[1] Federal Agencies Release Newest Salmon Plan
Three federal agencies have released a draft of their newest prescription for keeping the lights on and seeing that ESA-listed salmon populations in the Columbia Basin don't wink out.
It's the third try since 2000 for the agencies to write a suite of operations for both hydro and other H's that hopes to keep dams from being breached and for fish numbers to climb. The 900-page opus will now be turned over to NOAA Fisheries, whose job is to determine whether the proposed action [PA] jeopardizes the survival and recovery of listed populations in the Snake and Columbia rivers.
Environmental groups who led litigation that tossed out the last two hydro BiOps (NWF v. NMFS) have already characterized the new proposal as more of the same old strategies. But in the end, that may be its saving grace.
The third rewrite may be a charm because BPA, the Bureau of Reclamation, and the Corps of Engineers have gone back to the bones of the 2000 BiOp to find a way to please federal judge James Redden, who tossed out the previous ones. At a March status conference, he remarked off-handedly he would OK a new BiOp that would keep the dams in place and be similar to the 2000 BiOp with more definitive funding attached to make sure things happened--"something like the 2000 and get the money."
Redden threw out the 2000 BiOp principally because habitat restoration actions designed to improve fish numbers weren't "reasonably certain to occur." The latest proposal commits more funding in that area, with BPA saying that their habitat spending is going up from $21 million to $35 million annually over the next three-year budget cycle--more than a 60 percent increase over habitat spending in the 2000 BiOp.
The draft PA says BPA will boost habitat spending even more by 2010, up to $40 million to $45 million a year between 2010 and 2017, and concentrate on tributaries where fish populations could be expected to improve. They said it will focus on areas where chinook and steelhead need the most help, the upper Columbia in eastern Washington and the Snake River region in eastern Washington and Oregon. The Bureau of Reclamation has also committed to spending up to $6 million a year, subject to annual appropriations.
The new proposal calls for adoption of the Montana plan--which means a more flexible refill and drafting policy for Libby and Hungry Horse reservoirs that improves conditions for resident fish below those projects. But it reduces slightly the amount of water available for August flows in the mainstem Columbia, but improves them in September.
The PA also calls for more discussion with Canada about the possibility of acquiring a million acre-feet of non-treaty storage for flow augmentation, and it embraces the Washington state plan to acquire more water out of Lake Roosevelt in a not-yet-done deal with the Colville Tribe that would help fish and farmers, especially in low-flow years, when the reservoir behind Grand Coulee could be drawn down nearly two feet.
The agencies say that the added 60 kaf from upper Snake reservoirs, as specified in the Snake River Adjudication is enough to help fish downstream. Environmental groups had also sued to add more water than that from BuRec's storage reservoirs in southeastern Idaho for listed fish in the lower Snake.
The proposed action also sticks with flow targets to aid spring and summer fish migrations--even though the feds have found little benefit from flow augmentation. It also sticks with the interim spill strategy approved by the court in 2006--with one big difference.
The new PA calls for a goal of 95-percent spring chinook smolt survival at each dam and for 93-percent survival for summer migrants. This means current operations like the 24-hr/100 kcfs spring spill for fish at Bonneville Dam could be reduced if research shows the 95-percent survival goal can be reached at lower levels of spill. Since the installation of a new corner collector, the Corps already has accumulated a fair amount of data that shows the Bonneville spillway route has the highest mortality rate compared to other routes of passage.
Some changes to the fish transport strategy are also outlined in the document, including a later start for barging spring chinook, which would allow them a better chance at survival after nearshore conditions have improved. However, there is a tradeoff--the change is expected to significantly reduce the survival of barged steelhead since they seem to survive early entrance into the ocean just fine compared to the chinook. Passage analysis by the COMPASS model estimated a 6 percent improvement in spring chinook returns from the change, but steelhead SARs would go down by 9 percent.
The draft PA also calls for maxed-out barging in late spring when flows are low and water temperatures are up--similar to the potential change in this year's barging strategy that was recommended by NOAA Fisheries at last week's meeting of the Technical Management Team (see story 5).
