Oregon Water Online
© Oregon Water CoalitionArchive for April, 2008
Council adopts early-warning system for shortages
The Northwest now has an early-warning system for potential electricity shortages and high prices to consumers.
“It’s like a smoke alarm for the regional electricity supply,” said Bill Booth, chairman of the Northwest Power and Conservation Council, which adopted the early-warning system this week for its own power system planning. “This new standard will provide an early warning about conditions that could lead to a reduced supply of electricity and resulting high prices.”
The standard, which may be useful to the region’s electric utilities, has two parts: 1) a minimum threshold that serves as an early warning should the construction of new power plants and the development of new energy conservation fall short of growing demand for power in the future, and 2) a higher threshold that encourages a faster and perhaps greater response to offset electricity price volatility.
The standard was developed over the last two and a half years by the Pacific Northwest Resource Adequacy Forum, a committee of electricity suppliers and regulators created by the Power Council and the Bonneville Power Administration, the region’s largest electricity supplier.
The standard was developed for two primary reasons. First, the lack of a regional standard contributed to the electricity crisis in 2000 and 2001, when drought reduced the region’s primary electricity supply, hydropower, and demand for power overwhelmed the supply from all sources. As a result, electricity prices soared and the Northwest came close to a blackout. Second, the standard will help the Northwest satisfy new electricity-supply adequacy requirements specified in 2005 federal energy legislation. The standard, which looks three to five years into the future, will be updated annually so that electric utilities can plan ahead to avoid potential shortages.
“The standard does not set mandatory compliance or imply enforcement mechanisms. Rather, it will serve as a gauge to assess whether the Northwest electricity supply is adequate to meet the region’s needs now and in the future,” Booth said.
The regional standard is not specific to individual utilities because every utility’s circumstances differ. It will be up to each utility to assess its own needs and risk factors, such as its reliance on purchases of electricity in the wholesale market to meet demand for power. Currently, the region has more than sufficient power supplies to meet the minimum threshold. However, many utilities are actively pursuing new generating plants and energy conservation to satisfy various needs, including state-mandated renewable-energy portfolios or to meet their own customers’ needs. The adequacy standard uses the Council’s Northwest Power Plan to define the economic threshold for the region. The power plan serves as a kind of roadmap or blueprint for the types and amounts of generating and conservation resources the region should acquire.
The standard is published in a paper, A Resource Adequacy Standard for the Northwest, which is available on the Council’s website as Document 2008-01.
Pinnipeds below Bonneville hit record, sightings above dam
The pinniped dynamics appear to have changed a bit this spring with Steller sea lions an ever-growing presence, though California sea lions remain ever relentless in their pursuit of spawning salmon in the tailrace of the Columbia River’s Bonneville Dam, according to preliminary data compiled by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers researchers.
A total of 63 different pinnipeds were counted below the dam on April 16, a new one-day record high since researchers began monitoring sea lion behaviors and eating habits in 2002. That number included 17 Stellers, also a record count over the course of the ongoing study.
In past years the two sea lion species have preyed almost exclusively on different fish stocks, California sea lions on salmon and steelhead and Stellers on white sturgeon. But early results this year show some change.
California sea lions have been observed taking nine sturgeon so far this year, as compared to six total in the previous years of the study, according to a weekly status report prepared by researchers Robert Stansell, Sean Tackley and Karrie Gibbons.
The reports can be found at:
http://www.nwd-wc.usace.army.mil
“There has been a noticeable increase in the number of observations of Steller sea lions stealing salmon caught by California sea lions as well as what appears to be direct catches themselves, which may account for the slowing of sturgeon taken over the past few weeks,” the report says.
The take has slowed, but the preliminary data indicates the sea lions have already nearly doubled last year’s record total with sea lions observed dining on 605 sturgeon, including at least 21 fish that were larger than 5 feet long. The report stresses that the data is preliminary and could change after post-season analysis and proofing.
The salmon take is also on pace to break last year’s total. Observers tallied 3,859 salmonids being taken by sea lions in 2007, 4.2 percent of the total passing the dam. The sea lions have over the course of the study begun arriving at the dam in midwinter and for the most left the Columbia by the end of May after the upriver spring chinook salmon run has petered out. The chinook run includes Snake River and Upper Columbia stocks that are listed under the Endangered Species Act.
From Jan. 11 through April 20 researchers have seen sea lions consume 1,791 chinook and 258 steelhead, with the peaks of the upriver run likely yet to arrive. Another 541 unidentified fish have been taken below the dam.
