Richardson touts Columbia water storage and use bill
Oregon State Representative Dennis Richardson, of Central Point Oregon, in a newsletter regarding his support of HB 4101, which doubles Oregon’s take of Columbia River water for irrigating farms in Umatilla and Morrow counties, presented the following facts.
For some time, Oregon’s revenue stream has flowed along nearly $4 ½ billion below is high water mark in 2008. Oregon’s economy continues to be mired with little hope for sustained improvement unless and until the Legislature takes decisive bipartisan action to promote economic recovery.
My colleague and friend, State Representative Mike Schaufler (D-District 48 “Happy Valley”) has repeatedly encouraged Oregon House members from both parties to pass bills that will create jobs—legislation that will result in greater prosperity, self-reliance and success for unemployed Oregonians across the state. Consider the power and potential for transforming Oregon’s economy if a committed coalition of Oregon’s legislators were to unite in a common cause to create jobs, without consideration of party or politics. They would join forces, utilize resources and remove barriers to economic growth and prosperity. They would pass pro-job legislation.
One such bill currently being considered is House Bill 4101, called the Columbia River Water Storage and Use Bill, which was introduced by State Representative Mike McLane (R – Powell Butte) with bi-partisan support.
HB 4101 would invigorate Oregon’s north-eastern agricultural economy and create more than 10,000 new jobs in five years.
HB 4101 would leverage Oregon’s abundant water resources. Presently, Idaho utilizes 5% of Columbia River water. Washington utilizes 4% of the Columbia River’s water. Presently, Oregon uses less than 1/3 of 1%.
HB 4101 would increase Oregon’s use of Columbia River water by an additional 1/3 of 1%, for a total utilization by Oregon of only 2/3 of 1% of the Columbia River’s water. Doing so would result in no appreciable effect on the Columbia River’s salmon or shipping. Indeed, HB 4101 provides for the establishment of a process for the storage of winter flow water, which all agree is abundant.
HB 4101 would divert 450,000 acre feet of fresh water onto Oregon’s parched yet fertile land in Morrow and Umatilla counties according to the allocation set by a Task Force of interested parties. According to the Oregon Department of Agriculture the additional water could bring 100,000 Oregon acres into production. They estimate that 1 job is equivalent to 24 acre-feet of water. This would create 6,250 direct farm and food processing jobs. The most recent analysis of the economic footprint of Ag by OSU indicates a multiplier of approximately 1.65 which results in creating another 4,000 jobs.
The average annual wage for these agricultural sector jobs is estimated by the Oregon Department of Employment at $33,249. When these jobs are calculated over a five year period, the personal income growth for northeastern Oregonians would be $1.72 billion ($343.8 million annually.)
Since Oregon’s state revenue is heavily dependent on income taxes, diverting to Oregon agricultural land an additional 1/3 of 1% of Columbia River water would generate an increase in State Tax Revenue of $129 million over five years ($25.8 million annually). All of these benefits would come from utilizing a small part of excess river water.
In addition to creating 10,000 new jobs, $1.7 billion in family paychecks and $129 million in additional state revenue over five years, locally grown and processed fruits, nuts and vegetables would be a wise addition to Oregon’s agricultural economy. There is food-security benefit to passing HB 4101. The uncertainty of global politics and foreign oil supplies may eventually make crops grown on 100,000 additional acres of Oregon agricultural land vitally important to feed Oregon families who now depend on foreign-grown food for more than 50% of their produce.
In sum, the above four-year revenue forecast graph clearly reminds us that Oregon’s economic future depends on creating thousands of new Oregon jobs. HB 4101 is a rational approach to creating more than 10,000 new jobs and could do it by utilizing only 1/3 of 1% of Columbia River water, which is far less than our state’s allotted share of this plentiful resource.
Implementing this common sense strategy for creating new jobs would not only provide work and wages for thousands of Oregon families, it also would generate more than $25 million in addition tax revenues for ensuring our public safety, for funding our children’s education, and for caring for our most vulnerable senior and disabled citizens.
Unless HB 4101 is acted on immediately, it will soon be too late to pass it during this abbreviated one-month session. If we fail to act, another important opportunity to pass legislation that would create jobs and revitalize Oregon’s economy will be lost.
If you decide HB 4101 makes good sense for Oregon, now is the time to call and/or email your State Representative and State Senator (click here for contact list) and express your opinion.
