Oregon Water Online
© Oregon Water CoalitionGrand Canyon floods breach dam, force evacuations
Days of heavy rains around the Grand Canyon created flooding that breached an earthen dam recently and forced helicopters to pluck scores of residents and campers from the gorge. No injuries were immediately reported.
Dozens of people though had to be evacuated.
“170 occupants of Supai Village and the campgrounds were safely airlifted to the Hualapai Hilltop area and subsequently bused to the American Red Cross evacuation reception center at a tribal gymnasium in Peach Springs, Arizona,” said Grand Canyon National Park spokeswoman Maureen Oltrogge.
Rescuers from nine different public safety organizations worked together throughout the day to locate campers and village residents and safely transport them to the top of the canyon.
The helicopters lifting residents out were from the National Park Service, the National Guard and the Arizona Department of Public Safety, Oltrogge said.
Rescuers were returning to the flooded area to conduct further searches for people who are unaccounted for, Oltrogge said.
The weather and dam breach caused flooding in a side canyon containing a village where about 400 members of the Havasupai tribe live and where some of the evacuations occurred, said Gerry Blair, a spokesman for the Coconino County Sheriff’s Department.
There were no confirmed reports of damage in the village, Supai, which is on high ground, Blair said. Many residents and campers chose to stay there, Blair said.
“We’re not as concerned about it as we initially were,” he said.
Still, a flash flood warning remained in effect, and search and rescue teams planned to stay in the village overnight as a precaution.
Some hiking trails and footbridges were washed out after the dam breach about 45 miles from Supai, Oltrogge said. Trees were uprooted, the National Weather Service said.
Blair said the dam breaching was only one factor in the flooding. He said the dam wasn’t a “huge, significant” structure.
As much as eight inches of rain caused trouble even before the dam was breached. A private boating party of 16 people was stranded on a ledge at the confluence of Havasu Creek and the Colorado River after flood waters carried their rafts away, Oltrogge said.
The boaters were found uninjured and were rescued from the Grand Canyon, whose floor is unreachable in many places except by helicopter.
The area received 3 to 6 inches of rain over two days and received about 2 more inches the following day, said Daryl Onton, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Flagstaff.
“That’s all it took — just a few days of very heavy thunderstorms,” he said.
Supai is about 75 miles west of the Grand Canyon Village, a popular tourist area on the South Rim.
The flooding came on a weekend during the busy summer tourist season, when thousands of visitors a day flock to the canyon for spectacular views, hikes or to raft its whitewater.
In 2001, flooding near Supai swept a 2-year-old boy and his parents to their deaths while they were hiking.
The Grand Canyon has been the traditional home of the Havasupai for centuries.
Global study shows widespread sewage use on farms
People in developing countries are facing growing health risks caused by the widespread use of raw sewage to irrigate crops, according to a study presented at a global water conference in Sweden.
The report, by the International Water Management Institute, says more than half of farmland near 70 percent of cities in Third World countries is watered with sewage that threatens to spread epidemics.
“Irrigating with wastewater isn’t a rare practice limited to a few of the poorest countries,” said Liqa Raschid-Sally, a researcher at the institute. “It’s a widespread phenomenon, occurring on 20 million hectares (50 million acres) across the developing world, especially in Asian countries, like China, India and Vietnam, but also around nearly every city of sub-Saharan Africa and in many Latin American cities.”
She was speaking at the start of World Water Week, a conference attended by 2,500 scientists, politicians and officials from 140 countries. The United Nations has named 2008 the International Year of Sanitation.
Experts said that 1.4 million children die every year from diarrhea-related diseases and poor hygiene, and described the global sanitation crisis as “the world’s largest environmental problem.”
An increasing demand for water and food has spurred the use of sewage to water crops but in many cases is the only form of irrigation for farmers who lack clean water, the study showed. It is mostly used to produce vegetables and cereals, and poses a major health risk to consumers of uncooked vegetables.
However, the report said sewage also provides a livelihood for many by making possible the cultivation of land, and it recommends an increase in purifying water supplies rather than a total ban on the use of wastewater.
In Accra, Ghana, some 200,000 people depend on vegetables produced on agricultural land near the city that is watered with sewage, Raschid-Sally said. “That gives you an idea of the large potential of wastewater agriculture for both helping and hurting great numbers of urban consumers,” she said.
Conference participants also stressed the need to increase transparency in the water production chain.
Up to 45 percent “of costs for providing clean water around the world go toward corruption,” Transparency International global programs director Christiaan Poorter told The Associated Press on the sidelines of the week-long water meetings.
