
Upriver summer steelhead are fish bound for hatcheries and tributaries above Bonneville. Upper Columbia and Snake River steelhead are listed, respectively, as endangered and threatened under the Endangered Species Act and limits are imposed on the “take” of listed wild fish during harvests. The upriver summer steelhead include so-called Skamania stock and Group A and Group B fish.
The Skamania stock was successfully introduced into numerous streams below Bonneville Dam, and a few streams above, including the Wind and Hood rivers. Fish passing Bonneville from April through June are considered Skamania stock steelhead destined mainly for tributaries within Bonneville Pool.
Steelhead passing during July through October are categorized as Group B fish, which primarily return to tributaries in the Salmon and Clearwater rivers in Idaho, and Group A, which return to tributaries throughout the Columbia and Snake basins.
The 2008 return of upriver summer steelhead to Bonneville Dam was 355,000 fish, including 15,800 Skamania index fish, 245,800 Group A index fish, and 93,400 Group B index fish, according to the 2009 fall joint staff report produced by the Oregon and Washington departments of fish and wildlife.
Last year’s return was 116 percent of the recent 10-year average, which is inflated by the big 2001 and 20021 returns. Overall, the report describes a “stable trend of upriver steelhead passage.”
Total passage of wild steelhead in 2008 was 132 percent of the recent 10-year average, and included 18,500 Group B steelhead. The Group B return was the largest observed since 2002. Overall, summer steelhead populations appear to be stable or improving. When compared to average returns of the 1990s, the 2008 returns are 1½ to 2 times greater for Group A and Group B index summer steelhead, according to the staff report.
The A and B count (starting July 1) through Tuesday was 337,634 steelhead as compared to the July 1-Oct. 31 preseason forecast of 335,800.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if the total run is higher than anything except 2001,” Ellis said. TAC is scheduled to meet Friday to take a look at the latest numbers and update at least the A Group forecast. The later spawning B fish have yet to arrive in big numbers.
This year’s counts of unmarked steelhead are again strong. The total through was 116,195. Most of the passing fish with an intact adipose fin are naturally produced fish. Hatchery fish, for the most part, are marked with a fin clip before they are released as juveniles. Anglers cannot keep unmarked steelhead that are potentially wild, listed fish.
The preseason forecast was for a return of 75,400 wild A and 10,300 wild B steelhead.
DOE notifies Yakima water rights defendants
Washington’s Department of Ecology has published legal ads today in three central Washington newspapers notifying 6,630 lawsuit defendants of a court hearing on water right claims in the Yakima River Basin adjudication.
The legal notification ads are required by law. The ads are one of the final stages of the adjudication of surface water rights in the Yakima Basin lawsuit begun Oct. 13, 1977. Ecology vs. Acquavalla required everyone who claimed a right to surface water in the Yakima River basin to file and defend their claims before the Yakima County Superior Court.
A water rights adjudication is a legal procedure to determine who has a valid water right, who has first priority to water during shortages, and how much water can be used. The Yakima adjudication has brought certainty to the ownership, management and marketing of thousands of water rights on the Yakima River and its tributaries in Kittitas, Yakima, Klickitat and Benton counties.
“You can’t manage and protect what you can’t define,” said Ben Bonkowski, adjudications manager for the state agency. The adjudication has benefited cities, farmers, the Yakama Nation, federal government, business and industry.
The ads announcing a “Motion for Default Order and Entry of Default Judgment” were published today in the Tri-City Herald, the Yakima Herald-Republic and the Ellensburg Daily Record. The defendants listed in the ads are those who did not respond to the original 1977 Yakima County Superior Court summons to claim surface water in the Yakima Basin. Anyone on the list who doesn’t step forward at an Oct. 8, 2009, court hearing may be found in default of the 1977 summons and lose any claim or right to the use of surface waters of the Yakima basin.
The state of Washington will also incur costs for mailing notices to more than 2,000 addresses. Ecology is required by law to notify those named in the default motion.
The Yakima Surface Water Rights Adjudication began 32 years ago to resolve conflicts over water use in the Yakima basin. It is the largest and most complex adjudication in state history involving:
- More than 40,000 surface water users represented by more than 2,000 claims to water rights.
- More than 20,000 documents.
- Six trips to state Supreme Court or Court of Appeals.
The final court decree in the adjudication is not expected until at least 2010 and is contingent on the outcome of water right appeals in Subbasin 23, the last of 31 subbasins to be adjudicated.
Quagga mussels threat called ‘biological wildfire’
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council was told last week that it needs to get more involved itself, and use its influence to stir up others, if the Columbia River basin is to dodge the looming threat of invasive quagga mussels.