NW states want tougher Lake Mead Quagga inspections
Northwest states and Canadian provinces have launched a letter-writing and lobbying campaign to assure that a $1 million appropriation line item in the Department of Interior’s fiscal year 2012 budget is spent to help cut off the spread of invasive quagga-mussels from a main source – the Park Service’s Lake Mead National Recreation Area.
The move comes from The Northwest Power and Conservation Council, state of Idaho, Colorado River Fish and Wildlife Council and Pacific Northwest Economic Region. The NPCC is comprised of representatives of the states of Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington; the Colorado council represents fish and wildlife agencies from Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. PNWER includes membership from Northwest states and Canadian provinces.
The appropriation bill language directs the “implementation of mandatory operational inspection and decontamination stations at Federally-managed or interjurisdictional water bodies considered to be of highest risk,” but doesn’t specifically mention Lake Mead.
All want to prevent the spread of quagga, and zebra, mussels from the Southwest to the Northwest. They fear devastating consequences to the Northwest region’s water-related infrastructure such as hydro projects and irrigation systems and to its environment.
Quagga mussels, a species native to eastern Europe, were initially introduced in the 1980s throughout the Great Lakes and the Ohio River and Mississippi river basins, likely taking the ride across the Atlantic Ocean on cargo ships. Quagga mussels were first detected in the American West in January 2007 at Lake Mead, a reservoir on the Colorado that straddles the Arizona-Nevada border. Quagga or zebra mussels have since then been found in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, Texas and Utah, but not in the Pacific Northwest.
They have spread via a number of pathways. Adult mussels easily cling to hard surfaces such as boats and can be spread when boats are trailered from one waterbody to the next. “Of immediate concern are the high risk vessels leaving mussel-infested federal water bodies such as Lake Mead,” according to a January letter to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar from Celia Gould, Idaho state Department of Agriculture director and head of the state’s Invasive Species Council. “More than a dozen fouled boats have been intercepted by the Idaho program that came directly from federally managed waters on the lower Colorado. The majority of these boats originated from Lake Mead National Recreation Area.”
“If quagga mussels and zebra mussels make their way into Pacific Northwest waters, the impacts of these species throughout our region will be extreme – affecting fishing, drinking water, irrigation pipes for agriculture and residential communities, and recreational pursuits such as boating,” Gould said. “Additionally, the economic, social and recreational pursuits influenced by hydropower and other dams will be impacted, as well as gold courses, hatcheries and the aquaculture industry. The consequences of introducing these aquatic invasive species to Pacific Northwest waterways would be devastating.
“If an effective mussel containment program could be implemented at LMNRA in the near term, this action would greatly reduce the number of contaminated boats entering Idaho’s waters,” the Idaho letter said.
PNWER likewise is urging the Northwest congressional delegation to support increased funding for inspections at Lake Mead. A letter dated Feb. 2 asks federal agencies to “implement a comprehensive and effective boat decontamination effort at Lake Mead and other infested water bodies in the West.
“All boats leaving infested waters must be subject to inspection and removal of attached mussels and larval mussels in standing water,” the PNWER letter says. “Quagga and zebra mussels are spreading rapidly through the West on trailered, recreational boats. These mussels are projected to cost millions of dollars to mitigate their impacts if they become established in our region.
“A recent study of the hydropower facilities on the Columbia River indicated that mussels, if they become established, will cost about $25 million per year in added maintenance. These costs, of course, will be passed on to consumers, a potentially crippling blow to an already struggling western economy,” the PNWER letter says. “The State of Idaho has projected that zebra and quagga mussels will cost residents of that state $91 million per year. In addition, these and other aquatic invasive species will have incalculable impacts on native fish and wildlife in the Pacific Northwest, with potentially devastating impacts on threatened and endangered salmonids.”
“While our states have established watercraft inspection and decontamination stations, the chance of contaminated boats entering our waters would be much lower if an effective mussel containment program could be implemented at Lake Mead National Recreation Area,” according to a Feb. 3 letter from the NPCC signed by Chair Joan Dukes of Oregon. “Furthermore, it is critical that such a program be implemented without delay, as seasonal boats will begin returning to Pacific Northwest waters in early spring.”
The $1 million this year would help. But it may be a drop in the bucket in an effort that would have to be sustained over time.
