Columbia River Salmon and Tribal News

A months-long dispute is heating up between BC Hydro and a small group of First Nations and landowners

New research charges that humans are driving accelerating sea level rise.

by

                        Conrad  Wilson








OPB |

Feb. 19, 2016 7:34 a.m.

The Environmental Protection Agency has called the uncontrolled spread of small amounts of radioactive waste at Hanford “alarming” after a Nov. 17 windstorm.

Northwest Innovation Works, the Chinese-backed company that has been seeking to build one of the world's biggest natural gas-to-methanol plants at the Port

by

                        Ashley Ahearn








KUOW/EarthFix |

Feb. 18, 2016 11:45 a.m.
| Updated: Feb. 19, 2016 8:27 a.m.

| Tacoma, Washington

Projects in the works for the Pacific Northwest could turn the region into a major hub for exporting petrochemicals and products derived from fossil fuels,

by

                        Jes Burns








OPB/EarthFix |

Feb. 18, 2016 5:30 p.m.


| Clarno, Oregon

Read Oregon LNG’s final environmental review pushed back from The Daily Astorian

Twin lawsuits filed in December in U.S. District Court in Eugene by environmental groups, if successful, would force the federal government to ensure that Oregon spotted frogs, a threatened species, have enough water to survive in the Upper Deschutes River Basin.

With a backer of one Washington coal export project in bankruptcy, here's an update on where similar projects in the region stand.

Low oil prices and the loss of a contractor have caused a Utah oil sands project to slow to a near halt, one of only two major tar sands projects in the United States.

Read Editorial: Sea lions do their worst from The Daily Astorian

Collapsing crude markets have hit oil projects across the globe.

The federal hatcheries, along with others operated by the states, are mainly responsible for maintaining salmon runs now that the river system is dammed. A pending lawsuit by an environmental group is the latest challenge to federal salmon and steelhead hatcheries on the Columbia River, a decades-old system that has also faced some congressional scrutiny in recent years.

In what may be the first award of its kind, a federal judge has ordered the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to pay the Yakama Nation for past and future costs related to cleaning up a contaminated Columbia River island. The case focused on Bradford Island, a historical tribal fishing site where waste from Bonneville Dam was dumped for decades.

Six weeks ago, it looked as though a decade of negotiations on a water management plan for the Klamath River had led to nothing. Rep. Greg Walden, the Republican who represents the Oregon portion of the Klamath basin in the U.S.

Last week included one of the signature events on the Pacific Northwest's annual calendar: the setting of spring fishing seasons on the Columbia River. The forecast for the important spring Chinook run is about 300,000 to the river's mouth, about 28 percent fewer than last year but mor

Washington lawmakers held a committee meeting yesterday to hear testimony for a proposal that asks the federal government to support restoring salmon runs above Grand Coulee Dam. Salmon runs on the Upper Columbia River were halted by dam construction in the early 1940s.

OLYMPIA - Members of the Spokane Tribe asked legislators to join an effort to bring salmon back to the Upper Columbia River about 80 years after the Grand Coulee Dam closed off one of the world's greatest fisheries. But one key lawmaker said first he would want to be convinced that won't create legal headaches for people and businesses in the region.

Oregon and California have struck a deal with PacifiCorp and federal regulators on a new path to removing four aging dams on the Klamath River without congressional approval. The move was hailed by Oregon Gov. Kate Brown and the Obama administration as a key step forward after years of delays in implementing a landmark agreement designed to resolve ongoing conflicts over water.

SALEM - A moribund push to remove a series of dams in the Klamath Basin has returned to life under a new deal announced Tuesday between California, Oregon, PacifiCorp and the federal government.

SAN FRANCISCO - An agreement by California, Oregon and the federal government on Tuesday boosted efforts to remove four dams in the Pacific Northwest despite opposition in Congress. Officials from those two states and the federal government committed in the deal to pressing ahead on plans to remove the four hydroelectric dams on the lower Klamath River, which runs through Oregon to California.

House Joint Memorial 4014 would request that the federal government and other entities to pursue the reintroduction of salmon and steelhead in the reaches of the Columbia River upstream of the Chief Joseph and Grand Coulee dams. OLYMPIA - Members of the Spokane Tribe asked legislators to join an effort to bring salmon back to the Upper Columbia River some 80 years after the Grand Coulee Dam closed off one of the world's greatest fisheries.

Last week included one of the signature events on the Pacific Northwest's annual calendar: the setting of spring fishing seasons on the Columbia River. The forecast for the important spring Chinook run is about 300,000 to the river's mouth, about 28 percent fewer than last year but mor