Idaho state Rep. Eric Anderson admits to borrowing a phrase when he said a quagga mussel invasion is a “biological wildfire” just waiting to happen.
“This is a raging wildfire on its borders,” Anderson said of the quaggas’ spread, which has yet to reach Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington, the states represented on the Council.
“I want this thing nipped in the bud,” he said. “Nothing is going to save the salmon if this gets in.” The Council is among the many entities engaged in activities aimed at boosting fish and wildlife species. The 13 Columbia River basin salmon and steelhead stocks added to the Endangered Species Act since 1991 are often a focus of that work.
“All of the mitigation work we’ve doing for all these years is at threat,” Anderson said.
He and the Council’s own mainstem program manager, Jim Ruff, said the mussels’ potential for damaging the Northwest environment and its hydro and water delivery systems, as well as other infrastructure, warrant more attention and effort to beat back any invasion, and need more financial support.
“We ought to be concerned and taking actions to prevent their spread,” Ruff said. “They totally change an ecosystem once they are in.”
The tiny invasive mollusks and their cousins, zebra mussels, have shown they can quickly colonize a water body and multiply at a stupendous rate to cause flow restrictions or blockage of pipes, chemical degradation, mechanical damage and severe alteration of aquatic ecosystems.
According to a Ruff memo prepared for the briefing, states in the Northeast and Great Lakes region “have found eradicating the invasive mussels is costly and virtually impossible.” He cited U.S. Coast Guard estimates showing that economic losses and mussel control efforts together cost about $5 billion each year in those states where they have already settled.
That’s where zebra and quagga mussels were first introduced, delivered in the ballast water of ships from eastern Europe and the Ukraine in the late 1980s.
In January 2007, quagga mussels were found in Lake Mead on the Colorado River and have since multiplied exponentially. The invasive mussels have colonized the lower Colorado River system and spread into the states of Nevada, California, Arizona, Utah and Colorado.
“These western states now face implementing multimillion-dollar control and mitigation programs to protect their water distribution and irrigation systems, recreational facilities and hydropower infrastructure,” the Ruff memo says.
“These mussels, which can be unknowingly spread by contaminated recreational watercraft, are getting closer to invading Columbia basin waters.” The memo can be found at: nwcouncil.org.
The mussels can be spread by water currents and by attaching themselves to moveable surfaces such as boat hulls, anchors or aquatic plants.
Columbia Basin Bulletin
Largest Snake River fall chinook run in four decades predicted
Fishery managers predict this year will see the largest Snake River fall chinook salmon run in four decades with as many as 28,000 adults expected to cross Lower Granite Dam on their way back to Idaho.
Most of them are headed for the Snake River above the mouth of the Clearwater River, and Idaho Fish and Game has proposed a fall chinook harvest season on the Snake River between Lewiston and Hells Canyon Dam.
A record dating back to 1975 compiled by the Fish Passage Center shows last year as the high-water mark with 16,628 fall chinook counted passing the lower Snake River’s Lower Granite Dam in southeast Washington. Next best is 14,960 in 2004.
The numbers nowadays dwarf those of the not-so-distant past. The yearly counts from 1976 through 1992 never topped 1,000, ranging from a low of 337 to a high of 944 during the period. During that time most of the returns were naturally produced fish.
Releases of fish from Lyons Ferry Hatchery began in the early 1980s and have been greatly ramped up in recent years with production at Lyons Ferry and from the Nez Perce Tribe. The Snake River fall chinook in April 1992 were listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
Since then the stock’s status has edged upward with the help of hatchery programs, habitat restoration and improvements at Columbia-Snake hydro projects that help ease passage for fish migrating to and from the Pacific Ocean. Most of the Snake River fall chinook must pass eight hydro projects.
The vast majority of the returning fish now are of hatchery origin. U.S. v Oregon’s Technical Advisory Committee estimated in preseason that about 6,600 wild Snake River fall chinook would enter the mouth of the Columbia this year on their spawning run.
TAC Chair Stuart Ellis said about 2,600 wild fall chinook are expected to make it to Lower Granite, the eighth dam in the system. That level of escapement would be comparable to totals over the past seven years that have ranged between 2,000 and 3,000.
Also expected to reach the dam are 20,000 hatchery fall chinook and the total could easily rise to 25,000, Ellis said. TAC’s federal, state and tribal fishery experts annually create and update salmon and steelhead run-size forecasts.
A 28,000 total “is not an unreasonable number,” Ellis said. Jack returns the past two years are the largest on record for Lower Granite. Jacks are 2-year-old fish that return before they are fully mature. Their numbers bodes well for the strength of 3-, 4- and 5-year-old age classes returning this year.
