April 11, 2014
Wanapum: Multiple fracture causes ruled out
Central Washington’s Grant County Public Utility District announced that the foundation below Wanapum Dam was not a factor in creating the fracture…
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Energy & hydropower
Federal dams on the Columbia and Snake supply most of the Northwest's power and pump water onto many of its farms. Posts here follow Bonneville Power Administration rate cases, wind curtailment, dam safety at Wanapum, and early smart-grid and hydrogen experiments.
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April 4, 2014
Oversupply: BPA will allocate costs based on use
After a lengthy rate proceeding, BPA officials have decided to allocate oversupply costs to generators within its balancing authority area…
March 7, 2014
Officials assess crack in Wanapum Dam
Fear of a blowout has been reduced, but Grant County Public Utility District officials are still puzzling over what to do about a worrisome…
February 10, 2012
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…
December 9, 2011
FERC calls BPA’s high power cutoff rule discriminatory
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has sided with wind generating companies in an order giving the Bonneville Power Administration 90…
December 2, 2011
Terns, Cormorants consume 15-20% wild hatchery smolts
Combined losses of juvenile salmon and steelhead to predation by Caspian terns and double-crested cormorants in the Columbia River estuary…
Everything filed here
2014
- Irrigators seeking rarely used review on fish populations
- The Power of Hydro
- Study: Climate change and Columbia Basin streamflow
- USGS: Studying impacts to rivers affected by dams
- Studying juvenile steelhead from release to adult return
- Despite dryness, forecast shows runoff at 93 percent
- Snake fish passages need ‘thermal-hydraulic’ features
2011
- 2011 Chinook, Steelhead harvest yields high numbers
- Hanford Reach fall Chinook redd counts above average
- Chairman Hastings’ statement on Judge Redden ruling
- NOAA initiative to increase of domestic aquaculture output
- Comment sought on Grand Coulee pumping modernization
- BPA: Wind energy curtailed 6.2% of scheduled output
2009
- BPA, Alcoa pact saves jobs and meets court mandates
- Council briefed on Quagga-Zebra Mussel action plan
- Hatchery aimed at restoring Salmon in Okanagan Basin
- Oregon requires boaters to fund invasive species programs
- DOE selects northwest team for smart grid project
- Report suggests public wants to ‘go slow’ on wave energy
- Bill to study impacts of lower Snake dam removal
- Reducing rising water temps in lower Snake River
2008
- Council hears about electric car impacts on power system
- Northwest is Saudi Arabia of hydrogen energy
- FERC approves gas terminal, pipeline in Columbia estuary
- Pinks, humpies defying past trends in Columbia River
- Dworshak failure alters flow, regime for migrating salmon
- Idaho releases plan to increase, conserve Snake white sturgeon
- World energy use to grow 50%; hydro, renewables 2.1%
- Spring chinook season shows increase over past three years
- Tribes start commercial fishery and direct sales to public
- Surprising surge of sockeye opens mainstem sport fishery
- NW families, businesses to invest billions more in salmon recovery
- Corps moves ahead on juvenile fish passage project
- 3-4 billion barrels of oil in North Dakota & Montana
- BPA reaches 1,000 megawatt wind milestone