Federal attorneys said the proposal by BiOp plaintiffs to add more spill and flow to next year's dam operations on the Columbia and Snake rivers would kill more fish than would operations outlined in the old 2004 BiOp. In addition, proposed changes to reservoir operations would hamstring winter power production and cost the region nearly half a billion dollars a year. ...more

BiOp plaintiffs filed their reply to the thousand or so pages of federal agency arguments against their proposed hydro operations on Dec. 7, conjuring up a Stars Wars-like defense of their proposal, which calls for a more natural-like spring freshet and less reliance on techno-fixes, quoting from a popular science fiction movie to make their point. ...more

Discussion began last week in earnest on how to transfer operations from the controversial Fish Passage Center to other regional entities. A Dec. 2 conference call between the Northwest Power and Conservation Council's fish and wildlife committee and the Bonneville Power Administration picked up the beat, beginning a new debate that's likely to last through the winter. ...more

Scientists from NOAA Fisheries' Science Center in Seattle say the Fish Passage Center's latest draft survival study of hatchery and wild chinook in the Columbia and Snake rivers is misleading because its analyses are incomplete and don't "fully support" the findings in the Comparative Survival Study's executive summary. ...more

The Northwest Power and Conservation Council held a special session Dec. 7 to take public input on how best to replace the Fish Passage Center, slated for demolition by language in a congressional spending bill by Mar. 21. It gave supporters of the Center one last chance to grouse about Idaho Sen. Larry Craig's successful attempt to kill the agency's funding by the Bonneville Power Administration. ...more