Critics of the modeling results may have a harder time convincing the judge compared to prior BiOp litigation since the collaborative COMPASS model has been positively reviewed by a group of independent scientists--the ISAB [Independent Scientific Review Board]--who examine contentious issues in the salmon recovery world for both NMFS and the Northwest Power and Conservation Council.
In the past, Judge Redden has discussed the potential need for some scientific questions to be addressed by an independent body such as the ISAB. The board recently found some states and tribes' analysis of "latent mortality" to be a waste of time--another issue that has been raised by plaintiff environmental and fishing groups to counter federal analyses.
Another point in the new PA that will undoubtedly raise controversy is a new proposal that calls for a maximized barging strategy for summer migrants in the lower Snake if the numbers of chinook collected falls below 1,000 fish for three straight days. That means all spill shuts off to corral as many migrants as possible for barging below the hydro system. If numbers jump past 1,000 for two days in a row after that, spill turns back on.
If this scenario had been in place in 2006, spill would have been shut off at lower Snake dams by the middle of last July, saving BPA ratepayers millions of dollars.
But the PA recognized that it couldn't really analyze the future of the Snake River fall chinook because of the reservoir-type lifestyle of some fish discovered in recent years. All past survival data was collected when a maxed-out barging strategy was in place as well, which is a lot different from the court-ordered summer spill regime now in place, which is designed to keep half the fish in the river. The old strategy seemed to help the population, with help from a large supplementation effort, it has steadily increased in recent years.
In fact, the PA shows considerable evidence that most populations in the Snake and Upper Columbia have much improved since 1990--and their abundance is still trending upwards--a fact that NMFS will likely use in their jeopardy analysis. That's a far cry from plaintiffs' assertions that the runs are spiraling towards extinction, a notion that Judge Redden seems to embrace as well.
The latest analyses show that Snake River spring/summer chinook and middle Columbia steelhead are in pretty good shape. However, Snake River steelhead, along with Upper Columbia spring chinook and steelhead still need more help, and the Snake sockeye ESU is in extremely poor condition, despite the rah-rah language in the draft PA.
The draft PA considers the sockeye supplementation effort a success, since more than 312 adult sockeye have returned to Redfish Lake since the 1990s--a 20-fold increase, even though another group of independent scientists suggested pulling the plug on the sockeye supplementation strategy last year.
Improving Prospects
In its analysis, the document looks at each segment in the different population groups that make up each ESU, are compared base case status (1980-2000) to current status, and then compare current to prospective status from proposed operations.
For Snake River spring chinook, the draft PA estimated that the stocks got an 18-percent boost in survival from hydro improvements since 1980, including benefits from the delayed start of transport. It concludes that another 6.5-percent gain in survival can be achieved by future improvements in the hydro system, but more benefits from 3 percent to 43 percent (depending on the sub-population) might be expected from improving tributary habitat over the next 10 years, along with a 2-percent improvement in survival from reducing bird predation and another 1-percent gain by increasing the pikeminnow bounty program.
All in all, the improvements are expected to further reduce risks of short-term extinction, which are already low since many of the small populations have been growing since 1990, according to the draft PA, which includes an extensive "gap' analysis and extinction analysis, which notes the considerable uncertainties involved in such modeling exercises.
The draft PA also pointed to a hatchery reform effort now underway in the Columbia Basin to ensure that the recovery of wild stocks isn't impeded by returning hatchery fish.
The document also calls for improving assessment of harvest effects by improving the accuracy of counting harvested salmon and steelhead. The draft mentions a discrepancy over numbers of sport-harvested steelhead above McNary Dam that is currently under discussion that may impact the trend analysis of the Snake River steelhead ESU.
The agencies propose to develop a plan to add PIT tag detections to mainstem fisheries, as well as promote more fisheries that reduce the harvest of listed stocks and develop fishing techniques like the fish traps funded for the Colville Tribe that can return listed fish alive to rivers.