Thus far the researchers estimate they have seen 55 different California sea lions at the dam, which is 146 river miles from the Pacific Ocean. They are now the target of a removal effort launched Thursday by the Oregon and Washington departments of fish and wildlife. Animals will be captured and shipped to zoos and aquariums as an attempt to reduce their impact on listed salmon stocks.
Of the California sea lions seen at the dam over the course of the season (58 individuals), 31 are on the list of animals targeted for removal. Each has been seen consuming salmon at the dam and ignored efforts scare them away.
The Stellers, on the other hand, are ESA listed too and thus largely untouchable. For the third year in a row the states and Corps have mounted a hazing effort from the dam and from boats to discourage sea lion predation. But the firing of seal bombs, cracker shells and other scare tactics have been largely unsuccessful.
“They can be chased out of the tailrace area,” Stansell said. But they never stray too far from the prime feeding grounds.
“They’re getting very comfortable,” he said of the Stellers.
A few of the sea lions apparently are slipping past Bonneville, perhaps through its navigation lock when barges are moved up and down the river.
“There have been several reported sightings, from reliable sources, in the Bonneville Pool, so there are likely one or more sea lions present,” said Stuart Ellis, a Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission fishery biologist.
Tribal fisherman Robert Brigham of the Umatilla Reservation said he spotted a sea lion on Monday near the boat launch at the Cascade Locks in lieu fishing site.
“It was swimming around, latching onto fish,” he said. “Seagulls were eating what was left over.”
And then on Wednesday, Brigham said, a sea lion was photographed “right along our nets.”
Brigham said Warm Springs fishermen last week saw a sea lion above Starvation Creek on the Washington side and there have been sightings above Hood River near Stanley Rock.
Information on sea lion presence in Zone 6 will be useful in the ongoing efforts to remove sea lions below Bonneville, Ellis said. Fishermen are being asked to record the date, time and location of sea lions they spot, as well as what the sea lion is doing. Fishermen also are asked to note if the sea lion has distinguishing marks or brands.
“If a sea lion is hauled out, we would like to know where the haul-out site is,” Ellis said. “We are also very interested in getting photographs of sea lions.”
If sea lions are spotted around the tribal fishing gear, or interfering with tribal fisheries, fishermen may attempt to chase away the sea lion using slingshots, fireworks, other noise makers, rocks, etc.
But under federal law, Ellis said, it is not legal for anyone, including tribal fishermen, to do anything that might injure or kill a sea lion.
If fishermen see a sea lion, they should report it to Ellis at 503-731-1312 or ells@critfc.org, or they can report it to Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Enforcement at 800-487-3474.
Largest groundwater consumers continue to pay fair share
Coachella Valley’s largest consumers of local groundwater soon will be paying a little more to help offset the costs of replenishing the aquifer’s supply of water.
Only those who pump more than 25 acre-feet of water (an acre-foot is a little less than 326,000 gallons) annually will be directly affected by increases in the replenishment assessment charges replenishment assessment charge, which were approved unanimously Tuesday by Coachella Valley Water District’s (CVWD) Board of Directors.
Replenishment is a key component of CVWD’s Groundwater Management Plan for the entire Coachella Valley, along with conservation and substituting other sources for groundwater—such as recycled water or imported water.
Two lawmakers want quick action on sea lion bill
Motivated by ongoing litigation, two Washington congressmen have stepped up their effort to streamline Marine Mammal Protection Act processes for allowing the removal of sea lions that prey on federally protected salmon runs.
Reps. Brian Baird (D-WA) and Doc Hastings (R-WA) on April 7 fired off a letter urging the House Natural Resources Committee to take “immediate action” on a bill they authored to solve a particular sea lion-salmon interaction problem.
The states of Idaho, Oregon and Washington sought and in March won authority under existing MMPA provisions to lethally remove specific California sea lions preying on salmon at the base of the Columbia River’s Bonneville Dam.
The Humane Society of the United States on March 24 filed a complaint that alleges NOAA Fisheries’ decision to allow lethal removal of the pinnipeds violates the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the National Environmental Policy Act.
On March 28 the HSUS asked the court of enjoin the decision - which would effectively stop immediate implementation of the sea lion removal plan—while the lawsuit is debated. U.S. District Court Judge Michael W. Mosman on Wednesday denied the injunction, but the lawsuit goes on.
“Because of this lawsuit, we’re in imminent danger of losing yet another opportunity to save endangered salmon at Bonneville Dam and our bill would quickly get recovery efforts back on track,” the lawmakers say.