Ellis also said it is believed the fish experienced relatively good conditions as they matured in the Pacific. And, the hatchery output has risen in recent years to about 5.9 million juvenile fall chinook released in the Clearwater drainage and in the mainstem Snake immediately below the Hells Canyon Dam and elsewhere.
The released juvenile fish originate from Lyons Ferry and the Nez Perce Tribal Hatchery. Some of the young fish are released from Lyons Ferry, located downstream between Little Goose and Lower Monumental dams.
Several hundred thousand have also been used in recent years by researchers conducting an evaluation how barge-transported Snake River fall chinook survive as compared to fish that migrate to the ocean in-river. The vast majority of the releases are at tribal acclimation sites on the Clearwater and on the Snake upstream of Lower Granite’s reservoir. Many of those supplementation fish will be allowed to spawn in the wild on return as adults. “That’s a pile of fish,” said Ellis of the hatchery releases. Ellis is a fisheries biologist for the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission. “Everyone’s expecting a lot of fish up there,” he said of 2009 expectations.
NW wind power reaches new milestone on BPA system
Wind has arrived. In early August, for the first time, the Bonneville Power Administration’s transmission grid reached a milestone, carrying more than 2,000 megawatts of wind power for more than an hour. On Aug. 6, after flirting with the 2,000-megawatt threshold for weeks, total wind generation on BPA’s system blew right past that level at 5:15 p.m., reaching a new all-time peak of 2,089 megawatts at 6:19 p.m.
This doubles the peak of 1,000 megawatts recorded in January 2008. To put that in context, wind turbines in eastern Oregon and Washington produced enough electricity to light all of Seattle and Portland for that hour.
“Wind power is growing rapidly in the Northwest,” said Brian Silverstein, BPA acting senior vice president for Transmission Services. “It’s the largest source of new power in our system. Within just a few years, we’ve seen more wind projects come on line, and BPA has been working quickly to connect the new projects into the regional power grid.”
“It’s great to see wind power mature, along with BPA’s ability to integrate it into the system,” said Rachel Shimshak, executive director of Renewable Northwest Project. “Renewable energy growth has resulted in thousands of new jobs, millions of dollars of investment in local communities, and provided a boost to creating a clean energy economy,” she concluded.
Of the 22 wind farms that contributed to this record, six have come on line this year. Most of the wind power in the Northwest, although largely owned by private developers, is connected to BPA’s transmission grid, primarily east of the Columbia River Gorge. BPA has built five substations and six taplines to tie wind farms into its transmission grid with more in progress. BPA also has just begun constructing the first of 14 new meteorological stations that will facilitate wind forecasting.
As wind development increases, new transmission will be needed to carry the energy to population centers, which are some distance from the wind farms. This summer, BPA broke ground on a major new project, the John Day-McNary 500-kilovolt transmission line in eastern Oregon and Washington. When energized in late 2012, the transmission line will deliver more than 575 megawatts of additional wind energy across BPA’s transmission system. Nearly two-thirds of the wind power in the region goes over BPA’s system.
“The Northwest has clearly distinguished itself as a leader in the effort to add wind to the mix of resources that helps power the nation,” Silverstein said. “States are calling for adding more clean, renewable sources of energy to the region’s power supply and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This is clear evidence that power providers are responding and taking action to address the region’s changing needs.”
Wind power that enters BPA’s transmission system serves consumers throughout the Northwest and in California, including customers of Puget Sound Energy, PacifiCorp, Avista and Portland General Electric, as well as the region’s publicly owned utilities, Silverstein said.
In addition to adding substations and transmission lines, BPA is supporting wind power by working to overcome challenges to integrating large amounts of a variable resource, such as wind, into its grid. This is critical to the advancement of wind because the amount of generation entering the grid must equal the amount consumed.
BPA is instituting new operational procedures and developing new technologies to deal with the variability of wind on the system. “Wind presents a unique set of challenges, but we are working aggressively to solve them,” BPA Administrator Steve Wright said. “It’s exciting to be figuring out in real time how to make this all work, and we are confident we’re making real progress.”
“Two years ago, we thought we might see 6,000 megawatts of wind power in the Northwest by 2023. We now expect to see more than 6,000 megawatts of wind power in the BPA grid alone in the next five years,” Wright said. “We’re working closely with utilities and the wind community to develop the new transmission management tools we’ll need to do it well.”