“The enormity of the problem” has been daunting for the Interior Department and Park Service, according to the NPCC’s public affairs chief, Mark Walker. Walker said the Park Service has estimated it would take 72 new full-time equivalent positions at the massive park to implement mandatory inspections of all the boats that come and go 24 hours per day and seven days per week.
The 1.5 million acre park includes Lake Mead, which is the largest reservoir in the United States, and Mohave Lake. There are eight developed boat ramps at Lake Mead, each that can handle about 10 loadings and/or unloadings at one time, according to Park Service biologist Brian Moore.
The park gets 25 million visitors annually, and can see as many as 5,000 boats on Lake Mead on weekends.
“It’s really hard for us to regulate all of the boats” with the available staff, Moore said. The emphasis since 2008 has been on “slipped” boats – water craft that is moored at the park’s licensed marinas. Boats that are moored for a time are the most likely to become contaminated.
The concessionaires that run the marinas must include in the rental contracts the requirement that boats be inspected before they leave the marinas. The park service also posts notices “on every dock and every gate” about the need for boat inspections. But, given the traffic, and again lack of staff, it’s easy for boat owners to skirt such requirements, Moore said. The inspections cost the boaters time and money.
Inspections at the six main park entrances pose logistical and funding issues as well. Since complete inspections and decontamination can take up to five hours, as an example, for a house boat, the entrances would become clogged given the current infrastructure. More law enforcement personnel, as well as inspection personnel, would be needed.
The Park Service does have, again, since 2008, four permanent inspection/decontamination stations working primarily at the marinas. Each was purchased at a cost of about $250,000 and cost $5,000 to install, Moore said. The LMNRA also has two portable units operating.
“We’re trying to get the boaters to comply,” Moore said. “We’d like it to be zero,” he said of the number of contaminated Mead-origin boats found at Northwest inspection stations.
BPA proposal to compensate wind generators
The Bonneville Power Administration has announced a proposal for compensating wind energy producers that are served by the federal power marketing agency’s transmission grid for periodically reducing their output when necessary to keep the electricity supply from exceeding demand during high river flows.
If BPA decides to proceed with the compensation proposal, the agency will also propose in a rate case to split the cost of the compensation approximately equally between users of BPA’s Federal Base System and wind energy producers in its grid. The proposal comes after months of discussions with key stakeholders to find an equitable solution to oversupply. The proposal is based on concepts developed in those conversations.
Although the discussions are ongoing, BPA is releasing its proposal for public review now so the agency can meet a March 6 deadline for filing the proposal with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
FERC in a Dec. 7 order said that Bonneville’s “redispatch and negative pricing” policy was contrary to the law and gave the agency 90 days to rewrite the policy.
The FERC order said the new policy “results in non-comparable transmission service that is unduly discriminatory and preferential. Accordingly, Bonneville may not extend its current environmental redispatch policies or implement new environmental redispatch policies that result in noncomparable transmission service.”
A month ago Bonneville and other hydro power interest filed requests that FERC schedule a hearing on the issue and, ultimately, rescind its order. FERC granted the rehearing request but said it did so only to stall for time. Law requires that the commission respond to such requests within 30 days.
“In order to afford additional time for consideration of the matters raised or to be raised, rehearing of the Commission’s order is hereby granted for the limited purpose of further consideration, and timely-filed rehearing requests will not be deemed denied by operation of law,” the Feb. 6 FERC order said.
The petition, filed in June, to FERC came from a group of owners of wind facilities in the Pacific Northwest that said that Bonneville was “using its transmission market power to curtail wind generators in an unduly discriminatory manner in order to protect its preferred power customer base from costs it does not consider socially optimal,” the FERC order said.
Parties also petitioned the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to overturn BPA’s record of decision regarding the redispatch and negative pricing policy. Those petitions to the appeals court have been stayed until April 4, or pending final action by FERC on any request for rehearing or clarification in the related matter, whichever occurs later.
Meanwhile, BPA says it will continue to work with regional stakeholders to find a solution.
The terms of the newest proposal would run through 2015. The proposal would address the risk of a possible oversupply of energy when hydroelectric power produced by high runoff of water combines with wind generation in low-demand periods such as late at night. Electricity supply must constantly match demand to maintain the reliability of the electric grid.