Under the existing process, states applied to the federal government for the authority to lethally remove the most aggressive sea lions in 2006. Baird and Hastings point out that it took nearly two years to get through the approval process.
In their letter Baird and Hastings note that the existing MMPA process has only been triggered one other time, in 1994 by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife at Seattle’s Ballard Locks. Litigation there stalled implementation of lethal removal.
“The court ultimately found in favor of NOAA Fisheries,” the letter said. “However, by then, the Lake Washington winter steelhead run had continued to decline, eventually reaching non-viable levels.”
The congressmen describe the high value of salmon to the Northwest economy, environment and culture and say there is a need to “provide the states and tribes with the tools that they need to protect endangered salmon.”
Their bill, first introduced in 2006, would give states and tribes immediate authority to manage the sea lion predation, while ensuring that any sea lion removal is targeted and doesn’t impact the stability of the overall sea lion population.
“In light of the unfair and unnecessary delay caused by the Humane Society’s lawsuit, it is our hope that the Committee will immediately consider the Endangered Salmon Predation Prevention Act and bring it up for a vote,” the lawmakers wrote in the letter to Natural Resource Committee chairman and ranking member.
The lawmakers said the lawsuit could well “delay action for several years” and result in “the death of thousands and thousands of endangered and threatened Pacific salmon.”
Mosman’s decision does not affect the lawsuit, though it will likely allow the removal of some California sea lions from the river in the coming weeks.
“There’s still a lawsuit so we still need to find a resolution,” Hastings’ press secretary Will Marlow said.
The California sea lions have become a growing presence at the dam in recent years. Historically, few of the marine mammals were observed at the dam. Fishery officials believe that the pinnipeds, which forage north along the coast in winter, took notice of huge spring chinook salmon runs returning to the Columbia early this decade and followed them upriver. Remembering the bounty, many of the sea lions return each year.
The Endangered Species Predation Prevention Act would amend the MMPA authorize the Secretary of Commerce to issue one-year permits for the lethal taking of California sea lions if it is determined that alternative measures to reduce sea lion predation on threatened or endangered salmonid stocks in the Columbia River do not adequately protect the salmonid stocks from such predation. It would require the secretary to respond within 90 days to lethal removal requests.
A Hastings spokesman said that, as of Thursday, no response from committee leaders had been received. The Library of Congress online bill tracking system lists the last major action on the bill as subcommittee hearings held in August 2007.
Oregon Consortium to evaluate Umatilla Basin Aquifer recovery
The Oregon Water Resources Department this week signed a $750,000 contract with an Oregon-based consortium led by IRZ Consulting, GSI Water Solutions, and HDR Engineering to evaluate the feasibility of a “Umatilla Basin Aquifer Recovery Project.”
A bill authorizing the study was approved by the state Legislature and signed by Gov. Ted Kulongoski earlier this year.
In some parts of the Umatilla Basin, less than half of the 57,000 acres with water rights were allowed to use water in 2007, due to critical groundwater declines in the area. No other area of the state has experienced such extensive ground water shortage and curtailment. State officials say there is an immediate need to address these continuing water shortages and to provide new sources of water to users who have been curtailed.
“Through this legislation, Oregon is showing its strong commitment to address critical water needs in the Umatilla Basin,” Kulongoski said. “I championed SB 1069 as the first step on a course where we will examine water storage issues throughout Oregon.”
The Umatilla Basin Aquifer Recovery Project will investigate the potential for withdrawing surface water when it is available during the winter months, and delivering that water for storage in below-ground aquifers for use during the irrigation season. The project will identify any existing infrastructure as well as any new infrastructure necessary to implement such a project. Finally, the project will pilot test potential underground storage sites, under a limited license from the Water Resources Department.
Phil Ward, director of the Oregon Water Resources Department, indicated that “the Department is extremely pleased to have awarded this contract to an Oregon-based consortium that knows the region well, understands our goals, and is well-positioned to deliver.”
Other state agencies—the Department of Fish and Wildlife, Department of Environmental Quality and Department of Human Services—are involved as project design partners.
NOAA: Western U.S. snowpack healthiest in decade
An analysis by NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center shows that the average temperature for March in the contiguous United States ranked near average for the past 113 years. It was the 63rd warmest March since record-keeping began in the United States in 1895.
The average global land temperature last month was the warmest on record and ocean surface temperatures were the 13th warmest. Combining the land and the ocean temperatures, the overall global temperature ranked the second warmest for the month of March. Global temperature averages have been recorded since 1880.
