Supporters of new dam on upper Green River don’t give up

Despite public outcry and negative vote by WY Water Development Commission, cattle assn, county commissions continue to push dam-

Few people seem to like the proposal to build a dam on the upper Green River above Warren Bridge. The state Water Development Commission voted 7-1 against it, but powerful interest groups are trying sidestep public opinion and push the unpopular prop0sal in the Wyoming state legislature.

Legislators to have next say on Green River dam. So far, project is not in bill to be considered by committee Dec. 15. By Cory Hatch. Jackson Hole News and Guide.

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Here is our earlier story on this proposed dam. Wyoming Water Development Commission against proposed Green River dam. November 11, 2010. Commission calls it “too expensive, unnecessary and bad for recreation and the environment”-

Western Fly Fishing Journal doesn’t like this dam. A Dam On The Green River?

North America’s biggest freshwater fish slips toward extinction

Harmed by the effects of the Libby Dam, the Kootenai River sturgeon haven’t spawned for 35 years now-

North America’s biggest fish slips toward extinction. By Matthew Brown. Associated Press.

The Libby Dam on the Kootenai River, Montana. Copyright Ralph Maughan

Green Valley Dam could fail. Army Corps working hard to shore up dam above it.

This might sound a little confusing, but apparently the way to reduce the threat of the Green Valley Dam failing after heavy rains is to shore up the Howard Hanson Dam upstream. The article says this will reduce the chances of Green Valley failing to 1 in 25 this winter.

A failure would flood a heavily populated area just south of Seattle, WA.

Corps:  Dam work lessens Seattle-area flood chance. AP

Obama Repackages Bush Salmon Plan

Calls Dam Breaching a “Last Resort”

Chinook Salmon © Ken Cole

“The administration’s passing reference to dam breaching as a ‘contingency of last resort’ defers all necessary economic, infrastructure and other studies, making this ‘contingency’ an illusion,” said Samuel N. Penney, the chairman of the Nez Perce American Indian Tribe, which has traditionally fished the Columbia.

New Federal Plan for Fish-Dam Harmony
New York Times

Obama administration backs Columbia salmon and dam plan
Rocky Barker – Idaho Statesman

Red Snow Warning: The End of Welfare Water and the Drying of the West

The long term effects of global warming, and desertification of the West examined. Exporting the water to the urban areas means exporting the rural areas’ soil to the East.

Livestock grazing, water mining, dams, all serving to desertify the West which ends up blowing, in the form of dust, to the East causing snow to melt faster and making less water available in the long run.

“After decades in which Easterners ritualistically visited the American West, the West may be traveling east.”

Red Snow Warning: The End of Welfare Water and the Drying of the West
by Chip Ward in the Huffington Post.

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Related article added on 9/15. New study shows river runoff decreases in driest years in Oregon, Northwest. By Joe Rojas-Burke, Oregonian.

Some company wants to put hydropower on Quake Lake!

Looks like the agency and groups are jumping off the wall. Good!

Story about this idiot proposal. By Jessica Mayrer. Bozeman Chronicle staff writer

Judge tells Obama to keep dam breaching on the table

Dam breaching an option to protect salmon, a U.S. District judge says – Idaho Stateman

It’s looking like judges, relatively speaking,  are more apt to uphold the law and insist that the right thing be done, even when both parties feel it more politically prudent to try to wiggle around it.   Too bad we can’t voice our pleasure via a vote for a judge.  Good thing they don’t need it.

Read the Judge’s letter here

Columbia salmon plan goes before judge for third try

Is the Third Time a Charm?

Perhaps no person has more control over the fate of Columbia River salmon and dams today than a 79-year-old Red Sox fan who doesn’t fish or much care for the taste of salmon. U.S. District Judge James Redden is expected to rule as early as next month in the long-running case over whether dams on the Columbia River system are doing enough to protect endangered fish.

Columbia salmon plan goes before judge for third try

By Warren Cornwall – Seattle Times environment reporter

The Judge has threatened to take over management himself if he is not satisfied with the latest recovery plan.