Federal attorneys, in their report to Judge Redden, said that the draft PA will be turned in to NMFS, but noted that "it does not reflect all of the on-going discussions with the sovereigns. These discussions may, and in all likelihood will, result in additional or modified, actions in many, if not all Hs."
One of those potential actions that recently came to light was a proposal by the state of Oregon to draw down the reservoir behind John Day to minimum operating pool--to improve fish travel time and survival. It is nowhere to be found in the draft PA, but sources say the state is still supporting the strategy
A status hearing for all parties to discuss the proposed action is scheduled for Judge Redden's Portland courtroom on June 20. Just last month, the 9th Circuit Court upheld Redden's ruling that tossed out the 2004 BiOp. The latest draft PA turns its back on the 2004 BiOp, where NOAA Fisheries had separated dam operations from the dams' existence, which were put in the baseline analysis. Then proposed hydro operations were measured against operations maxed for fish benefits, limited only by non-discretionary factors like flood control. The analysis found that dam operations did not jeopardize the ESA-listed stocks of salmon and steelhead.
Redden ruled that the analysis was faulty for a number of reasons, including the fact that the feds' analysis included only actions within the discretion of the agencies. He also said the dams' adverse effects should have been added to the cumulative effects of all the other actions that affected the listed stocks. -Bill Rudolph
[2] Chinook Jack Counts Going Through The Roof
Columbia Basin harvest managers said the spring chinook run is tracking pretty close to their pre-season estimate of 78,500 fish, which would be the third lowest return of the past 10 years. On May 21, they reiterated their belief, even though dam counts were dropping to 500 or fewer fish per day. The University of Washington's inseason forecaster was more pessimistic. On May 21, it pegged the spring run at Bonneville to be only about 70,000--down from its own pre-season estimate of 83,000. It figured the spring run was about 86 percent history.
But help may be on the way.
Jack counts, which usually play a large role in signaling the size of the following year's run, are running hot and heavy.
More than 14,000 jacks had been counted at Bonneville Dam by May 23--nearly three times the 10-year average--with little sign of letting up. If this stays on track, 2007 could be the second largest jack count since 1977, when dam counters first started separating them from adults.
Since jacks mature a year before most of the run, they are generally a sign of good things to come next year. But the ultimate run size for 2008 will depend on other factors besides jacks, such as the number of three-year old chinook expected to come back next year. That's not likely to be very many, since they went to sea in 2005 when ocean conditions off the mouth of the Columbia River were rotten.
However, the high jack numbers show that ocean conditions have improved considerably from two years ago.
But, it's still too early to make any bets on the size of next year's run, Two weeks ago, some biologists suggested that next year's spring run might be anywhere from 150,000 to 200,000 fish. If the jacks keep on coming, the smart money may move up toward the 200K mark.
And now beyond that. The 14,000 jacks that showed up in 2001 presaged a 2002 return of 270,000 chinook. Only twice in the past 10 years--in 2001 and 2002--has the spring run at Bonneville Dam surpassed 200,000 springers, when totals of 392,000 and 270,000 chinook were counted, respectively. The 2001 spring return was a modern record--the most counted since Bonneville Dam was completed in 1938. -B. R.
[3] Puget Sound Steelhead Added To ESA List
Federal fish officials announced earlier this month that Puget Sound steelhead stocks should be added to a long list of Northwest stocks for protection under the ESA, joining local chinook, some chum and bull trout from Sound watersheds.
NOAA Fisheries announced the "threatened" listing for steelhead, the seagoing relatives of rainbow trout, after studying a listing petition filed by retired WDFW staffer Sam Wright. Wright argued that the fish needed protection because they had been declining since 1996 when the feds had last taken a serious look and judged their condition did not warrant a listing.
Scientists with NOAA's biological review team [BRT] judged that the overall viability of the Sound stocks was at high risk because of declining productivity and abundance, with a more moderate risk associated with reduced spatial complexity.
The new listing includes steelhead from Hood Canal and the eastern half of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, along with two winter-run hatchery stocks--the Green River natural and Hamma Hamma River.
