1. CONSERVATION, FISHING GROUPS SUE NMFS OVER BIOP Posted on Wednesday, September 03, 2003 (PST)

A lawsuit filed Thursday asks the U.S. District Court to order the federal government to rethink a Columbia Basin salmon recovery plan that the plaintiffs say is rife with faulty scientific assumptions and doomed to failure because of a lack of Bush Administration support for implementation funding. Read More...

2. BPA TO FUND PROJECTS "OFFSETTING" EMERGENCY RIVER OPS Posted on Wednesday, September 03, 2003 (PST)

The Bonneville Power Administration said it intends to launch within days a fish and wildlife project solicitation intended to "offset" adverse impacts of emergency hydrosystem operations on salmon and steelhead listed under the Endangered Species Act. BPA officials have said that from $10 million to $20 million could be made available for the effort. Read More...

3. FEDS DECIDE ON MCNARY TRANSPORT, STILL MULLING SPILL Posted on Wednesday, September 03, 2003 (PST)

Federal executives won't have a final Columbia River operations plan ready until May 17, but they did promise decisions on four critical fish operations by the end of this week. Of the four -- spring spill, transportation of juveniles at McNary Dam, lowering Vernita Bar flows and beginning a pulsing operation at Lower Granite Dam -- only two decisions are made and a third is likely to receive attention today. Read More...

4. HANFORD FLOWS TO BE REDUCED TO REFILL GRAND COULEE Posted on Wednesday, September 03, 2003 (PST)

The Vernita Bar Policy Group decided this week to begin ramping down flows at Priest Rapids Dam beginning Monday, May 7. Columbia River flows at the dam have been held at a fairly steady 65,000 cubic feet per second in accordance with the Vernita Bar agreement to prevent emerging Hanford Reach fall chinook fry from being stranded in pools at the river's edge. Read More...

4. HANFORD FLOWS TO BE REDUCED TO REFILL GRAND COULEE Posted on Wednesday, September 03, 2003 (PST)

The Vernita Bar Policy Group decided this week to begin ramping down flows at Priest Rapids Dam beginning Monday, May 7. Columbia River flows at the dam have been held at a fairly steady 65,000 cubic feet per second in accordance with the Vernita Bar agreement to prevent emerging Hanford Reach fall chinook fry from being stranded in pools at the river's edge. Read More...

4. HANFORD FLOWS TO BE REDUCED TO REFILL GRAND COULEE Posted on Wednesday, September 03, 2003 (PST)

The Vernita Bar Policy Group decided this week to begin ramping down flows at Priest Rapids Dam beginning Monday, May 7. Columbia River flows at the dam have been held at a fairly steady 65,000 cubic feet per second in accordance with the Vernita Bar agreement to prevent emerging Hanford Reach fall chinook fry from being stranded in pools at the river's edge. Read More...

5. ISAB CALLS FLOW AUGMENTATION WORTHY EXPERIMENT Posted on Wednesday, September 03, 2003 (PST)

Flow "augmentation" via water releases from Snake River reservoirs and those that feed the Snake should not be abandoned. But a fine-tuning of research is needed to settle conclusively debates over the practice's potential benefit to migrating fall chinook salmon, according to a panel of independent scientists. Read More...

6. CRITFC RIPS HATCHERY SURPLUS REPORT, ISAB Posted on Wednesday, September 03, 2003 (PST)

Long wary of "so-called independent science committees," the head of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission has called for the disbanding of an 11-member group assembled to advise the Northwest Power Planning Council and National Marine Fisheries Service on fish and wildlife recovery issues. Read More...