Update:

NW council approves Columbia River management plan

Omnibus public lands bill carries Craig’s water

In October, Ralph commented on Larry Craig dropping his opposition to protecting the Snake River in Wyoming.  A change of heart from an Idaho politician renowned for his anti-environmentalist zeal ?  Not quite.  The bill is lumped with a bunch of bills in the massive Omnibus public lands bill.  The motivation for Craig’s “turnabout” is perhaps made more clear with a blog post Rocky Barker wrote that I missed but is worth posting even a week later.  Craig has slapped onto the bill $3 million for the environmental & economic studies necessary to initiate new dams on the Snake, Boise, and Payette rivers, including the potential to rebuild the historic Teton Dam :

Craig leaves water studies hidden in omnibus bill – Letter from the West, Rocky Barker

Craig himself put out an editorial in November outlining all the good things he included in the omnibus bill including compensation for ranchers who lose livestock to wolves, more thinning of national forests to reduce wildfire danger and even the Wyoming bill he first opposed. But he left out the authorization of the water feasibility studies.

Rocky Barker: Goodbye Larry Craig, Bill Sali, Gordon Smith. Hello salmon solution?

Pacific NW political retirement and defeats may break 20-year logjam on saving the salmon-

Rocky Barker points out that the election outcome may have removed the obstacles to the conservationists’ solution of the sorry condition of salmon runs into Idaho, but breaching the navigation dams on the lower Snake River in Washington is still far from certain.

Election sets the stage for regional forum on salmon and dams. By Rocky Barker. “Letters from the West.” Idaho Statesman.

Hebgen Dam finally secure-

The blowout has been stopped but more repairs are needed-

On Sept. 1 this blog was the first to report on the big blowout on August 31. It was finally stopped in September and a Bozeman Daily Chronicle article says the excess flow is stopped for now. However, the cause is still not known. Repairs of an unknown magnitude will be made next year, or possibly the year after that, according to the article.

Hebgen secure for now. Published on Friday, October 10, 2008. By Jessica Mayrer Chronicle Staff Writer

Back to the drawing board on Hebgen Lake repair (Must read)

I notice a lot of people have been reading this story on the gate failures at Hebgen Dam, the news of which was first brought to us on Sept. 1 by “Idahosal.” (Salle)

They thought they had the way to fix the broken headgates at the dam, but it failed.

Oh Oh1 PPL back to the drawing board on Hebgen repair. AP

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Sept. 9

The news now is grim. The bulkhead plan did not work. There was too much turbulence at the dam intake for them to place the steel plate and stem the flow. At the moment there does not seem to be a “plan B”. The flow is still at springtime level. They are losing more than 5 inches of reservoir water elevation every 24 hours and this will accelerate as the level drops due to the cone shape nature of the reservoir bed. There are two scenarios that are scaring us at the moment.

Read the rest at http://www.mrfc.com/MadisonRiverMontanaFishing/MadisonRiverReport.aspx

Sept. 11. Remove boats before they are stranded, Hebgen Lake propert!y owners told. AP

Latest. Sept. 16. Progress slow in Hebgen Dam repair.  By Andy Malby, editor. The Belgrade News

Spring chinook return at snail’s pace to Columbia River

After the unexplained virtual disappearce of the salmon run in the Sacremento River after the best run in many years, the slow return of chinoock salmon into the Columbia has folks on edge.

Rocky Barker writes about it today. Idaho Statesman.

Update added April 11. Sharp Curb on Salmon Season. By FELICITY BARRINGER. New York Times.

Clarks Fork, Blackfoot rivers made free-flowing again.

I haven’t posted on this before, although debating and planning for this has gone on for years. Yesterday, however, it came to fruition. The old Milltown Dam near Missoula was breached and two very important rivers were made free-flowing again.

There was some positive rhetoric from the politicians. “Sen. Max Baucus, Sen. Jon Tester and other officials told the crowd that the Milltown project represented Montana’s shift from an extraction to a restoration economy, creating jobs that protect the environment and use the state’s natural resources in sustainable ways rather than plundering them.” . . . Missoulian.

Into the breach – Clark Fork, Blackfoot rivers punch through Milltown Dam. By John Cramer. The Missoulian

Some folks may have seen the popular movie, A River Runs through It. It centered on the “Big Blackfoot” river, but was mostly shot on the Gallatin River as a standin because of the damage done to the Big Blackfoot over the years.