Other participants include Malagasy President Marc Ravalomanana, Dutch Crown Prince Willem-Alexander and this year’s winner of the Stockholm Water Prize, British professor John Anthony Allan.
Big southern California water line nearly ready
A massive mechanical mole that has spent the last five years burrowing under the San Bernardino Mountains has resurfaced, marking a major step in completing a 44-mile water line that will eventually serve thirsty Southern Californians.
The Inland Feeder is expected to pipe water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta during the rainy season into the Diamond Valley Lake reservoir in Riverside County by 2010. The water will be distributed from northern Los Angeles County to the Mexican border.
Roy Wolfe, who oversaw the project for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, is hopeful the pipeline will eventually supply 1000 cubic feet of water per second — enough to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool in less than 30 seconds.
“This has been an incredible journey, an 11-year, $1.2 billion project,” said Wolfe, manager of corporate resources for the utility.
The Inland Feeder consists of 26 miles of buried pipeline and three tunnels spanning 18 miles. The machines used to bore the tunnels are longer than a football field and can bore through 10-to-80 feet per day. The tunnel is 4 miles long.
Scientists test ‘upwelling’ to learn ecosystem behavior
A team of scientists is studying the complex ocean upwelling process by mimicking nature—pumping cold, nutrient-rich water from deep within the Pacific Ocean and releasing it into surface waters near Hawaii that lack the nitrogen and phosphorous necessary to support high biological production.
The researchers are harnessing the power of the ocean to conduct their experiments, using the up-and-down motion of waves to pump deep water to the surface. Their next step is to create a pump that can withstand the rigors of the rugged Pacific and then see if the biology follows the physics.
“During our first test, the ocean destroyed our pump in one day,” said Angelicque “Angel” White, a post-doctoral researcher at Oregon State University and a member of the scientific team. “Initially, the system worked and we were able to bring cold water to the surface and control the depth of its release. Now we need to work on the engineering aspect.”
The theory behind the experiment has just been published in the journal, Marine Ecology Progress Series. The initial test of the pumps and their effect in the open ocean is the focus of a documentary that is scheduled to be broadcast today (Sept. 5) on the Discovery Channel.
This experiment was funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the Betty and Gordon Moore Foundation. White and lead investigators Ricardo Letelier of OSU and David Karl of the University of Hawaii are part of the NSF-funded Center for Microbial Oceanography: Research and Education based in Hawaii, which Karl directs.
The scientists stress that the goal of creating artificially induced upwelling is to understand how marine microbial ecosystems respond to large-scale perturbations, “a critical step if we want to understand the risks of manipulating these large ecosystems in order to solve global greenhouse buildup,” said Letelier, a professor in OSU’s College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences.
“This is not a new concept,” Letelier said. “It was proposed in 1976 that scientists could use wave energy to pump water from the depths to the surface and fuel plankton growth. But there are many nuances; simply bringing nutrients to the surface can result in the wrong kinds of biological growth. It also can bring water enriched with carbon dioxide, which can de-gas into the atmosphere.
“If you’re adding more CO2 than subtracting by fertilizing the ocean,” he added, “you’re running the wheel in the wrong direction.”
The answer, Letelier says, may be to pump water that contains specific ratios of nutrients—particularly nitrogen and phosphorous—to carbon dioxide by targeting different depths. At their research site north of Hawaii, where the ocean is about 4,500 meters deep, the bottom layers of water have too much CO2 because of the decaying organisms that have sunk to the floor.
Their studies have shown, however, that water at a depth of 300 to 700 meters has the proper ratio of nitrogen and phosphorus to trigger a two-stage phytoplankton bloom. The researchers believe that upwelling with water from that depth will first cause a bloom of diatoms, which are a common type of plankton—often single-celled. The diatoms will consume the nitrogen, leaving some amount of phosphorus in the water, which will stimulate a second-stage bloom of nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria. These blooms are often observed during summer months in open ocean waters, Letelier said.
In previous field experiments, the researchers were able to create stage-one diatom blooms by mixing deep and surface water in large incubation bottles, but they need to conduct additional studies in the ocean to see if the second stage of blooms actually occurs following additions of deep water. If the pumps had survived the ocean, White said, they may have been able to generate these blooms.
“We were able to pump about 50 cubic meters of water per hour using the wave energy,” she said, “which is a small amount compared to the vastness of the ocean. If we want to generate a bloom in an area of one-square kilometer, we would need to replace about 10 percent of the surface waters with upwelled water, which would take about a month at the rate we pumped.”