Snowpack conditions dropped in many parts of the West in March, but in general, heavy snowfall during December-February has left the western snow pack among the healthiest in more than a decade, with most locations near to above average.
Nine states from Oklahoma to Vermont were much wetter than average, with Missouri experiencing its second wettest March on record. Much of the month’s precipitation fell March 17-20, when an intense storm system moved slowly from the southern Plains through the southern Midwest.
Rainfall in the middle of March improved drought conditions in much of the Southeast, but moderate-to-extreme drought still remained in more than 59 percent of the region.
In the western U.S., the weather pattern in March bore a greater resemblance to a typical La Niña, with especially dry conditions across Utah, Arizona, Nevada, and California. March was extremely dry in much of California, tying as the driest in 68 years at the Sacramento airport with 0.05 inches, a 2.75 inch departure from average.
The global land surface temperature was the warmest on record for March, 3.3 degrees F above the 20th century mean of 40.8 degrees. Temperatures more than 8 degrees above average covered much of the Asian continent. Two months after the greatest January snow cover extent on record on the Eurasian continent, the unusually warm temperatures led to rapid snow melt, and March snow cover extent on the Eurasian continent was the lowest on record.
The global surface (land and ocean surface) temperature was the second warmest on record for March in the 129-year record, 1.28 degrees F above the 20th century mean of 54.9. The warmest March on record (1.33 degrees above average) occurred in 2002.
Although the ocean surface average was only the 13th warmest on record, as the cooling influence of La Niña in the tropical Pacific continued, much warmer than average conditions across large parts of Eurasia helped push the global average to a near record high for March.
Despite above average snowpack levels in the United States, the total Northern Hemisphere snow cover extent was the fourth lowest on record for March, remaining consistent with boreal spring conditions of the past two decades, in which warming temperatures have contributed to anomalously low snow cover extent.
Some weakening of La Niña, the cold phase of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, occurred in March, but moderate La Niña conditions remained across the tropical Pacific Ocean.
Study looks at piping water to Umatilla basin farms
A consortium of three Oregon companies has been chosen to find out whether it’s feasible to draw water from the Columbia River and store it for use by Umatilla basin farmers.
The project, long championed by farmers in Umatilla, Morrow and Gilliam counties, would draw as much as 80,000 acre-feet of water from the Columbia when it runs high and pipe the water to underground aquifers in the region.
The water potentially would recharge wells in the area, making water available when farmers irrigate crops in the spring and summer. Proponents say the Columbia’s high winter flows are not crucial for endangered salmon runs.
IRZ Consulting of Hermiston and GSI Water Solutions and HDR Engineering, both with Portland offices, will conduct the study under a $750,000 contract with the state Water Resources Department.
3-4 billion barrels of oil in North Dakota & Montana
North Dakota and Montana have an estimated 3.0 to 4.3 billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil in an area known as the Bakken Formation.
A U.S. Geological Survey assessment, released April 10, shows a 25-fold increase in the amount of oil that can be recovered compared to the agency’s 1995 estimate of 151 million barrels of oil.
Technically recoverable oil resources are those producible using currently available technology and industry practices. USGS is the only provider of publicly available estimates of undiscovered technically recoverable oil and gas resources.
New geologic models applied to the Bakken Formation, advances in drilling and production technologies, and recent oil discoveries have resulted in these substantially larger technically recoverable oil volumes. About 105 million barrels of oil were produced from the Bakken Formation by the end of 2007.
The USGS Bakken study was undertaken as part of a nationwide project assessing domestic petroleum basins using standardized methodology and protocol as required by the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 2000.
The Bakken Formation estimate is larger than all other current USGS oil assessments of the lower 48 states and is the largest “continuous” oil accumulation ever assessed by the USGS. A “continuous” oil accumulation means that the oil resource is dispersed throughout a geologic formation rather than existing as discrete, localized occurrences. The next largest “continuous” oil accumulation in the U.S. is in the Austin Chalk of Texas and Louisiana, with an undiscovered estimate of 1.0 billions of barrels of technically recoverable oil.
“It is clear that the Bakken formation contains a significant amount of oil - the question is how much of that oil is recoverable using today’s technology?” said Senator Byron Dorgan, of North Dakota. “To get an answer to this important question, I requested that the U.S. Geological Survey complete this study, which will provide an up-to-date estimate on the amount of technically recoverable oil resources in the Bakken Shale formation.”