“This is an important step toward resolving a Northwest issue in a way that works for the Northwest,” said BPA Administrator Steve Wright. “We’re focused on seeking solutions based on regional input that maintain reliability, protect fish and support renewable energy while equitably sharing costs.”
The risk of electricity oversupply depends on runoff conditions and BPA expects reductions in wind generation will be unnecessary in about one of every three years.
Reducing hydroelectric generation during high flows sends more water through dam spillways, increasing dissolved gas levels that can harm fish, including migrating wild salmon and steelhead that are protected under the Endangered Species Act.
To control gas levels, BPA maximizes hydroelectric generation in such circumstances and offers low cost, or free, replacement power to coal, natural gas and other thermal power plants, as well as to wind generators, asked to reduce generation during times of oversupply.
Thermal plants typically shut down and save fuel costs. But, most wind energy producers continue operating because of the revenue they receive from production tax credits, renewable energy credits and contracts that depend on continued wind generation.
Under the new proposal, BPA would first work with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Bureau of Reclamation to manage federal hydroelectric generation and spill water up to dissolved gas limits. Bonneville would then offer low-cost or free hydropower to replace the output of thermal and other power plants, with the expectation that many would voluntarily reduce their generation to save fuel costs.
If electricity supply still exceeds demand, BPA would then reduce the output of remaining generation within its system, including wind energy, in order of least cost. BPA would compensate the affected generation for lost revenues, including renewable energy credits and production tax credits, subject to audit. The negative pricing policy in effect last year did not call for Bonneville to provide funding to make up for lost credits.
On average BPA expects to compensate wind producers about $12 million per year for lost revenues related to reduced electricity generation, although the total could range from nothing to more than $50 million in extreme conditions, the agency says.
The Northwest River Forecast Center’s runoff projection for Columbia/Snake river basin for January to July 2012 is currently 87 percent of average, as measured at The Dalles Dam on the lower Columbia. Lower runoff reduces the likelihood of an oversupply of electricity this spring, but conditions can change rapidly.
Under the proposal, BPA would cover costs of curtailing wind generation this spring from its transmission reserve account until a rate can be established to recover the costs.
The agency would initiate a new rate case in which it would propose dividing compensation costs roughly equally between users of BPA’s Federal Base System and wind energy operators within BPA’s system.
For information, visit www.bpa.gov/go/oversupply.
Streamflow prediction now at 92% of 30-year average
Despite a mid-January burst of precipitation, snowpack in the Columbia River basin remains below “normal” as the region heads into wintertime’s home stretch.
The NOAA Northwest River Forecast Center’s most recent “Ensemble Streamflow Prediction” water supply forecast predicts that runoff past the lower Columbia’s The Dalles Dam this year from April through September will be 92 percent of the 30-year average (1971-2000) or 90.4 million acre feet.
The average runoff volume past The Dalles is 98.65 MAF. Last year’s total was highest in the past 52 years, 132.942 MAF, according to NWRFC records.
The strength of the 2011-2012 Columbia River basin snowpack is to the north. Inflows to Mica Dam’s reservoir near British Columbia’s Jasper National Park is expected to produce 120 percent of its average April-September runoff, 15 MAF. That would be the fourth highest total in the 1960-2012 period. A bit further downstream, British Columbia’s Revelstoke Dam’s reservoir is expected to see 115 percent of its average runoff, according to the NWRFC forecast.
But elsewhere in the upper Columbia the water volume forecasts are not so rosy. The Kootenai River at Libby Dam’s reservoir just south of the border in northwest Montana is expected to see only 82 percent average runoff. Downstream on the Columbia at central Washington’s Grand Coulee Dam the Aril-September flow is expected to be 61.2 MAF, which would be 94 percent of normal, according to the new NWRFC forecast.
The Snake arm of the Columbia/Snake wishbone is predicted to produce 85 percent of its average runoff, 19.45 MAF April-September, as measured at Lower Granite Dam in southeast Washington.
Snowpacks are mostly subpar across the U.S. part of the Columbia basin, according to data compiled by the National Resource Conservation Service’s automated SNOTEL sites. The exception was the Kootenai River basin within Montana, which has 100 percent of its average snowpack “snow-water equivalent.
Elsewhere in the upper Columbia, Montana’s Flathead drainage had 86 percent of its average SWE, the upper Clark Fork River 93 percent, and the lower Clark Fork 98 percent. The Idaho panhandle snowpack was at 90 percent of its average SWE.