The scientists used undersea gliders in their Hawaii study to monitor the water from the pump so they have an idea how widely and quickly it disperses, and how much of an impact it can have on surface waters.
“We know a lot about how upwelling works and the physics of the ocean,” Letelier said, “but there also are things we don’t know, which is why this study is so important. In this open ocean area near Hawaii, for example, phytoplankton blooms occur in the summer when there are almost no nutrients at the surface and the winds generally are calm. What triggers the blooms and where are the nutrients coming from? We need to know.
“These vast, seemingly barren regions comprise more than two-thirds of our oceans and nearly 40 percent of the entire Earth,” he added. “It is a large area of exchange between the atmosphere and the ocean and understanding large-scale interactions is critical to understanding climate change.”
Some scientists have looked at iron fertilization as a way to trigger biological growth in nutrient-poor areas of the ocean, but “everything responds to iron,” Letelier said. “You can’t control what grows.”
The researchers believe they can control plankton growth by determining which species respond to specific nutrients, and then adjusting the rate of nutrient feeding by the frequency and duration of water pumping.
“These vast regions of the open ocean may be perfect for sequestering carbon,” Letelier said, “but before we can begin to seriously consider a large-scale intervention, we must better understand how the biology responds by using perturbations on a small scale. We’re getting there.”
Pinks, humpies defying past trends in Columbia River
Pink salmon are a species whose presence is so subtle and slight in the Columbia River that it gets little or no mention in state literature or regulations.
But they are back again this year, and marching to the beat of a different drummer. Through Wednesday 52 pink salmon—the smallest of six Pacific salmon species—had been counted passing Bonneville Dam.
Famed in Alaska, Canadian and Puget Sound streams, the autumn spawners, also called humpbacks, are not known to have self-sustaining populations in the Columbia River basin. But they are spotted here and there.
“Pinks are found in the Columbia during odd numbered years; some of the largest numbers (possibly a few hundred fish) are found in the lower Cowlitz,” according to Joe Hymer of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. The humpbacks have also been identified hunting spawning grounds in such tributaries as the Kalama, Wind and Sandy rivers, he said.
“They’re kind of an oddball. They do exist to some degree” in the basin, Hymer said.
“However, it is very unusual to find pinks in the Columbia during even numbered years,” he said. It’s also early to find them in the river. The first was counted passing Bonneville July 2.
This year’s humpback appearance “is much earlier than the last five years,” said John North of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. In 2007 the first pink appeared in the fish ladder count window on Aug. 3.
Likewise for another species—chum salmon. Five have been counted at Bonneville already. They typically enter the river in October and November.
A handful of “summer” chum are found in the Cowlitz almost every year, Hymer said.
State officials sampling treaty Indian commercial harvests confirmed pinks had been caught above Bonneville Dam. Hymer said they were smallish fish, perhaps 2 or 3 pounds
The pinks have been a regular at Bonneville’s fish ladders since 1941, three years after the dam was completed and counts began. The annual count never rose above 50 until 1965, according to data posted by the Fish Passage Center.
The most ever counted was 637 in 2003. There are numerous zero counts, mostly in even numbered years. The total count last year was 27; in 2006 it was 6; in 2005 it was 17, and in 2004 it was 1.
When spawning, males develop humped backs, hooked jaws and reddish-yellow sides. The females tend to be more greenish. The pinks can be up to 30 inches in length and weigh up to 12 pounds, but usually weigh from 3 to 5 pounds.
Pink salmon begin their downstream movement almost immediately upon emergence from the gravel and move rapidly into near-shore nursery areas and shallow marine waters. For a short time, pinks may be abundant in estuarine tidal channels; however, pinks typically spend minimal time in estuaries. After about 18 months at sea, pinks return to their natal streams to spawn. Usually those streams are not too far from the ocean.
Because of their relatively strict two-year life cycle, one year’s produce does not interbreed with the next year’s.
Important spawning populations occur from the Puyallup River in Washington northward to Alaska and eastward to Canada’s Northwest Territories,” according to a Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission fact sheet. A web search found little about Columbia basin pink salmon, although one site referenced them as one of six historic stocks and called the basin humpbacks extinct.
“Occasionally we get pinks. They don’t belong in the Columbia,” said Mike Matylewich, head of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission’s fishery management department. “They’re not a spawning population.”
He and Hymer said they are likely fish that have strayed southward.
Dworshak failure alters flow, regime for migrating salmon
A mechanical breakdown at central Idaho’s Dworshak Dam will limit fish and hydro managers’ ability this summer to control the reservoir’s cool waters to augment flows downriver and, more importantly, help hold down water temperatures for migrating salmon and steelhead.
