One of the largest employers in the Portland Harbor says it will appeal the city’s new plan to help restore the Willamette River.
The Portland Tribune report that Gunderson, a maker of rail cars and marine barges, filed a notice with Oregon’s Land Use Board of Appeals. The company tells the Trib the plan isn’t balanced enough toward business interests.
See Portland Tribune: River Plan challenged
More help is on the way to farmers and ranchers in the Klamath Basin.
The Agriculture Department has designated Klamath County as a “primary natural disaster area” because of drought conditions.
The Copco 1 Dam on the Klamath River. Photo courtesy U.S. Fish and Wildlife.
When government and tribal leaders gathered in Salem earlier this year to sign the Klamath basin agreements, the talk was all about dam removal. ”Hasta la vista to the dams,” said California’s Governor Schwarzenegger.
But what Schwarzenegger, Governor Kulongoski and the others glossed over is that there is no agreement to remove dams on the Klamath River. There’s only an agreement to study the issue. A decision is a couple of years away.
And now we’re seeing what could be the first attempt to take advantage of that loophole.
In 2002, tens of thousands of salmon died in the Klamath River after the Bush Administration decided to give farmers priority over fish and wildlife. Photo from Water Watch.
A rather disturbing story from the Times-Standard newspaper in Northern California.
Reporter John Driscoll interviewed scientists, including some from OSU, who say there’s so little water in the Klamath River we may see a repeat of 2002 when as many as 60,000 salmon died.
The problem is a tiny parasitic worm that lives in river silt. Driscoll reports that silty river bottoms are spreading across the Klamath River and scientists are finding higher concentrations of worms in those areas. Releasing more water from dams could flush away the silt and help the fish. But with the area facing a historic drought, will there be a enough water in the system to do that?
For the entire story see: Klamath River fish diseases spreading
Tip from the Pacific Fishery Management Council
Sunrise at Fern Ridge Reservoir, one of three expected to fill up this spring. Photo by Bob Heims, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
With Willamette Valley snow pack way below average, and no extra rain in the forecast, the Army Corps of Engineers says most of the reservoirs it operates in the valley won’t fill up this spring.
We’re not anywhere near drought conditions. But the dry forecast means the Corps will have a tougher job managing how much water it releases and when. Releasing too much water now means there won’t be enough for salmon and other fish in the fall.
And boaters are sure to notice a difference.
Condit Dam on the White Salmon River in Washington State.
In 1999, Pacific Power, environmental groups and the Yakama Nation reached a landmark agreement to remove the Condit Dam on the White Salmon River.
More than a decade later, the dam is still there.
The delays are frustrating the Gifford Pinchot Task Force, which recently warned members that time is running out if the dam is going to be removed this year.
And here’s what it says you can do to help.
It wasn’t all that long ago that the Columbia River would be filled with smelt during migration season. There were enough of these tiny fish to support a vibrant commercial fishing industry. Millions of pounds were harvested every year.
Then sometime in the 1990s, things started to go very badly for the Pacific Smelt.
On Tuesday, NOAA Fisheries announced it will list the fish as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
Along the Willamette River Water Trail. Photo from Oregon Parks and Recreation.
If we’re ever going to restore the Willamette River basin, it’s going to cost a huge chunk of money.
Anywhere from about $593 million to $1.2 billion, according to Oregon DEQ.
In a new report, DEQ says decades of farming, logging and urban development have degraded the basins streams and rivers.
Oregon’s Senator Merkley and Rep. Blumenauer are introducing legislation to reduce pollution in the Columbia River.
At a cost of about $40 million a year, the bill creates a team at the EPA office in Portland that will work with states, tribes, local governments and other federal agencies across the Columbia River Basin.
It gets a hearing before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Wednesday morning – about 6:30am our time. Merkley is a member of the committee.
During Thursday’s Klamath Basin signing ceremony, one group was conspicuously absent, Oregon’s environmental community.
Groups such as Oregon Wild and Water Watch, say they were kicked out of the talks that produced the two historic deals on Klamath Basin water sharing and dam removal. National groups such as American Rivers and Trout Unlimited did sign on.
Earlier this week, we talked with Sean Stevens of Oregon Wild about his group’s objections. He calls this a billion dollar boondoggle that doesn’t do enough to protect Klamath Basin salmon.
