I recieved this from NSIA Tonight:

Dear NSIA Members and Friends,

Bonneville Power Administration is proposing that summer spill be eliminated as an "experiment." (How many experiments do we need before we can prove that fish actually do need water?). Spill over the tops of the dams is the safest way to get smolts to the ocean. Fall Chinook smolts that are spilled over dams survive at a rate that is about 17 times higher than those that are trucked or barged!

Believe it or not Rep. Peter Defazio is currently circulating a letter among the NW delegation that supports BPA's position on this!

BPA would rather use the water for hydro generation than provide the river conditions that fish need. By their own calculations they could eliminate summer spill, thereby saving themselves about 1.2% of their annual budget. In the process they claim only 24 Snake River Fall Chinook would be eliminated. Their plan is to take what is certain (Spill) and try to mitigate with other, less certain measures, one of which is harvest reduction! There are a couple of problems with this.

1) They are ignoring that by their own calculations, (which are in deep dispute) that no summer spill would eliminate 20,000 adults. The tribal biologists say it would be more like 50,000 fish.

2) The ENTIRE sportfishery in the fall only harvests on average about 100 of the returning Snake River Fall Chinook, while we are harvesting about 40,000 healthy fall chinook, and tens of thousands of Coho.
Eliminating 24 Snake River Wild Fall Chinook would cut our fishery on chinook by 25%! There will be 10,000 LESS healthy fish to access by the removal of the limiting stock.

That's right, those 24 fish will constrain access to 10,000 healthy fall chinook, plus Coho that are in at the same time from OUR sportfishery in 140 miles of river up to Bonneville Dam! Ten thousand fall chinook translate into about 40,000 anglers trips.

3) In 2001 where water supply and snow pack were low and Bonneville was in financial trouble, the fish took it in the shorts during outmigration, because BPA did not want to give any water to the fish, saving it instead for power generation. Now, it's 2004, there is lots of snowpack, and BPA's finances are more stable-and what-fish are supposed to pay again? Every time Bonneville make a bad decision, (WHPPS, or the Energy scandal of 2001) they go for the gills.

You have to ask yourself, where do fish fit in, if at all. It looks like no matter what, Bonneville wants the water for generation, not for healthy fish populations.

What can you DO?

E-mail Peter Defazio, and tell him you do not support elimination of summer spill, unless the mitigation is to increase flows. Then, contact Rep. Darlene Hooley and Rep. David Wu, and tell them not to sign on to Rep. Defazio's letter. Flow and spill measures are the core of the so-called aggressive non breach recovery plan. Water is essential for healthy salmon populations, and cannot be sutstituted for.

Send a quick e-mail today. Please have all your buddies who fish, or care about fish e-mail today!! We are about to lose what we need for healthy fish fisheries, and about 1/4 of our fall chinook fishing in the Columbia! Please blind copy NSIA your e-mails. Thanks.

Rep Peter Defazio, C/O David.dreher@mail.house.gov
Rep. Darlene Hooley C/O mark.dedrick@mail.House.gov
Rep. David Wu C/O Kelly.scannell@mail.house.gov

Yours in service,

Liz Hamilton, Executive Director
Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association
PO Box 4
Oregon City, OR 97045
NSIALIZ@AOL.COM
503 631 8859
503 631 3887 fax

Dave, you should get paid for this kinda stuff too!

Hemp oil has long been used for industrial purposes but more recently has been found to have an exceptional nutritional profile -- containing essential fatty acids found in fish that are considered important for good health.

This should make it easier for anyone who wants to take action....


I heard a nasty rumor that the Bonneville Power Administration ("BPA") is proposing to eliminate summer spill over the dam to see what impact it will have on salmon. Its seems more likely that this is a means to generate additional income to the detriment of salmon in the Columbia River Basin. How long does it take for the BPA to recognize that fish need water and that spilling water over the dam is one of the most effective means for smolts to travel downstream?

I am writing to let you know I oppose such an action and would ask that you do the same.

Sincerely,
XXX

My brother works for BPA, Not knowing "exactly" what he does there....i explained to him what i had read and made sure i added the word "experiment" in there about the spillage of water. This is what he in short wrote to me.

I'm involved with the transmission control systems
(that also monitors streamflows btw). Its not an "Experiment". Safe to say that BPA and other entities try
like the dickens to balance fish, power, tribal issues, recreation,... Down below are some recent news
releases. Things are rather positive for fishys these days, depends are who you are though. Many in the public see only one thing that BPA, the Corp of engineers, or "Dam" folk may do, and do not see the overall picture of what is going on between B.C and Astoria. Believe me, its very complicated, but I sure
was thankful the Corp knew what they were doing during the flood.

The main BPA site www.bpa.gov has plenty of stuff out there related to fish, streamflows,
and what not. try this one http://www.efw.bpa.gov. Ask them for the hard science that
says fish are impacted one way or another. Its a debate that will go on for a long time...

One of the news releases that caught my eye was this one.... seems that they hold back flows in certain pools of the Columbia to help in the spawning process. Read below....