That’s the bad news. The good news is that is that the Snake River is running cooler, at least to this point, than it would normally be at this time of the year. The water temperature at the lower Snake’s Lower Granite Dam was 65.5 degrees at midweek. The Dworshak reservoir’s coldest water has been called on in the past even prior to July 4 to dampen temperatures downstream.
“They are staying low,” the U.S Army Corps of Engineers’ Jim Adams said during Wednesday’s Technical Management Team meeting. “We’re not expecting major issues at Lower Granite.”
The TMT’s federal, state and tribal salmon and hydro managers assemble to discuss day-to-day Federal Columbia River Power System operational adjustments that might be made to benefit salmon that are listed under the Endangered Species Act. A goal is to keep water temperatures, as measured at Lower Granite, below 68 degrees. Higher temperatures are unhealthy for the coldwater fish.
Dworshak’s deep reservoir holds water that can be 40 degrees or colder. It is called on in late summer, flushing down the Clearwater River and into the tepid Snake. That water can be released through turbines, through spillways near the surface and through three “regulating outlet” gates. The spillway draws warmer water from near the surface; the ROs, located nearly 200 feet below the spillway crest, release the coldest water.
Those ROs are effectively out of commission. Officials at the dam last Thursday, July 24, discovered that RO2 was passing water and did not fully close during operations. Water from the malfunctioning gate began to leak water into a machinery room down a maintenance passageway and out the downstream face of the dam.
Maintenance crews worked late into the night to finish positioning a bulkhead and stopped the water flow at about 3:30 a.m. last Friday. The bulkhead is a device lowered by crane into position to stop water from entering the gate areas of the dam.
After the leak stopped, crews inspected the gate and noticed the pin connecting the cylinder to the top of the gate worked itself free, preventing workers from raising or lowering the gate.
“There’s significant damage there. It will take several months to repair,” the Corps’ Steven Hall told TMT members. Meanwhile the facilities only bulkhead must stay in place at RO2 and can’t be used for inspections of suspect pins in the other two gates.
“My understanding is that there is nothing they can do to lock that gate in place” so the bulkhead cannot be removed, Hall said. If the gate broke open, the reservoir would eventually be drawn down to 1,350 feet –250 feet below full pool.
At this point the Corps is weighing the risk of inspecting the other ROs without the safety provided by a bulkhead. If power to the other gates is lost and water forced its way through, the workers could be washed downstream. The ROs empty about halfway up the face of the spillway.
“We’re going to have to get at least commander-level approval” for any inspection, Hall said. Because the gates are of identical design, they may also have the same weakness so need to be inspected.
The equipment failure may have resulted from excess wear and tear. Recent testing involved repeated opening and closing of RO2, Hall said.
If the other two gates prove to be in good condition, potentially they could be opened to some degree to allow a constant flow.
“We’re not going to want to adjust them on a frequent basis,” Hall said. That option is “still taking some amount of risk” of emptying the reservoir if the gates fail.
The Corps may use cameras to inspect the machinery remotely, he said. The Corps is also checking to see if its Libby Dam in northwest Montana might have a bulkhead that could be used at Dworshak.
The reservoir elevation at the end of the day Tuesday was 1,583.9 feet. The goal is to augment flows for fish, dropping the reservoir level to 1,535 by the end of August, and 1,520 by the end of September.
That will be more difficult with the ROs out of action. The spillway crest is at 1,345 so that option for releasing water is lost when the reservoir level falls to about 1,350, the Hall said. The dam’s Corps operators are now running the dam at full powerhouse (about 10,000 cubic feet per second) and spilling about 4 kcfs.
The worst-case scenario is that all three ROs will have to remain closed through the summer. The Corps expects the reservoir level to drop to 1,350 by about Aug. 20 or Aug. 21 using the current turbine-spill operation.
“Beyond that we may have a difficult time drawing the reservoir down as fast as we’d like,” Hall said.
Meanwhile the dam’s turbine-spill output is 49 degrees and expected to slowly rise as the summer passes. Of concern is a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service hatchery just downstream that draws water from the Clearwater to rear juvenile chinook and steelhead.
The USFWS’s Dave Wills said temperatures rising above 52 degrees exacerbate disease control and prevention in the rearing ponds. The Corps’ Jim Adams said the amount of spill could be ramped down if needed, reducing the amount of warmer water being released. Again that would reduce the chances of meeting the court-ordered end of August drawdown target.