Board mulls hearing on Upper Green River dam

Board mulls hearing on Upper Green dam. Water commission not convinced reservoir idea would fly, but may consider public views. By Noah Brenner. Jackson Hole News and Guide.

Aw the power to stupid ideas. That have such vitality! Like most proposals for new irrigation dams in the West, the economics are horrible. The environmental and pecuniary costs very high and the economic benefits very low.

Green River Lakes is regarded by many as perhaps the most scenic view in Wyoming and the upper Green is perhaps the best remaining moose habitat in a state that is rapidly losing its moose.

Squaretop Mountain from upper Green River Lake. Copyright Ralph Maughan

Note: I could use a more scenic photo. This is a fairly common one. I would greatly appreciate a contribution. Ralph Maughan

Fate of Appropriations Riders

Rocky Barker sheds some light on a lesser known appropriations rider that Larry Craig sought to pass. The language would have limited water taken from Idaho reservoirs for salmon recovery.

Craig salmon-water rider has uncertain future

There has been speculation about another appropriations rider in response to the Senator’s wish to increase grazing (errr… “fuels reduction”) in Jarbidge following the Murphy Complex Fire.

Needless to say, Craig’s ability to ride these will be an uphill endeavor considering his loss of leadership position.

Craig, “ecoterrorists”, hidden riders, and industrial legacy

There is no doubt, the hoopla surrounding ID Senator Larry Craig is a well deserved condemnation of hypocrisy that’s been years in the coming and nobody is celebrating his descent more than progressives throughout the Northwest. Now, he has resigned effective September 30.

But the shamefull manner in which a powerful Republican Senator squandered his standing is thankfully failing to completely overshadow just what it is many in Idaho and throughout the West are celebrating:

In the meantime, his actions in backrooms of the nation’s capital deserve attention. Call it a Craig’s List of how to block good deeds, or at least see that they don’t go unpunished.

23 years after historic water pact, Idaho Power Co. sues state

Idaho irrigators, boaters, fishers, commerical trout farmers, conservationists, anyone with a water right on the Snake River, and electrical power users have come to view the Swan Falls agreement of 1985 as a turning point in Idaho politics and water law. Now Idaho Power is going to court to claim that the pact didn’t leave enough water to satisfy all the uses (in their case hydropower). Idaho Power is correct. The 1985 agreement was overly optimistic (especially in view of the drying climate).

This is a huge political/economic/conservation development.

Story in the Idaho Statesman. Be sure to read the sidebar “Analysis” by Rocky Barker.

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Gravity Abolition and Canned Salmon

Lawmakers revisit the lower Snake River dam debate and demonstrate the  change-up in Congress.  It’ll be interesting… Read the Statesman’s article

 From Western Watersheds Blog:

“The Idaho Statesman has an interesting article on a new bill that would study the economics of breaching four of the lower Snake River dams.  Idaho’s federal politicians are already fortifying with Idaho economy guru, Bill Sali, introducing a “sense of Congress” resolution – which promises to deliver an enticing analogy.  If Idahoans are lucky, C-SPAN will be there to demonstrate to the world a confluence of phenonena”… more…

Idaho’s governor: Build dams

Idaho’s new governor has another brand new idea fresh out of the 1940s — build more dams in Idaho to impound water.

It might sound great if you haven’t followed the issue for a generation.

Yes, there are dam sites left in Idaho, but there is not enough flow in the rivers to fill them.

Secondly he argues that rapid urban growth requires these dams, but most of Idaho’s extraordinary per capita consumption of water is from agriculture, not cities. There is plenty of existing storage and water in Idaho to accommodate future urban use.

Third, he wants Idahoans to pay for the new dams, forgetting the Idahoans have almost never paid for the many dams in the state, especially the irrigation dams. They were paid for by the taxpayers of the Unites States or private companies. They stopped building public dams in Idaho after the Teton Dam collapsed in 1976 as it was being filled for the first time, drowning 14 people and doing a billion dollars worth of damage. Most Idahoans and American taxpayers were fed up with with paying for these boondoggles.

Story in the Magic Valley Times-News. Governor Otter with a new idea from the distant past: build storage dams in Idaho.