Bill to study impacts of lower Snake dam removal
Rep. Jim McDermott, D-WA, and Rep. Tom Petri, R-WI, have introduced the “Salmon Solutions and Planning Act.” H.R. 3503 calls for studies of the issues affecting salmon recovery efforts, including scientific analysis of the impact of the removal of the four Lower Snake River dams, energy replacement alternatives should the four dams be removed, a transportation infrastructure study to determine improvements needed in rail or surface roads, and studying how to protect existing irrigated agricultural lands.
The bill has 23 co-sponsors. The only other member of the Northwest delegation who signed on is Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-OR. “The extinction of several species of salmon is not theoretical,” McDermott said. “Within the next 10 years, several species of Snake River salmon are expected to disappear forever unless we act now to restore and protect salmon and steelhead in the Pacific Northwest.”
The bill’s introductory language says its purpose is: “To ensure that proper information gathering and planning are undertaken to secure the preservation and recovery of the salmon and steelhead of the Columbia River Basin in a manner that protects and enhances local communities, ensures effective expenditure of Federal resources, and maintains reasonably priced, reliable power, to direct the Secretary of Commerce to seek scientific analysis of Federal efforts to restore salmon and steelhead listed under the Endangered Species Act of 1973.”
In a statement issued last Friday, Blumenauer said, “This is an important piece of legislation that will provide policymakers in the Pacific Northwest and around the country with additional information necessary to aide in the recovery of Columbia Basin salmon.
“The legislation requires the Army Corps of Engineers, Department of Transportation, Department of Commerce, and Department of Energy to study the environmental, infrastructure, and economic issues associated with removing the four Lower Snake River dams. The bill also includes language authorizing the Secretary of the Army to remove the dams. This language is intended to clarify that lower Snake River dam removal is within the Corps’ authority. It is important to note this bill contains no ‘trigger language’ that would mandate dam removal,” Blumenauer said.
The Oregon congressman said, “Some have equated knowing the facts with actually triggering the process to remove the dams. My support for this legislation is not support for dam removal. My position over the years on this has been consistently to support evaluating all options for salmon recovery. The studies authorized by the bill will help us determine the consequences of dam removal not only for Northwest salmon, and but also for transportation, energy, and irrigation in the region.”
Rep. Doc Hastings, R-WA, the top Republican on the House Natural Resources Committee, described the bill as “targeting the Snake River dams for removal. One of first places this dam removal bill will land in Congress is on my desk as the top Republican on the House Natural Resources Committee, and I pledge to do everything in my power to stop it.”
“Dam removal is an extreme action that would have devastating consequences on our region’s economy. These four dams are valuable components of the Northwest’s clean, low-cost hydropower system that thousands and thousands of jobs rely upon. Dam removal would kill jobs, lead to huge increases in greenhouse gas emissions, and there’s no scientific proof that it would actually guarantee salmon recovery.
“This risky gamble has been rejected again and again, yet dam removal extremists continue their lawsuits, fundraising campaigns and their fight to spoil agreement on policies that will actually recover fish in the Northwest.
“Professional activists who make a living off of pushing their dam removal agenda may not like to hear it, but Northwest citizens understand we can protect our clean, renewable hydropower dams and recover salmon at the same time.” River users also strongly oppose the bill.
“Congress rejected this bill in previous years. It needs to do so again this year,” said Glenn Vanselow, executive director of the Pacific Northwest Waterways Association. “Congress should not delegate to federal agency staffers the authority to remove four federal multipurpose dams, eliminate the Congressionally-authorized 14-foot Snake River navigation channel, and wipe out clean, renewable hydropower production.”
The bill was introduced two weeks before the Obama Administration was due to present its evaluation of the salmon and steelhead biological opinion for the Columbia/Snake river federal hydropower system. The administration was due to deliver its views on the BiOp Aug. 14.
Reducing rising water temps in lower Snake River
The settling in of this summer’s heat has forced salmon and hydro system managers to sprint through the steps of their plan for holding down water temperatures in the lower Snake River for migrating salmon and steelhead.
At a meeting July 15 of the Technical Management Team (TMT), it was decided water temperatures rising to 66 degrees F in the tailwater of Lower Granite Dam would trigger larger releases of cool water upstream at Dworshak Dam. The idea was to allow a couple of days for the water to drift downstream and arrive at Lower Granite before temperatures could rise to 68 degrees. Higher temperatures are harmful to the migrating salmon and steelhead.