FERC urged to slow down on estuary natural gas terminal
A hail of criticism from states, tribes and others has been showered on a federal assessment of environment impacts that would result from the proposed construction of a liquefied natural gas terminal on the banks of the Columbia River.
That final environmental impact statement prepared by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission staff and released June 6 could, however, be the last word. It completes the National Environmental Policy Act process for the so-called Bradwood Landing project. The FERC is the federal agency responsible for authorizing onshore LNG import and interstate natural gas transmission facilities under the Natural Gas Act.
“The commission is at the point now where it can make a decision,” said spokeswoman Tamara Young-Allen said.
FERC had scheduled consideration of the project during its July 17 meeting but it was rescheduled for its September meeting. The commission does not have an August meeting.
FERC can act “notationally” on the proposal at any time, deciding to approve it, reject it, or approve it with modifications, Young-Allen said. It can also decide it doesn’t have enough “administrative knowledge” about the project and delay a decision.
The law does not prescribe a public comment period following the issuance of a final EIS.
“But we have always reviewed them, taken them into consideration,” when comments are received, Young-Allen said.
The post-EIS comments submitted on Bradwood include one from NOAA’s Fisheries Service, which has responsibilities to protect salmon, steelhead, whales and pinnipeds that might be affected by the project. NOAA’s comments encapsulates “information needs” still outstanding that will be required to make a judgment on potential effects on those species.
“The estuary is an important place for steelhead and salmon,” said Cathy Tortorici, branch chief in NOAA Habitat Conservation Division for the Northwest Region.
“It’s a very complex project with a lot of moving parts,” she said. “My staff has been working on this project for three years.” And the job of fashioning a project and mitigation package that doesn’t jeopardize those species is not yet complete.
NOAA is awaiting a revised “biological assessment” from FERC it hopes will fill those information gaps. Likewise NOAA would like to see the final EIS enhanced. That BA is now expected in September.
“The FERC’s conclusion that the project would have limited adverse impacts appears unsubstantiated without greater detail and description of the mitigation recommendation, which are needed to fully assess the environmental impacts,” according to NOAA’s comments on the EIS.
The two documents will be used by NOAA as it prepares a biological opinion that judges whether the project jeopardizes the survival of 13 protected salmon and steelhead stocks that swim past the project, or rear in the vicinity, on their way to the ocean. BiOps are required under the Endangered Species Act.
Tortorici said FERC has the ability to “issue something called a conditional license,” but that the project can’t move forward until certain requirements, such as a completed BiOp, are satisfied. Those requirements include a Clean Water Act Section 401 certificate and Coastal Zone Management Act concurrence, two needs also specifically noted by the states.
The EIS produced a flurry of requests that the decision be stalled and/or that the EIS be withdrawn or improved upon.
“FERC’s report represents a failure to be accountable to the people of Oregon,” Gov. Ted Kulongoski said. “The disregard for Oregon’s concerns is unacceptable, particularly on a project with such profound potential impacts on the lives of Oregonians.”
In a July 10 letter he asked FERC to withdraw the final EIS and not to make any further decisions until Oregon’s concerns are addressed and the state’s permitting processes are completed.
A July 25 letter from the state of Washington says the EIS major public and environmental safety concerns have been left unaddressed.
“Ecology is disappointed that FERC’s final environmental review for Bradwood Landing failed to adequately address concerns we raised in previous comments on behalf of Washington’s citizens and environment,” said Jay Manning, director of Washington’s Department of Ecology. “We are asking FERC to require Northern Star to obtain and comply with state and local environmental permits as a condition of any approval order or certificate.”
Kulongski’s letter said “The overall level of detail in the FEIS is inadequate. Much of the FEIS contains only general information about environmental and resource effects. There is little or no linkage between the factual information supporting the FEIS and the conclusions in the document. Nor has FERC staff proposed enforceable conditions to the FERC license to address most state agency concerns.”
In his letter, Manning asks that FERC reconsider Washington state’s concerns that were submitted during the project’s environmental review phase.
“Ecology is disappointed that FERC’s final environmental review for Bradwood Landing failed to adequately address concerns we raised in previous comments on behalf of Washington’s citizens and environment,” said Manning. “We are asking FERC to require Northern Star to obtain and comply with state and local environmental permits as a condition of any approval order or certificate.”
The state says:
- The final environmental impact statement lacks detail over the spectrum of life-threatening and health-threatening emergencies that could arise from the project.
- The last pipeline project FERC authorized in the state required the project to follow Washington’s regulatory guidelines for in-water projects, which are more protective than FERC’s requirements. FERC isn’t requiring the Bradwood Landing proposal to use the state’s more stringent standards.