A bright spot so far is the Yakima/Ahtanum river basin in central Washington at 102 percent of average SWE.
Snowpack above Palisades Dam on the Snake in southeast Idaho was at 89 percent of normal. The Big and Little Lost river drainages in southeast Idaho had among the basin’s lowest SWE readings at 66 percent.
Over the past two weeks, sea surface temperatures in the central tropical Pacific cooled slightly, reversing a recent warming trend, according to a Feb. 1 update from Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology. Other indicators of La Niña, such as the Southern Oscillation Index trade winds, and cloudiness over the equatorial Pacific Ocean have generally remained steady, below their December peak but clearly exceeding La Niña thresholds.
NOAA’s Weather Service and others note that La Nina conditions, which can alter weather conditions worldwide, generally tilt the odds in favor of wetter, cooler winters in the Pacific Northwest. Last year La Nina was strongly in place; and the Northwest late winter and spring, was extremely wet. Columbia-Snake river basin snowpacks generally continue to build through February and March.
Climate models surveyed by the Bureau of Meteorology indicate a gradual decline in the strength of the La Niña over the coming months, with most models suggesting a return to neutral conditions in the late spring.
The NWS Climate Prediction Center says odds favor a wetter than normal late winter and spring.
NW moisture gives ‘snow-water equivalent’ big boost
Water supply forecasts, ski hill snow totals and backcountry snowpack have nudged up over the past week with sudden downpourings, after what has been a slow start to the wintertime water accumulation period.
Jet streams off the Pacific Ocean have assumed a more common winter pattern, bringing moisture to the region.
The NOAA Weather Service’s Northwest River Forecast Center has predicted that runoff past The Dalles Dam on would be 86 percent of the 30-year average (1971-2000) from April through September in 2012.
The average is 98.65 million acre feet; the NWRFC “ensemble” forecast issued Jan. 9 – based on light snowpack, particularly in the southern parts of the Columbia/Snake river basin in Oregon and Idaho — predicted runoff would be 84.71 MAF.
But after several days of precipitation across much of the region, and a forecast of more to come, that forecast has jumped to 92 percent of average, or about 90.97 MAF, according to a water supply forecast issued by the NWRFC. The April-September runoff past The Dalles includes water streaming down from the Snake River basin and the upper Columbia.
Snowpack totals have ticked up considerably over the past week. SNOTEL automated monitoring stations operated by the National Resources Conservation Service in central Idaho’s Clearwater and Salmon river drainages had an average “snow/water equivalent” of 82 percent of average on Jan. 20.
The average for northeast Oregon’s Grande Ronde, Burnt, Powder and Imnaha river drainages jumped from 54 to 70 percent of average.
The snowpacks feeding the Malheur and Owyhee rivers, which drain into the Snake at the Idaho-Oregon border, jumped from 26 percent of average snow-water equivalent to a somewhat less dismal 49 percent.
In south-central Idaho, the snowpack above Palisades Reservoir on the upper Snake increased from 63 percent of average snow-water equivalent to 79 percent.
In the north part of the Columbia River basin snow totals mounted as well. The Kootenai River basin in northwest Montana jumped from 83 percent of average to 88 percent; Montana’s Flathead River basin eased up from 68 percent of average to 76 percent.
In central Washington, the Yakima/Ahtanum basins saw s/w equivalents increase from 80 percent of normal of 90 percent thanks to recent precipitation.
The best-stocked are the northernmost portions of the Columbia River basin in British Columbia. The NWRFC’s runoff forecast into Mica Dam’s reservoir is 111 percent of average. Downstream, Revelstoke Dam is expected to pass 108 percent of its average runoff for the April-September period, according to the latest NWRFC forecast.
Meanwhile, the relentless storm battering west of the Cascades is creating havoc and threatening records – and more rain appears on the horizon.
Administration releases national climate strategy draft
The Obama Administration has released the first draft national strategy aimed at helping decision makers and resource managers prepare for and help reduce the impacts of climate change on species, ecosystems, and the people and economies that depend on them.