With the local chinook already listed, and a recovery plan for them recently approved, NOAA Fisheries regional administrator Bob Lohn said the region had already provided a solid foundation for recovering the steelhead.
"We'll continue to work with Shared Strategy, the tribes, Puget Sound Partnership, the state and others to assure that any additional effort needed to specifically benefit steelhead is included as part of a salmon recovery plan," said Lohn.
Lohn praised WDFW and tribes for their ongoing effort to develop a new state-wide strategy for managing steelhead. But that effort, seen by many as a way for the state to head off another ESA listing, didn't accomplish its goal.
The feds said that current efforts to protect steelhead aren't enough to mitigate the factors adversely affecting the stocks and reduce extinction risk.
After the listing announcement, WDFW director Jeff Koenings tried to remain optimistic, and issued a statement that pointed out the feds had not identified current fisheries as a risk to wild steelhead stocks in Puget Sound.
For years, only hatchery steelhead have been allowed to be kept by recreational anglers, a popular and mostly wintertime fishery the state says generates millions for the state economy.
The state's own draft steelhead report estimates that in Puget Sound and the Strait alone, the hatchery-based steelhead fishery generated about $26 million (2001 dollars), similar to the economic benefits from the coastal fishery, while the Columbia Basin steelhead fishery generated nearly $138 million--that's nearly $2,000 per steelhead caught.
Koenings said that the catch of wild steelhead has dropped to less than one percent of the total run since the mid-1990s (down from about 26 percent in the mid-1980s.) And he said hatchery practices have been "intensively reviewed" to make sure they are consistent with recovery goals.
However, the federal scientists are skeptical about the state's claim that hatchery fish return to rivers so much earlier than wild stocks that there is little opportunity for interaction with them. Studies have shown that the homogenized hatchery fish used in the Sound don't spawn well in the wild, and even the state admits they can reduce fitness if they spawn with wild stocks.
The feds did acknowledge that both recreational and tribal harvests have been substantially reduced in recent years, but they didn't include most hatchery stocks in the listing because the state uses only two sources of broodstock to satisfy about 70 percent of artificial production needs at steelhead hatcheries in Western Washington. The two stocks come from Chambers Creek in southern Puget Sound (winter) and Skamania River (summer).
The BRT also found a moderate risk to life-history diversity of the wild steelhead populations because of potential threats from hatchery and harvest practices in Puget Sound. The state's own report tends to agree.
Some southern British Columbia steelhead stocks have suffered similar declines in recent years, unlike many coastal and Columbia Basin steelhead stocks, which rebounded when ocean conditions improved around 1999.
But ocean conditions took a turn for the worse in 2003. By the summer of 2004, Canadian scientists found that the waters west of Vancouver Island were the warmest in the past 45 years.
Bruce Ward, a researcher with BC's Ministry of the Environment who has studied steelhead on northeastern Vancouver Island's Keogh River since 1975, presented a report at a fisheries conference last year that chronicled significant declines in BC steelhead that mirror the decline in Puget Sound stocks.
But the Canadians' say that the variation in steelhead recruitment is due mainly to climate--with high mortality for young steelhead when they hit the ocean. However, they did record one note of optimism --in 2006, steelhead numbers seemed to be headed upward again, for the time being, anyway.
Wild steelhead stocks in the Columbia Basin, even those in upper Columbia and Snake rivers, where they must pass eight or nine federal dams, have shown better return rates than Puget Sound fish in recent years--a fact noted in WDFW's own management review, which also attributes poor ocean conditions near their ocean entry point as a likely factor in their decline.
Canadian scientist Ward, who peer-reviewed the BRT findings for NOAA Fisheries, suggested in his comments to the agency that recent periods of increased drought and the frequency of fall and winter storm events may also have contributed to a decline in freshwater productivity of the steelhead stocks.
But Ward observed that recent events and ocean conditions may still be the key factor in the viability of the Puget Sound ESU--that the high mortality for juvenile steelhead once they enter the ocean likely plays a much larger role in the determination of adult numbers than adverse affects from out-of-basin hatchery stocks, predation by marine mammals, or degradation of water quality and habitat.