Fish operations continue on the Columbia River
Operations at most of the major storage dams on the Columbia River system and several of the other major projects are still being influenced specifically for fish. The operations are to benefit spawning for the next generation. Fall and winter fish operations call for holding streamflows steady for weeks and months at a time in specific river reaches. Natural streamflows vary widely, so maintaining steady streamflows means manipulating water releases from reservoirs upstream. The operations help burbot spawning below Libby Dam in Montana, kokanee salmon in Lake Pend Oreille in Idaho, chinook at Vernita Bar on the Columbia in Washington and chum below Bonneville Dam near Portland. It's not just BPA that tends to fish needs year around. Idaho Power Company is holding water discharges from Brownlee Dam steady for Snake River chinook operations. Grant County PUD further smoothes out mid-Columbia flows from Priest Rapids Dam for the sake of the Vernita Bar redds.


And this release, in question to water being spilled "over" dams, It may not be new to all of us but what they call the "corner collector" is expected to increase the safe passage of juvenile fish to upwards of 50 percent.

"Corner collector" gives fish smooth ride

A new ice and trash chute, rebuilt and renamed the "corner collector," is expected to increase the number of juvenile fish passing safely through Bonneville Dam by 50 to 60 percent. The corner collector gives young fish a new surface flow bypass route - basically a tremendous water slide - with a 40-foot waterfall, a 2,800-foot slide down the channel, and a 30-foot drop into a newly built plunge pool. Unlike the old ice and trash chute, which used to dump the fish right below the dam, the corner collector conveys the fish a half mile downstream well below the area where northern pikeminnow and hungry sea lions tend to lurk. The trash chute has been redesigned. The new structure cost $48 million.

I guess i still have alot of research to do on the subject but It appears that they are doing their part.

Louis

This is a serious issue that should get as much attention as the WSR topic in my opinion. Heck there might even be some steelhead at risk too.

With the snowpack this year there is no reason for them to give the fish less water than last year.

This post didn't get as much ink as it did on "Website EX" I think that most get overexcited when BPA does anything and they just AssUme every fish in the river will be killed. How else will they know what is good for ALL involved if they don't try different things....Do a little investigating unbiased and you'll be suprised what you will learn....i'm just glad my brother who works for BPA sends me some snippets from time to time.

Please read and maybe share anywhere else it might be needed.

CORNER COLLECTOR TO BE TESTED
Agreement will save $$ and fish
This year's test will show whether the corner collector can improve fish passage while reducing spill costs.


The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and BPA have agreed to test the effectiveness of the new corner collector at the Bonneville Dam second powerhouse. Their idea promises to save ratepayers money and improve fish survival.
In recent years, the Corps has spilled water through Bonneville Dam for salmon smolts released from USFWS Spring Creek Hatchery just upstream. The test this year will determine whether the corner collector can do the job instead. USFWS will release two groups of juvenile salmon from Spring Creek Hatchery. For the first release, in the first week of March, the Corps will provide 50,000 cubic feet per second of spill at Bonneville Dam around the clock for four days and will monitor how many of the young salmon make it past the dam.

The USFWS will then release the second group of hatchery fish. This time there will be no spill, but the corner collector will operate for six days. Results will be monitored. Operation of the corner collector requires about 6,000 cfs.

USFWS will implant coded wire tags in juvenile salmon in both groups so it will be able to measure differences in the survival of each group based on the number of adults that return in two to three years. All parties are so optimistic that the corner collector will improve fish passage that USFWS has agreed not to request spill to support Spring Creek Hatchery releases in 2005 and 2006, assuming the corner collector performs as expected. (Reported by Hugh Moore)


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SPILL DEBATE CONTINUES
Council urges tests this summer…and decision soon



The Northwest Power and Conservation Council wrote the BPA Administrator and four other regional federal executives this past week urging them to decide quickly on this year's summer spill tests. "Continued delay will make it difficult to complete the necessary analyses and conduct the tests this summer," the Council said.
BPA's Suzanne Cooper said BPA welcomes the letter. "It's been difficult getting the executives' calendars together" to discuss the policy level issues with state and tribal executives, she said. "Perhaps this will ignite some openings."

The Council issued a mainstem amendment last summer recommending that the agencies test whether alternative summer spill operations could provide the same or better biological benefits at less cost to the power system. "We want the Council's mainstem amendments implemented this year," said BPA Council liaison Karen Hunt.

The issue is polarized. Federal agencies received more than 100 comments on the summer spill test options and offset programs. The states of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Alaska, the Nez Perce and Shoshone Bannock tribes, Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service jointly criticized the federal agencies' analysis of the survival effects of the various spill options. But of 99 individual comments filed, 74 supported reductions in summer spill. These were from utilities and ratepayers citing high power bills and the desire for cost-effective salmon recovery.

An Oregon House sub-committee of Agriculture and Natural Resources will devote half a day to summer spill issues at a March 1 hearing in Portland. Greg Delwiche will cover hydro 101 and summer spill issues for BPA, with Council staff, customers, interest groups, the State of Oregon and other witnesses to follow. (Reported by Pat Zimmer and Anne Morrow)


Louis F.
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Louis, That hardly seems like an objective test. Let's release one batch of hatchery fry increase the flows and feed them to the pikeminnows? And then when the others are ready to smolt, release them, and manage a minimal flow to gently guide them downstream for the week those hatchery fish have to make it to the estuary. Yea, nothing like a rigged test to obtain desired results. What about the fish from further East? They have about the same amount of time to out-migrate. What about the native fish or the wild fish?