The draft National Fish, Wildlife and Plants Climate Adaptation Strategy, available for public review and comment through March 5, 2012, can be found on the web at www.wildlifeadaptationstrategy.gov
“The impacts of climate change are already here and those who manage our landscapes are already dealing with them,” said Deputy Secretary of the Interior David J. Hayes. “The reality is that rising sea levels, warmer temperatures, loss of sea ice and changing precipitation patterns – trends scientists have definitively connected to climate change – are already affecting the species we care about, the services we value, and the places we call home. A national strategy will help us prepare and adapt.”
Elements of the draft strategy include:
- Descriptions of current and projected impacts of climate change on the eight major ecosystems of the United States, the fish, wildlife and plant species those ecosystems support and the vital ecosystem services they provide;
- Goals, strategies, and actions to reduce the vulnerability and increase the resilience of fish, wildlife, plants and the communities that depend on them in the face of climate change;
- Collaborative strategies and actions that agriculture, energy, transportation and other sectors can take to promote adaptation of fish, wildlife and plants, and utilize the adaptive benefits of natural esources in their climate adaptation efforts; and
- A framework for coordinated implementation of the strategy among government and non-governmental entities from national to local scales.
Leading the development of the strategy is a Steering Committee that includes government representatives from 16 federal agencies, five state fish and wildlife agencies and two inter-tribal commissions. The Steering Committee includes representatives from the California, Washington, Wisconsin, New York and North Carolina fish and wildlife agencies to ensure that all 50 states’ fish and wildlife concerns are considered. The Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies is providing staff support for developing the strategy.
Columbia-Snake irrigators plead with lawmakers for help
As much as 140,000 acres of farmland in the Mid-Columbia may go dry in less than a decade unless state and federal governments take action, irrigation advocates said.
Officials from the Columbia-Snake River Irrigators Association trekked to Olympia to plead with the Legislature to approve $250 million in revenue bonds to extend surface water from the East-Low Canal east of Moses Lake to farm land currently drawing water from deep aquifers in which water levels are dropping.
“This is easily the most significant water issue the state can deal with in 2012,” Darryll Olsen, the association’s board representative, told the Tri-City Herald.
Olsen said pumping in about 70 percent of the wells in what is known as the Odessa subarea will cease in the next seven years because there’s no water, the water is too deep to access, or it becomes too costly to access.
That will leave tens of thousands of acres of irrigated farmland with no water, and farmers either taking the land out of production or attempting to convert to dry land farming, he said.
“This is a real-time problem that needs to be addressed by the state,” Olsen said.
The solution Olsen suggested to the House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee in Olympia is for the state to front $250 million to extend surface water from the East-Low Canal to about 75,000 acres east of Moses Lake and north of Interstate 90.
The Odessa Subarea encompasses land in east Grant County, west Adams County, north Franklin County and a sliver of Lincoln County that was supposed to be irrigated in the second half of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s Columbia Basin Project.
The East-Low Canal was built as part of the project, which brought water from the Columbia River to 671,000 acres of arid farm land in Eastern Washington mostly in the ‘50s and ‘60s, according to the Bureau of Reclamation website.
But that is only about 65 percent of the land originally planned to be irrigated, and much of the remaining land has drawn water from wells while waiting decades for the project to be finished, Olsen said.
The problem is that water levels in the basalt Grande Ronde and Wanapum aquifers that provide ground water to much of Southeast Washington are declining, and farmers are having to go deeper and deeper to get water for their crops.
And farmers aren’t the only ones relying on the aquifers. Towns such as Pullman and Moscow, Idaho, also draw water from the aquifers for their municipal water supplies, including drinking water.
Olsen said the tens of thousands of acres in the Odessa Subarea weren’t meant to continue getting their water from the aquifers for the decades since work on the Columbia Basin project halted.
In fact, they have surface water rights codified into statute in anticipation of those farms eventually getting irrigation water from the Columbia River.
But the water never came, and now those farms are struggling to find water to survive, Olsen said.
Olsen said the Bureau of Reclamation is looking at bringing water to about 45,000 acres in the Odessa subarea south of I-90, but not until at least 2017, and at an estimated $1 billion cost to modify and retrofit the East-Low Canal to serve those acres.
“That is a long time to wait,” he said.
And he isn’t optimistic about the chances of the bureau getting the money for construction in the current economy.
But there is something that can be done now for 75,000 acres north of I-90 where the canal doesn’t need retrofitting, he said.
If the Legislature will use revenue bonds to pay the $250 million cost to bring water to those acres — money that would be repaid to the state by the private landowners over 20 years — construction could start in 2013 and be done by 2015.