Federal officials shared the podium with Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire when she signed the new legislation May 7 to clean up Puget Sound waters and save its fish. The habitat-focused effort is expected to cost many billions (See NW Fishletter 230).
Speaking of the new effort to save the Sound, Gregoire said, "Today, it looks beautiful on the surface but beneath that surface, it is sick and in some places dying. Indeed, today we've heard news of another endangered species listing -- this one for our Puget Sound steelhead. It's time to act."
To create a better home for steelhead so they can take advantage of it when ocean conditions improve, is about all we can do, one federal scientist told NW Fishletter. He credited the positive responses of Columbia River steelhead from improved offshore conditions a sign that their spawning and rearing habitats are better than those found in Puget Sound tributaries.
However, WDFW officials say that most Sound steelhead stocks are trending upward again and are better shape than they were in 1996, the last time the feds looked at them and decided not to list.
In comments, they sent to NOAA Fisheries last year, including updated escapement numbers and projected returns for 2006, state biologists said it looked like marine survival rates were improving again, and the fish should get an added boost from new restoration actions now underway.
They recommended that the feds identify the Puget Sound ESU as a "Species of Concern" and re-examine it in five years. But NOAA Fisheries said there is no regulatory or funding certainty for implementation of hatchery reforms--or even what those reforms may be. They did say if WDFW completes its steelhead management plan within the next year, "we anticipate considering it in developing our final listing determination."
But the federal agency barely mentioned the marine survival issue in its May 11 Federal Register notice--saying simply that information was not available to evaluate trends in marine survival for any of the Sound's steelhead populations. -B. R.
[4] ISAB Says Fish Plans Need To Deal With Climate Change
Warming temperatures could cause changes in both freshwater and ocean habitat, short-circuiting salmon recovery efforts over the long term while having a huge effect on the hydro system, according to the Independent Scientific Advisory Board review of the potential impacts of global warming on regional salmon populations.
With more rain and less snowpack expected in the future, the board cited a 2004 study that estimated the FCRPS may have to forgo up to 20 percent of its firm power production commitments just to meet flow targets developed in the recent hydro BiOps. The shortage is expected because of the reduced prospects for filling reservoirs after so much water is used to help migrating fish.
The ISAB findings presented last week to the Northwest Power and Conservation Council noted that the subbasin fish and wildlife plans developed in a lengthy council process have "poorly addressed" impacts of future climate change.
However, the board also said the technical nature of climate change information has made it hard for planners to interpret and use it, and that the situation is improving, as future climate projections at the subbasin scale are becoming more available.
The board cited a recent U.W./NMFS study that estimated warming effects on one Puget Sound watershed. The report said a moderate restoration strategy would not overcome negative warming effects by 2050, and would reduce salmon numbers between about 5 percent and 25 percent. Even with a full-restoration strategy, overall salmon numbers were likely to decrease by five percent.
"The changes caused by climate change will be similar to those changes already caused by the hydro system," the board said, also noting that the warmer climate won't change river conditions as drastically as construction of the power system did.
With reservoirs warming water earlier and keeping it warm longer than before the dams were built, Columbia Basin water could heat up by one degree C by 2040--that's still less effect than the dams had on historical conditions, according to the report.
But water temperatures could rise beyond that in future years, with potential losses of at least 40 percent of salmon habitat in Oregon and Idaho by 2090. Washington would be less affected, with about a 20-percent habitat loss expected.
The board expects detrimental effects on eggs, as well, from higher flood flows and earlier hatch. Bull trout habitat would likely be most severely affected--from 22 percent to 92 percent of their cold water habitat may disappear.
Warmer freshwater habitat could also mean that juvenile fish, by hatching earlier, would be smaller and more vulnerable to predators.
The Columbia estuary could be negatively affected as well, if fresh water species move in and compete with juvenile salmon for food--or use them for food.