- Future shippers won’t be required to follow Washington’s voluntary standards for tank vessels that help safeguard against spills.
In 2005, Congress passed a law that gave sole authority to FERC for siting, construction, expansion and operation of liquefied natural gas terminals. Gov. Chris Gregoire strongly opposed the change because she said it undermined local and state ability to protect citizens and natural resources. The states want local and state public safety and environmental protection standards included as conditions of certificates FERC issues for the project.
Comments from the governors and from lawmakers such as U.S. Reps. Darlene Hooley, David Wu and Peter DeFazio of Oregon and Brian Baird of Washington say constituents have expressed concern about what impacts this project could have on public health and safety, the environment, tourism, recreation and the economy
“If the project is authorized, we will work closely with our counterparts in Oregon who have the environmental regulatory authority over the terminal construction and operation to keep Washington residents’ concerns in the forefront,” Manning’s letter said.
FERC has made it clear that the federal rules prevail, as evidenced in its May 30 authorization of the 1.8 billion cubic feet per day Rockies Express Pipeline LLC project to construct and operate a new interstate. The 42-inch diameter pipeline will traverse 639 miles from Missouri through Illinois and Indiana and into Ohio.
That authorization said that “Any state or local permits issued with respect to the jurisdictional facilities authorized herein must be consistent with the conditions of this certificate.
“We encourage cooperation between interstate pipelines and local authorities,” FERC said. “However, this does not mean that state and local agencies, through application of state or local laws, may prohibit or unreasonably delay the construction or operation of facilities approved by this Commission.”
Challenges to FERC rulings “have been upheld when they are in conflict with states,” Young-Allen said.
Tribal comments on the final EIS say it ignores their earlier input and that the project has far more risk than benefit.
“… the ecology of this Bradwood site compared to that of other LNG proposed sites leaves no doubt less harmful alternatives are available,” according to comments submitted July 24 by the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission. “Bradwood is a unique, valuable and productive salmonid rearing habitat that must be preserved and protected, not destroyed.
“In total, stark contrast, the Bradwood LNG project would be a large-scale industrial development that will have lasting, permanent negative affects on the surrounding fish habitat and related environments,” the CRITFC comments said.
NorthernStar Natural Gas is seeking authorization to build the ship terminal on a former industrial site at Bradwood, Oregon, 38-miles from the river mouth. A “sendout” pipeline would stretch nearly 19 miles upriver, cross the Columbia and run 17 more miles to Kelso, Wash.
The purpose of the Bradwood Landing Project is to import natural gas to the Pacific Northwest. LNG is natural gas that has been turned into a liquid state by cooling it to about minus 260 degrees Fahrenheit to reduce its volume for transport in specially designed carriers some distance across oceans from its point of origin to the proposed LNG import terminal.
The project includes:
- Dredging a 58-acre maneuvering area off the federally-maintained Columbia River navigation channel, and a single berth capable of receiving and unloading LNG carriers with cargo capacities ranging from 100,000 to 200,000 cubic meters;
- Installing a set of four 16-inch-diameter LNG unloading arms at the berth, and a 1,240-footlong 32-inch-diameter cryogenic LNG transfer pipeline and 6-inch-diameter LNG
- Recirculation cool-down pipeline from the berth to the storage tanks;
- Installing two 160,000 m3 insulated LNG storage tanks;
- Building a vapor handling system and vaporization equipment, including seven submerged combustion vaporizers capable of regasifying the LNG for sendout through a transfer meter station; and
- Building ancillary utilities, service buildings, and associated safety and security systems
“Based on the analysis included in the EIS, the FERC staff concludes that the proposed action would have limited adverse environmental impacts,” the FEIS concludes. “However, if the Bradwood Landing Project is constructed and operated in accordance with applicable laws and regulations, and with implementation of NorthernStar’s proposed mitigation measures, and the additional mitigation measures recommended by staff, environmental impacts would be substantially reduced.”
Idaho releases plan to increase, conserve Snake white sturgeon
The Idaho Department of Fish and Game this week released its draft plan for reviving flagging populations of white sturgeon, a popular game fish found in the Snake River.
The agency will accept public comments until Sept. 15 on its “Draft Management Plan for Conservation of Snake River White Sturgeon in Idaho.” The draft is available for public review and comment at fishandgame.idaho.gov.
The draft Fish and Game management plan considers only white sturgeon found in the Snake River in Idaho—not the population in the Kootenai River of northern Idaho. Snake River white sturgeon have declined in abundance due to a variety of factors, including overharvest, dam construction, water management and water pollution, according to the agency.