The USGS estimate of 3.0 to 4.3 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil has a mean value of 3.65 billion barrels. Scientists conducted detailed studies in stratigraphy and structural geology and the modeling of petroleum geochemistry. They also combined their findings with historical exploration and production analyses to determine the undiscovered, technically recoverable oil estimates.
USGS worked with the North Dakota Geological Survey, a number of petroleum industry companies and independents, universities and other experts to develop a geological understanding of the Bakken Formation. These groups provided critical information and feedback on geological and engineering concepts important to building the geologic and production models used in the assessment.
Five continuous assessment units (AU) were identified and assessed in the Bakken Formation of North Dakota and Montana.
At the time of the assessment, a limited number of wells have produced oil from three of the assessments units in Central Basin-Poplar Dome, Eastern Expulsion Threshold, and Northwest Expulsion Threshold. The Elm Coulee oil field in Montana, discovered in 2000, has produced about 65 million barrels of the 105 million barrels of oil recovered from the Bakken Formation.
Results of the assessment can be found at http://energy.usgs.gov.
Steller sea lions increase take of unlisted white sturgeon
More spring chinook salmon are beginning to show up at the lower Columbia’s Bonneville Dam and, right on cue, the numbers of predatory California sea lions present below the hydro project are growing as well.
Meanwhile, the steady presence of the larger Steller sea lions has fishery officials fretting about the toll on white sturgeon.
Recent springs have seen a surge in marine mammal visitations to the dam as compared to historic levels. Bonneville is located about 145 miles upstream from the mouth of the Columbia. Researchers monitoring the situation since 2002 have observed one species, the California sea lions, zero in on salmon, steelhead, lamprey and other smaller fish while the Stellers have a decided preference for sturgeon. The big fish’s primary spawning grounds stretches from below the dam downriver.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ observers witnessed the taking of 584 sturgeon between Jan. 11 and March 30, all but six by Steller sea lions, according to preliminary, unexpanded data compiled by researchers. Included were 21 sturgeon estimated to be over 5 feet in length.
The total far surpasses last year’s total of 361 sturgeon, which was a record over the seven years of the study. Last year the Stellers were observed preying on more of the larger, spawning size fish, taking 55 that were larger than 5 feet long. The totals include only witnessed predation during daylight hours.
The states of Idaho, Oregon and Washington hope to take action to reduce what they say is a significant California sea lion impact on spring chinook salmon and steelhead runs, including stocks that are listed under the Endangered Species Act. They received last month authorization under the Marine Mammal Protection Act to lethally remove specific pinnipeds.
That authorization is stalled, at least temporarily, by litigation but the states intend to soon begin trapping California sea lions and shipping some of the animals to zoos and aquariums.
The Steller sea lions have a double layer of protection that includes the ESA while the Columbia River white sturgeon are unlisted.
The Stellers are divided into a western stock and an eastern stock. The eastern stock, which includes animals that call the Columbia home, is listed as threatened and its population is estimated by NOAA Fisheries to be increasing by about 3 percent per year. The western stock has the more stringent “endangered” status.
“The eastern stock would probably qualify for delisting,” said Charlie Corrarino, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation and Recovery Program manager.
The lower Columbia’s sturgeon, meanwhile, “are probably the healthiest population of white sturgeon in the world,” he said. Still, the pinniped-sturgeon interaction is worrisome. The fish take up to 20 years to reach breeding age so taking big chunks from limited broodstock can eventually cause problems.
“I think it is more of a conservation issue than the California sea lion-spring chinook” interaction, Corrarino said.
The Steller-sturgeon interaction escalated greatly last year but hazing activities designed, principally, to deter California sea lions served to spook the Stellers. Only 19 sturgeon were observed being taken after rubber and crackershells began flying last spring.
“It appears as though they’re becoming smarter and realize that the pyrotechnics cause them no harm,” Corrarino said.
The Greenwood Forest
When traveling eastbound on I-84 through Morrow County near Boardman one passes a 35,000, acre poplar forest, 12 miles long, and 6 miles wide. Potlatch Corp. Lewiston, Idaho established the forest during the, 1990’s, to produce wood chips for paper manufacture.
The wood chip market slumped and plans are now to produce finish lumber for door and window trim in home construction. The plantations were sold by Potlatch and are now owned by Greenwood Resources, Inc. Portland, Oregon.
They will have a sawmill at Boardman.
Most natural forests are dependent on rainfall to irrigate the trees and the most productive are known as rain forests. The Greenwood forests in Morrow County are watered by hundreds of miles of underground drip lines controlled by computers dispensing water and fertilizer. The water is pumped from the Columbia River.
