The Washington Department of Ecology opened a rulemaking this week that will revise its freshwater dissolved oxygen standard and add a rule setting limits on the amount of fine sediments allowed in streams where salmon and steelhead spawn.
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Lake Roosevelt Lowest Level In 70 Years But Flows For Listed Lower Columbia Chum Salmon Continue; Spawner Numbers Decent So Far
December 5th, 2019
More than 500 threatened chum salmon were counted at the end of November on spawning grounds downstream of Bonneville Dam in the Ives/Pierce island area on the Columbia’s north shore. Although only halfway through the spawning season for these salmon, an anadromous fish expert with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife says this year’s tally could end up being higher than the last five-year average.
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Post Condit Dam: PacificCorp Gives Yakama Nation Right Of First Offer For Waterfront Land On Lower White Salmon River
December 4th, 2019
Although the 289 acres of waterfront land along the lower White Salmon River is currently not for sale, the land’s owner, PacifiCorp, said it has signed an agreement with the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation giving the Nation the right of first offer when and if the property does go up for sale.
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Atlantic Salmon Net Pen Collapse: Cooke Aquaculture Agrees To Pay Wild Fish Conservancy $2.75 Million In Settlement
December 4th, 2019
An aquaculture company in Puget Sound has agreed in a settlement with the Wild Fish Conservancy to pay a $2.75 million penalty for a collapse of one of its net pens near Cypress Island in 2016. More than 260,000 non-native Atlantic salmon escaped due to the collapse.
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Idaho Power To Drop EPA Lawsuit With New Water Temperature Criteria Set For Spawning Fall Chinook Below Hells Canyon Dam
December 4th, 2019
Idaho Power will soon drop a lawsuit it filed in U.S. District Court in Idaho in June 2018 aimed at forcing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to set a two-week water quality standard for fall chinook that spawn downstream of the utility’s Hells Canyon Complex of three dams on the Snake River.
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New Research On Managing Invasive Mussels Looks At BioControl, Non-Toxic Methods To Coat, Clean Boat Hulls
December 4th, 2019
A pair of studies in a special edition of the North American Journal of Fisheries Management focus on taking an integrated approach to the management of invasive quagga and zebra mussels, including using hungry fish for biological control.
Court Settlement Requires Corps To Reduce Oil Pollution From Chief Joseph Dam, Apply For Clean Water Act Permit
December 4th, 2019
As a result of a late November settlement, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will reduce inadvertent oil discharges from Chief Joseph Dam, downstream of Grand Coulee Dam, and it also will apply for a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.