White sturgeon are the largest freshwater game fish in North America, historically reaching lengths of more than 15 feet and weights of more than 1,000 pounds. They can live to be 100 years old.
The management plan describes actions that could increase the range and population abundance of white sturgeon in the Snake River. The IDFG will work with other agencies and stakeholders to accomplish actions identified in the plan.
The objectives of the management plan include providing for coordinated management of white sturgeon in the Snake River, providing for an orderly and sustainable no harvest recreational fishery, facilitating data collection for stock assessments, integrating and defining the role of artificial propagation, increasing public awareness through information and education, and obtaining public acceptance and compliance for the plan.
In Idaho, the historical distribution of white sturgeon included the Snake River upstream to Shoshone Falls, a 213-foot natural barrier to migration. Sturgeon were found in the Salmon River as far upstream as McKim Creek, and in the Kootenai River drainage in northern Idaho. In 1994, white sturgeon inhabiting the Kootenai River were listed as endangered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service under the Endangered Species Act. Management and recovery of the Kootenai stock is directed under a separate document.
White sturgeon are now segmented into nine reaches of the Snake River including the Hells Canyon complex. Of the nine reaches, only two support viable populations characterized by self-sustaining natural recruitment. These reaches are Bliss Dam to C.J. Strike Reservoir and Hells Canyon Dam to Lower Granite Reservoir along the Idaho-Oregon border. Reaches other than these two show little or no detectable reproduction.
The draft says there is a high demand for white sturgeon angling opportunity, particularly in three reaches: 1) below Bliss Dam, 2) below Hells Canyon Dam, and 3) immediately below C.J. Strike Dam. The altered habitat and low population productivity in the Snake River means it is unlikely that any sustainable harvest opportunity on wild fish can be provided in the foreseeable future, according to the plan.
Because the various Snake River reaches have a range of characteristics and are essentially isolated from one another, the management plan addresses white sturgeon on a reach by reach basis. Within the native distribution of white sturgeon, population and recreational fishery objectives are developed for each reach based on the physical habitat and flow conditions and the current status of the population and fishery.
The management plan also addresses expansion of white sturgeon into new waters outside their historical distribution to provide unique recreational opportunities.
In Idaho, the IDFG is the lead agency responsible for white sturgeon management, but will work with other state and federal agencies and other entities to implement management actions.
Idaho Power Company is an electric utility that owns and operates a number of hydroelectric facilities in southern Idaho, including on the mainstem Snake River. As a result of relicensing the Middle Snake River projects (Shoshone Falls, Upper Salmon Falls, Lower Salmon Falls, Bliss) and the C.J. Strike Project, IPC is responsible for implementing a number of protection, mitigation, and enhancement activities to benefit white sturgeon in the Snake River.
The Nez Perce Tribe, as per treaty rights, conducts research on white sturgeon populations in the Hells Canyon-Lower Granite reach of the Snake River and participates in a tribal harvest fishery in the same area.
The IDFG proposes three separate categories of white sturgeon populations in the Snake River based on those defined by a multi-state position document on genetic considerations concerning cutthroat trout management produced by the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources in 2000. The categories include:
- White Sturgeon Core Conservation Populations, which are defined as self-sustaining populations that support sport fisheries and have regular natural recruitment and all age/size classes represented. Core conservation populations have adequate flow regime, water quality, and physical habitat characteristics to meet all life history requirements in most years. IDFG management emphasis will be on protecting and enhancing habitat and water quality to promote sustainability by natural recruitment, and on protecting the genetic integrity and diversity of the population. Sport fishing for white sturgeon will continue under the current catch-and-release regulation and angling-related mortality will be assessed. Conservation enforcement efforts will focus on these reaches to minimize illegal harvest.
- White Sturgeon Conservation Populations are reaches with existing white sturgeon populations and sport fisheries but with infrequent or no natural recruitment and unbalanced age/size structure. These reaches may receive recruitment from downstream drift or may have received hatchery supplementation in the past, but lack the flow, water quality, and/or physical habitat characteristics to meet all life history requirements in most years. IDFG management emphasis will be on protecting and enhancing habitat and water quality. Supplementation with hatchery fish or translocated wild fish may be used to rebuild spawning populations or enhance angling opportunity. Sport fishing for white sturgeon will continue under the current catch-and-release regulation and angling-related mortality will be assessed.