The 66-degree threshold was reached last Friday (7-17), so Dworshak outflows were increased to about 12,000 cubic feet per second. Central Idaho’s Dworshak Dam is on the North Fork of the Clearwater River, which flows into the Clearwater about 2 miles downstream and then into the lower Snake at the Idaho-southeast Washington border just at the head of Lower Granite’s reservoir.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dam operators had since July 5 managed to keep Lower Granite tailwater temperatures well below 68 degrees by maintaining, for the most part, Dworshak’s maximum power house flows of 9.5 kcfs. The increase to 12 kcfs included full powerhouse and a mix of flows from the dam’s spill gates and its “regulating outlets,” openings about halfway down the face of the dam.
“We came in on Monday morning and saw that temperatures were still rising,” the Corps’ Dan Feil told the TMT Wednesday. So the Corps decided to lower the temperature of 12 kcfs outflows from 45 to 43 degrees. The TMT’s federal, state and tribal fish and hydro managers discuss day-to-day operations of the federal Columbia-Snake hydro system that might be implemented to benefit salmon and steelhead that are listed under the Endangered Species Act.
The tailwater temperature topped out at 67.7 degrees Tuesday and similar temperatures were expected to prevail Wednesday as Lower Granite awaited the arrival of the still cooler water from Dworshak Reservoir.
But with air temperature in the interior Columbia Basin, and elsewhere in the region, expected to continue to simmer at the very least into next week, a new battle plan was developed Wednesday. It was decided to drop Dworshak outflow temperatures from 43 to 41 degrees. “We’re going to implement that as soon as possible this morning,” Feil said. Such low temperatures are detrimental to fish being reared at Dworshak National Hatchery near the mouth of the North Fork, though not as harmful as using increased outflows from Dworshak to cool the lower Snake. The cold, cold water slows the growth of salmon and steelhead being raised at the hatchery, which draws in water from the North Fork.
Raising outflows from Dworshak would require increasing spill from near surface (50 feet) or from the ROs (about 250 feet below the surface). Both options stir up total dissolved gas in the river, which can also be harmful to fish at higher levels.
The reservoir’s coldest water is tapped by the ROs and the turbine units, which equipped with gates at various elevations that can be adjusted to bring through cooler water from deeper in the reservoir. The warmest outflow is through the spill gates. USFWS officials said they would prefer, for now, that the growth-slowing colder water be used to bring down Snake temperatures instead of greater volumes of TDG-producing spill.
“We’d rather give up some growth now and try to recapture that growth later in the fall” hatchery manager Mark Drobish of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service told the TMT. Raising the river’s TDG levels now would further stress young steelhead that are at present battling a viral outbreak. He said the hatchery operator would prefer that the 41 degree outflows not continue much past the first of the month.
Salmon managers prefer the 41 degree option because it would “conserve more water” in Dworshak’s reservoir for use later in the season, according to Russ Kiefer of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. “If we’d gone to (14 kcfs) that would really cut down on what we can do later” should the heat wave persist through August.
The Snake River warming is exacerbated by the release of higher than normal volumes of water from the Idaho Power Company’s Hells Canyon Complex upstream of Lower Granite. The upper Snake basin was blessed with June precipitation that was as much as 300 percent of average. That filled reservoirs to capacity and dampened early season irrigation demand. That wealth of warm, relatively, water has to be passed through the system.
Former representative Chuck Norris, 84, dies July 20 in FL
Representative Chuck Norris served five terms in the Oregon house, between 1987 and 1997, representing District 57, which included Umatilla and Morrow counties. During his career in the legislature, Norris served on a several committees concerned with natural resources, and chaired House Water Policy in 1991, 1993 and 1995.
He was born in Pasadena, California, but from age 2, grew up on a farm at Americus, Kansas, where he graduated from high School at age 18, and entered the U.S. Army in 1943, serving until 1971.
In 1945, while stationed at Tooele Army Depot in Utah, he met his future wife, Betty Lou, the daughter of the Depot Commander, Major J.B. Dickey at a Saturday Night Dance.
Norris was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant February 1945, at the age of 19, serving in Japan, Turkey, Germany and Vietnam. He commanded a platoon, a company battalion and later the Umatilla Army Depot from which he retired in July, 1971 as a full Colonel. Upon retirement Chuck and Betty Lou Norris decided to make Hermiston their home and were associated for the next 13 years with M&B Investment Real Estate Company.
In 1984, Norris became the manager of the Greater Hermiston Chamber of Commerce for a year an a half.
In 1987, Norris was elected to serve in the Oregon House of Representatives. After which Oregon State University honored him by inducting him into the OSU College of Agriculture Sciences Hall of Fame and also making him a member of the OSU Diamond Pioneer Agricultural Registry.
Norris authored many news articles on water issues for the Oregon Water Coalition Newsletter and served on the advisory committee and later as president of OWC.
In 2003 the Norris family retired to south Florida to live near children and grand children.