Getting Columbia River water to those acres would take some pressure off the aquifers, and the hope is the life of wells in other parts of the Odessa subarea could be extended until the Bureau of Reclamation could extend irrigation to the 45,000 acres south of I-90, Olsen said.
Building the north portion of the project would have the added benefit of creating as many as 1,800 jobs, he said.
Michelle Dupler
Tri-City Herald
2012 OWC Membership Meeting & Water Conference
Plan to attend the 2012 Oregon Water Coalition Membership Meeting and Water Conference on Tuesday, January 24, 2012 from 8:30 am to 4:00 pm at the Hermiston Conference Center. Please RSVP the Hermiston Chamber of Commerce.
Registration for the one day event is $35.
Presidents Message8:30 to 9:00 am
Luke Maynard, Oregon Water Coalition
Columbia Basin Aquifer Recharge Project9:00 to 10:00 am
JR Cook & Martha Pagel
Break10:00 to 10:10 am
2011-2012 Legislation10:10 to 11:00 am
Attorney David Filippi, Stoel & Rives, LLC
Water Rights and Related Bills
Federal Legislative or Rule-Making Efforts
Recent Opinions or Ongoing Water Litigation
Columbia River Treaty11:00 to 11:50 am
Dick Adams, Executive Director, PNUCC
Break11:50 to 12:00 pm
OWC Annual Award Luncheon12:00 to 1:00 pm
Harmon Springer, Oregon Water Coalition
House District 57 (Columbia Basin District)
Representative Greg Smith
Issues and Updates
Oregon Water Rights Boot Camp1:00 to 4:00 pm
Attorney Laura A. Schroeder
Seminar on Water Law in Oregon
Contact the Hermiston Chamber of Commerce to register and RSVP. All proceeds will benefit the Oregon Water Coalition (OWC). Our special thanks to Laura Schroeder.
Hermiston Conference Center
415 S. Highway 395
Hermiston, Oregon
RSVP:
Hermiston Chamber of Commerce
541-567-6151 (voice)
541-564-9109 (fax)
info@hermistonchamber.com
2011 Chinook, Steelhead harvest yields high numbers
Lower Columbia River salmon and steelhead sport harvests, in some cases, were the best on record in 2011 and, with rosy return forecasts for many species, the fishing should be good again in 2012, according “preliminary draft” data compiled by the Oregon and Washington departments of fish and wildlife.
A “2011 Adult Returns and 2012 Expectations, Columbia River” wrap-up says that a record (since at least 1980) 147,000 angler trips were taken during the 2011 lower Columbia fall fishing season.
The “lower” Columbia stretches from Bonneville Dam at river mile 146 down to Tongue Point at river mile 18 just upstream of Astoria, Ore. The fall season begins Aug. 1. The previous high was 117,975 angler trips in 2009.
Anglers landed a record 28,200 adult fall chinook from the lower Columbia mainstem during the August-October fall season, as well as a record 12,100 summer steelhead. That fall chinook catch bested a total 26,195 adults kept in 2003.
The bountiful fall followed a summer season, which began June 16, that saw a record 5,200 adult “summer” chinook salmon taken by anglers, as well as 2,400 “jacks,” on the lower Columbia. Jacks are young fish that return to freshwater after only one year in the ocean.
During May-July a total of 12,900 summer steelhead were caught and kept by sport anglers in the lower Columbia, which is also a record.
The nearly 25,000 summer-run steelhead kept between May and October 2011 was the highest on record (since at least 1975), far surpassing the 2010 total of 18,324.
In August, 2011 a total of 11,160 steelhead were caught and kept in the lower river. That’s a record for any single month since at least 1969. It broke the record set the previous month — 8,549 steelhead.
The total steelhead “handle” – the total number of fish reeled in, including steelhead that were released — in August was also a record at 18,509. The previous high total was 15,934 kept/released in July 2009. The record catches are largely due to angler enthusiasm, but relatively large runs helped the cause.
The estimated 378,056 salmonid angler trips to the lower Columbia in 2011 is a record. It broke the previous high of slightly more than 371,000 angler trips in 2010, according to data assembled by the WDFW’s Joe Hymer.
A total of 364,900 upriver summer steelhead were counted climbing up and over Bonneville this year. That’s similar to the recent 10-year average.