- White Sturgeon Sportfish Populations are suitable large river waters outside the historical distribution where white sturgeon can provide or have provided diversity to existing fisheries. These river reaches are expected to lack the flow regime, water quality, and physical habitat characteristics to meet all life history requirements, and angling opportunity would be supported by the periodic stocking of hatchery-reared Snake River white sturgeon. Sport fishing for white sturgeon would be under the current catch-and-release regulation although a limited harvest fishery may be an option in the future.
Fish and Game expects to conduct public open house meetings on the plan at Fish and Game regional offices in Jerome, Nampa and Lewiston. Comments will be accepted until Sept. 5.
For information contact Scott Grunder, native species coordinator, at 208-287-2774.
Great Lakes compact receives senate approval
The Senate has voted to ratify a compact to prevent the diversion of water from the Great Lakes, quickly approving legislation sought by the region’s governors worried that thirsty places would covet one of the world’s largest sources of fresh water.
The Senate passed the measure without objection, and it now awaits action in the House. President Bush has said he will sign it into law, and both major presidential candidates, Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain, have said they support it.
“Senate passage of this compact will help us protect the Great Lakes from water diversions and preserve this invaluable resource for future generations,” said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., the bill’s chief sponsor.
The agreement, negotiated by eight Great Lakes states, prevents countries or remote states from tapping into the lakes from their natural drainage basin with rare exceptions. In addition, states would be required to regulate their own large-scale water use and promote conservation. Michigan was the final state to approve the pact last month.
Sen. George Voinovich, an Ohio Republican and co-chair of the Senate Great Lakes Task Force with Levin, said the best way to preserve and protect the lakes is “by passing and enacting the Great Lakes Compact and keeping control of the lakes in the hands of the states that surround them and value them the most.”
Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., said the compact “will protect the health of these precious bodies of fresh water, preventing unnecessary and dangerous diversions of Great Lakes waters. I know the people of Wisconsin feel strongly about the importance of preserving the lakes for future generations.”
Wisconsin Sen. Herb Kohl, a Democrat, said the compact “would preserve and protect one of our national treasures for us and future generations.”
The National Wildlife Federation urged the House to quickly follow the Senate’s lead, but that will have to wait until next month, when Congress returns from its August recess. The compact was approved by the House Judiciary Committee.
“It’s time to seal the deal and protect our lakes, our drinking water, our economy and our way of life,” said Andy Buchsbaum, regional executive director of the federation’s Great Lakes office.
Rep. Bart Stupak, a Democrat who represents northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula, has questioned the compact because it allows bottled water to be shipped from the region.
Cameron Davis, president of Alliance for the Great Lakes, said the Senate’s quick action shows that Congress recognizes the Great Lakes “as a national icon.” Levin introduced the bill just last week.
NMFS must examine pesticide impacts on salmon
A coalition of fishing and environmental groups this week settled a lawsuit with the National Marine Fisheries Service regarding the impacts of pesticides upon federally protected salmon and steelhead.
The settlement requires NMFS to examine the impacts that 37 pesticides commonly used in the Pacific Northwest and California have on salmon and steelhead listed under the Endangered Species Act.
NMFS, under the settlement, has agreed to design permanent measures to help pesticide users minimize the harmful effects of those pesticides.
The Environmental Protection Agency determined that the 37 toxic pesticides at issue in the settlement may harm protected salmon and steelhead. Most of the pesticides have been detected in major salmon and steelhead rivers in the Pacific Northwest and California. Scientists have found that, even at low levels, toxic pesticides can harm salmon and steelhead by causing abnormal sexual development, impairing swimming ability, and reducing growth rates.
”This settlement starts the federal agencies down the path of honestly addressing a serious problem endangered salmon still face in our rivers—too many pesticides and other chemicals. It also brings more certainty to the agricultural community by ensuring that these issues will not be hanging over them indefinitely. Cleaning up our rivers is good for both fishermen and farmers, and will also help restore thousands of lost fishing jobs to the Northwest,” said Glen Spain of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, a commercial fishing industry trade association that is a co-plaintiff in the suit.
More than five years ago, a federal court ordered EPA to consult with NMFS on the impacts that certain pesticides have on salmon and steelhead in the Pacific Northwest and California. EPA began submitting the required assessments to NMFS, but NMFS never identified the measures needed to protect salmon and steelhead from the pesticides.
Brian Gorman, regional spokesman for NMFS, says the agency has agreed to complete the long overdue assessments over a 4-year period, with the first decisions due by October 2008.
These consultations are expected to culminate in on-the-ground measures designed to reduce the amount of pesticides that run into salmon-supporting rivers and streams.
