A three-meeting tug-o-war was settled over the past week by Mother Nature, which released enough water from mountain snowpacks to keep Lake Roosevelt ferry boats afloat and boost Columbia River flows carrying juvenile salmon and steelhead toward the Pacific Ocean.

A "system operations request" by salmon managers first discussed April 30 during a Technical Management Team conference call asked that releases from upriver dams be increased to aid fish migrations at a time when natural flows have been slow to rise. The SOR called on northwest Montana's Libby Dam, north Idaho's Albeni Falls Dam and central Washington's Grand Coulee Dam to tap their reservoirs to assure a minimum flow of 180,000 cubic feet per second downstream at the Columbia River's McNary Dam.

Two days later, TMT participants agreed to boost outflows from Libby from 4 kcfs to 9 kcfs and to delay refill at Albeni Falls' Lake Pend Oreille by passing inflows downstream. The flows from Libby course down the Kootenai River and eventually join the upper Columbia; likewise for the Pend Oreille River.

"Fish numbers are increasing and they're only going to continue," the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife's Cindy LeFleur said May 2 of rising numbers of migrating smolts observed at Columbia and Snake river check points.

Part of the request was stalled last Friday (May 2) because Grand Coulee's Lake Roosevelt elevation had reached a breaking point, in the view of the Colville Confederated Tribes. The reservoir was approaching its target flood control elevation – 1,228.8 feet. The drawing out of water volumes greater than those coming in would drop the lake lower, which the tribes said would ground two ferries and threaten tribal cultural and fishery resources.

The tribes asked that the issue be "elevated" to the Regional Forum's Implementation Team. TMT participants include federal, state and tribal fishery managers as well as hydro managers. They convene to discuss day-to-day federal Columbia/Snake hydro system operations intended to benefit salmon and steelhead stocks that are listed under the Endangered Species Act. The more policy oriented IT can be called on to break TMT impasses.

The Corps and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers operate the dams.

The SOR from NOAA/National Marine Fisheries Service, Idaho Department of Fish and Game, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Shoshone-Bannock and the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission was intended to bridge the gap to some degree until the spring freshet begins in earnest.

The spring "flow objective" at McNary, as outlined in NOAA's ESA biological opinions, is 260 kcfs. But colder than normal temperatures have delayed the start of the annual meltoff from the upper Columbia and Snake, at least until recently.

By early this week the problem had started to correct itself. The Bureau has maintained Lake Roosevelt's elevation at or slightly above 1,228.8. Over the past eight days McNary daily inflows have ranged from 170 kcfs to, on Thursday, 259.4 kcfs. The average flow through that time period has been well above the requested minimum flow.

"As it turned out we were able to meet both objectives," the Corps' Jim Adams said of the contributions from Libby, Albeni Falls and increasing tributary flows.

The Colville Tribes had feared lowered elevation would knock out both the Keller Ferry and Inchelium ferries. That latter transports an average of 378 per day across the lake, including commuters, shipments of food and supplies, school buses and others, saving a 120-mile trip to use the Kettle Fall's Bridge

"With the current gas prices this produces a significant monetary impact and does not address the cost of the time lost or vehicle emission impacts on air quality," according to the tribe.

The potential exposure of archaeological sites along the Lake Roosevelt as well as increased bank erosion and sloughing are also a concern with continued lowering of the reservoir.

"Resident fish releases from hatcheries and net pens are scheduled to begin mid-May. If Lake Roosevelt is not refilling by that time there is an increased risk of entrainment," according to information provided IT by the tribes. To hold them longer will increase food costs and hatchery operational costs. "Additionally net pen fish mortality increases the longer those fish are held beyond their release date due to over crowding and increased water temperatures as well as an increased risk of disease."