With earlier snowmelt, juvenile salmon may migrate earlier in the spring, when ocean conditions are likely to be poor, because higher temperatures could delay the onset of that spring upwelling that brings nutrient blooms and food for migrating fish.
Warm ocean temperatures could also affect the diet of some salmon species--small-shelled animals may suffer from reduced numbers because increasing CO2 levels lower the pH of seawater, which lowers the amount of carbonate available for shell building.
If fish range farther north to find adequate food supplies, they may take longer to mature and return later than they do now.
But the board's scientists said some actions could mitigate adverse affects from earlier snowmelt and increasing temperatures--controversial strategies like adding more cool water for fish flows. Such drastic action might mean that more dams would have to be built to store water for augmentation.
They also supported removable spillway weirs to keep fish from hanging out too long in the warm water of dam forebays, and they called for drawing water from lower strata in the reservoirs to cool fish ladder passage.
They also advised that transport activities for fall chinook be more in tune with temperature criteria, and even suggested looking into transporting returning adults through the lower Snake to bypass lethal late-summer water temperatures.
Other ways to cope could be to expand predator control programs of species now left alone, such as bass, walleye and channel catfish.
The ISAB also suggested opening more back-channel habitat along mainstem reservoirs to encourage increased flow to reduce water temperatures and provide cool-water refugia.
To reduce ocean mortality, they said, fish transport could be timed to coincide with more favorable conditions by the time they reach the ocean. Also, during periods of poor ocean productivity, it might be prudent to release fewer hatchery fish in order to improve survival of wild stocks, but they said this issue needed more research.
They also said managers should adapt their harvest levels to ocean conditions to ensure fish populations could be recovered when conditions are bad, and that enough would reach spawning areas to recolonize freshwater habitats when conditions are good.
The ISAB's recommendation to augment summer and early autumn flows to reduce future temperature increases has put them in something of a bind--one they acknowledge, because they readily admit such a strategy will probably mean increasing water storage in the basin--and that means more dams.
They said "careful consideration of the benefits and negative impacts ... will be required. Such consideration should occur in the near future if storage capacity is to be increased in time to address climate change impacts." -B. R.
[5] River Managers Reject Call To Maximize Spring Chinook Barging
Hydro managers turned down a recommendation last week by NOAA Fisheries to maximize fish transportation in the Snake River for the rest of the spring. With reduced flows expected after the freshet's spike, the agency said fish would be better off in barges than facing poor inriver migration conditions.
The federal agency pointed to research data that indicated later-migrating juvenile spring chinook at Lower Granite and Little Goose Dam had a far better smolt-to-adult return rate when they were barged.
According to a NOAA memo posted on the Technical Management Team's Web site, the approach is warranted because the group anticipates "substantially fewer adults will return from fish left to migrate inriver versus those transported during the low flow and high temperatures anticipated to occur this year in the later part of May."
But NOAA Fisheries' Paul Wagner didn't get much support for talking up the bump in barging. Only Montana's Jim Litchfield and Shane Scott from Northwest RiverPartners expressed support for the action at last Wednesday's TMT meeting in Portland.
Oregon and the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission opposed the change. Other representatives remained quiet about the issue.
Neither BPA nor the Corps of Engineers supported the barging plan. Both agencies had signed agreements earlier with lower Columbia and Colville tribes regarding 2007 hydro operations that included funding for some tribal projects excluded from the latest fish and wildlife budgets.
The agreements didn't specifically call for maximizing barging if spring flows were significantly reduced, though the updated proposed action for hydro operations still in effect calls for maximizing transport under low-flow conditions by ending spill at projects where fish are barged.
Curiously, NOAA Fisheries never made an official request for the change in operations, called an SOR, or systems operations request. One source said the fish agency didn't officially promote the maximized barging strategy because it was trumped by the side agreement between BPA and the tribes, developed in the remand process in federal court.
The NOAA Fisheries document that accompanied the recommendation said the 2002 water year was comparable to this year's flows, and transport smolt-to-adult survival rates (SARs) for wild chinook were four times higher than inriver fish for the late May period in that year.