According to the year-end estimates a total of 11,700 adult spring chinook salmon, and 5,500 3-year-old jacks, were landed during the 2011 season that began in earnest March 1. A total of 154,900 angler trips were taken during the spring season, which included 79 open fishing days, which amounts to 74 percent of the 107 days between March 1 through June 15.
Oregon’s Willamette River spring run proved to be particularly targeted with 22,400 chinook kept during 123,500 angler days. That catch total is the highest since 1991. Anglers must release unharmed unmarked spring chinook and steelhead.
Most hatchery produced fish are marked with a clipped adipose fin. Most of the unmarked spawners are wild fish that are protected under the Endangered Species Act.
Fishery managers estimate that a total of 80,254 Willamette spring chinook returned to the mouth of the Columbia in 2011. The Willamette feeds into the Columbia at Portland. About 21 percent of those returning fish were wild.
The 2012 preseason forecast is for a return of 83,400 Willamette spring chinook salmon to the mouth of the Columbia in 2012. The run should include about 60,700 4-year-old fish. About 21 percent of the run is forecast to be wild.
The 2012 upriver spring chinook run – fish bound for hatcheries and tributary spawning grounds upstream of Bonneville — is expected to number 314,200, which would be the third largest on record. A total of 67,000 3-year-old jacks returned in 2011, which was the second largest total on record. That led to the prediction that 88 percent of the 2012 upriver run would be age 4 fish.
Going back to records that started in 1969, the 5,160 adult summer chinook kept in this year’s mark selective fishery on the lower Columbia is a record. The previous high was 4,924 fish in a non-selective fishery in 2006. A total of 75,818 angler trips to the lower Columbia during the summer season was the highest total since at least 1973.
And the fishing should be just as good next summer. A record high number of upper Columbia River summer chinook jacks, 35,400, returned to the basin in 2011. That prompted the prediction that 2012 will witness a record, dating back to at least 1980, return of 91,200 summer chinook. It is estimated that 4-year-olds will make up 65 percent of the 2012 summer chinook run.
Anglers in 2011 also caught and kept a record 1,427 sockeye in the lower Columbia, That’s nearly double the previous high total of 900 fish in 2009).
The return of sockeye last year was 187,300. Most were bound for the central Washington/British Columbia Okanogan River basin with a lesser total bound for the Wenatchee River drainage.
The 2012 preseason forecast is for a return of a record 462,000 sockeye, including 1,900 spawners headed up the Columbia and Snake rivers to the Salmon River drainage in central Idaho. The Snake River fish are listed as endangered under the ESA.
Selective traits in hatchery fish can occur in one generation
A recently published study says that in just one generation traits are selected that allow fish to survive and prosper in the hatchery environment.
“We expected to see some of these changes after multiple generations,” said Mark Christie, an OSU post-doctoral research associate and lead author on the study. “To see these changes happen in a single generation was amazing.”
The findings, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences show a speed of evolution and natural selection that surprised researchers.
“We’ve known for some time that hatchery-born fish are less successful at survival and reproduction in the wild,” said Michael Blouin, a professor of zoology at Oregon State University. “However, until now, it wasn’t clear why. What this study shows is that intense evolutionary pressures in the hatchery rapidly select for fish that excel there, at the expense of their reproductive success in the wild.”
These findings were based on a 19-year genetic analysis of steelhead in Oregon’s Hood River. It examined why hatchery fish struggle to reproduce in wild river conditions. Some of the possible causes explored were environmental effects of captive rearing, inbreeding among close relatives, and unintentional “domestication selection,” or the ability of some fish to adapt to the unique hatchery environment. The study confirmed that domestication selection was at work.
“It remains to be seen whether results from this one study on steelhead generalize to other hatcheries or salmon species,” Blouin said.
“Nevertheless, this shows that hatcheries can produce fish that are genetically different from wild fish, and that it can happen extraordinarily fast,” he said. “The challenge now is to identify the traits under selection to see if we can slow that rate of domestication.”
It’s not clear exactly what traits are being selected for among the thousands of smolts born in hatcheries, the scientists said, but one of the leading candidates is the ability to tolerate extreme crowding. If research can determine exactly what aspect of hatchery operations is selecting for fish with less fitness in the wild, it could be possible to make changes that would help address the problem, they said.