Steelhead SARs were better for barged fish during that same timeframe--1.5 to 3 percent for barged fish versus less than 0.4 percent for inriver migrants.
Spring average flows at Lower Granite are expected to be around 72 kcfs, while the current May average is 82 kcfs. In 2002, the May average flow was 83 kcfs.
Another study (Muir 2006) cited by the feds said the poor performance by late spring migrants is probably because they miss optimum near-ocean conditions and are in poorer condition.
According to the University of Washington's DART [Data Access in Real Time] Web site, about 86 percent of the spring run, plus or minus 17 percent, had already passed Lower Granite Dam by May 16. In 2002, about three-fourths of the spring run had passed the dam by the middle of May. -B. R.
[6] Judge Chides BPA And Corps Over April Dam Incident
Judge James Redden issued an opinion and order this week that calls on BPA and the Corps of Engineers to comply with the 2007 spill agreement after an April marketing snafu, compounded by large releases of water from Grand Coulee to reach BiOp levels, led operators to operate turbines at lower Columbia mainstem dams outside of 1 percent efficiency to produce enough power to meet generating commitments. Operation of turbines within 1 percent efficiency is part of the spill agreement.
An anonymous early morning phone call to the judge's office a week after the incident alerted him to the April 3 problem, which was compounded by human error that led to a draft of Little Goose Pool below minimum operating pool. To raise the reservoir level, power generation and spill at lower Snake dams had to be reduced for a short time.
BPA had already admitted to the snafu at the April 4 TMT meeting, and had even given fish managers a heads up on April 3, the morning of the problem. With so few fish in the system, the managers expressed no concern, whatsoever.
But Redden said it was only luck that the biological impact was so low. He didn't accept the feds' assertion that impact was "minimal," given "the dangerously low rate of returning adult fish" and evidence that suggested poor fish survival from turbine operations outside of 1 percent efficiency.
A May 1 declaration by Steve Oliver, BPA's VP of Generation Asset Management explained the steps that led up to the decision to operate the turbines differently for a short time. Oliver said McNary operated outside of peak efficiency for 2 hours, The Dalles for 4 hours and Bonneville for only 1 hour, which boosted generation by 1750 MWh.
Oliver pointed out that the changes in operation did not reduce spill at those dams because the spill program didn't start in the lower Columbia until April 10. He also noted that 2004 and 2005 studies at McNary Dam compared changes in fish guidance efficiencies from changes in turbine operating efficiencies and found no statistical difference between the upper 1 percent operation and another one beyond that.
In layman's language, that means there was no meaningful difference in the ratio of fish that passed through the turbines compared to those who were guided into bypass systems from the two different operations.
Smolts were not even present at McNary Dam, while the smolt index at Bonneville was a tiny 13 fish/hr.
But Judge Redden questioned whether BPA would have acted any differently if the incident had occurred during the peak of the migration season. "Apparently, BPA's sales commitments to customers always trump its obligation to protect ESA-listed species," said the judge's order. "BPA must realize, however, that the fish-protection measures detailed in the 2000 and 2004 BiOps are not optional. Nor is compliance with the ESA."
Judge Redden said he was issuing the order to emphasize these points, and told the agencies to notify him "as soon as practicable" if any future violations occur and mitigation measures that may make up for them. -B. R.
[7] Grover Named To Head Power Council's F&W Division
Northwest Power and Conservation Council staffer Tony Grover has been named to run the council's Fish and Wildlife Division, starting June 1. He is currently the subbasin planning lead and policy analyst for the Washington office of the council.
"I am pleased that Tony agreed to bring his substantial management experience in environmental issues to the council's central staff," said Steve Crow, council executive director. "He is well-known and well respected in the Northwest, and he will be a valuable addition to our staff."
Before joining the council in 2002, Grover was the Eastern region director for the Washington Department of Ecology, where he served as a member of the agency's senior management team and executive management team. He represented the agency in discussions and negotiations with federal, state, and Canadian provincial agencies as well as citizen groups and businesses. -B. R.
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