Columbia River Archives - Page 2 of 2 - Northwest Public Broadcasting

Tribes Release 1st Salmon Into Upper Columbia Since Dam Construction

By Courtney Flatt August 11, 2019

Colville Tribal member Crystal Conant releases the final salmon into the upper Columbia River on Friday, Aug. 9, 2019. Conant said salmon’s reintroduction to the upper Columbia will help heal the tribe and the ecosystem. CREDIT: COURTNEY FLATT/NWPB

Salmon are now swimming in the upper Columbia River for the first time in decades. For regional Native tribes, Friday’s ceremonial fish release is a big step toward catching fish in traditional waters. Cheers erupted from the crowd as the first salmon was released since 1955 into the Columbia River above Chief Joseph Dam.Read More

In Astoria, Cormorant Birds Take Over Iconic Bridge, And Salmon Below Are On The Menu

By Tom Banse June 13, 2019

Cormorants returned to the Astoria Bridge to roost at nightfall on June 3, 2019.

Cormorants by the thousands have taken up residence under the landmark Astoria-Megler Bridge over the Columbia River. Their poop can corrode the bridge and that is unacceptable to the Oregon and Washington transportation departments. But what actions to take against the protected birds and whose responsibility that is are up in the air.Read More

Tribes Say Fish Passage Above Grand Coulee Dam Is Possible

By Courtney Flatt June 12, 2019

Grand Coulee Dam File Photo - CREDIT Bureau of Reclamation

A team of researchers presented their findings on Tuesday to the Northwest Power and Conservation Council. In short, they said, salmon can survive in the upper reaches of the Columbia Basin, and fish passage needs to happen above Chief Joseph and Grand Coulee dams.Read More

The Fight Is On To Save Columbia River Salmon From A Toothy Invader

By Courtney Flatt May 29, 2019

Travis Rehm holds up the largest northern pike biologists caught on Tuesday, May 21, 2019. The female fish was about 34 inches long. CREDIT: Courtney Flatt/NWPB

The fight to save Columbia River salmon could hinge on a major battle taking place in the basin’s biggest reservoir. It pits biologists against a fish: The invasive northern pike.Read More

Wanted Dead (Not Alive): Tribes, State Target Invasive Salmon-Killing Pike In Washington

By NWPB News May 6, 2019

A northern pike dropoff station at the Tribal Trails gas station near Kettle Falls, Washington. CREDIT Scott A. Leadingham/NWPB

Three Washington Native tribes are joining two state agencies and two public utility districts in targeting the northern pike. That’s a big species of fish that’s caught for sport in the upper Midwest, but which fisheries biologists say poses huge potential damage to Northwest salmon runs.Read More

Central Washington Utility Eager To Branch Into Hydrogen Fuel Production

By Tom Banse April 11, 2019

Wells Dam on the Columbia River of central Washington state. CREDIT: Douglas County PUD

The Douglas County Public Utility District operates Wells Dam on the Columbia River north of Wenatchee. The dam generates a lot of surplus electricity, especially during spring runoff. Quite a few years ago, utility managers hit on the idea of using surplus electricity to split water molecules to make hydrogen.Read More

This Old Ship Could Help Clear The Way For Relief After A Cascadia Megaquake

By Tom Banse April 2, 2019

The Salvage Chief is moored at Tongue Point South, Astoria. CREDIT: COLIN MURPHEY / DAILY ASTORIAN

A former Navy landing ship commissioned during World War II could come to the rescue when a big Cascadia earthquake hits someday. A group based in Astoria, Oregon, envisions a new role in disaster relief for the storied vessel Salvage Chief.Read More

Columbia River Art Installation At The Dalles Put On Hold By Yakama Nation Opposition

By Tom Banse February 9, 2019

Artist Maya Lin's design for Celilo Park included an elevated arc that would end at the edge of the now-flooded historic falls on the Columbia River. CREDIT: MAYA LIN STUDIO

A public art project proposed to be built beside the now-inundated great falls of the Columbia River has been put on indefinite hold by its sponsor. The installation was planned for Celilo Falls — east of The Dalles, Oregon — as the sixth and final outdoor artwork in a series by celebrated designer Maya Lin along the Columbia and Snake rivers.Read More

Columbia River Salmon Face Another (Previously Underestimated) Threat: Gulls

By Courtney Flatt January 27, 2019

Biologist think gulls are eating more juvenile salmon on the Columbia River than they realized. To help salmon, some fish advocates are proposing to shoot problem gulls during salmon migration. CREDIT: Ronald Woan, Flickr Creative Commons

There are a lot of predators known to eat imperiled salmon, from sea lions to double-crested cormorants. For a long time, biologists thought gulls weren’t a big part of the problem. Now, they say that was a miscalculation.Read More

Banned Fish Trap Returns To Columbia As Sustainable Way To Catch Salmon

By Cassandra Profita January 16, 2019

Fish trap operators can pick out the hatchery salmon for harvest and release the wild salmon so they can return to their spawning grounds. CREDIT: CASSANDRA PROFITA/OPB

For years, Oregon and Washington have been searching for the best way to catch more hatchery fish while letting the wild fish return unharmed to their spawning grounds. Now, one group says they’ve found it.Read More

Vancouver Fined $60,000 For 2017 Columbia River Sewage Spills

By Molly Solomon January 6, 2019

Allies and members of Yakama Nation hold a rally at the Vancouver Landing Amphitheater along the Columbia River. CREDIT: ERICKA CRUZ GUEVARRA/OPB

The city of Vancouver has been fined $60,000 after raw sewage was accidentally released into the Columbia River in 2017. The discharged sewage from Vancouver’s Westside Wastewater Treatment Plant happened during two separate spills in September and October of 2017Read More

Agreement On Dams Aims To Help More Salmon Survive Columbia And Snake River Journey

By Cassandra Profita December 19, 2018

Fish advocates say sending water through spill bays is the best way to ensure fish survival through dams in the Columbia and Snake rivers. CREDIT: CASSANDRA PROFITA

A new agreement aims to help more young salmon make their way past dams along the Columbia and Snake rivers. The agreement, reached this week, spells out new strategies for spilling more water over the dams — and sending less water through power-generating turbines — each spring. Read More

Bill To Allow Killing Columbia River Sea Lions To Help Salmon Heads To President Trump’s Desk

By Cassandra Profita December 12, 2018

Sea lions have been eating steelhead and other fish at Willamette Falls in ever greater numbers.Photo courtesy of ODFW

Congress has agreed to make it easier to kill sea lions threatening fragile runs of salmon in the Northwest. A bill approved by the House this week changes the Marine Mammal Protection Act to lift some of the restrictions on killing sea lions to protect salmon and steelhead in the Columbia River and its tributaries.Read More

Health Of Columbia River Draws Crowd To Rare Hanford Public Meeting In Hood River

By Anna King November 2, 2018

TOBIN FRICKE / WIKIMEDIA - TINYURL.COM/H99DL7H

Many people drove as much as three hours to attend a rare public meeting about Hanford in Hood River Thursday night, Nov. 1. The common thread: concern about the Columbia River, and the health of their communities. Read More

EPA Must Protect Northwest Salmon From Warming Waters, Judge Rules

By Courtney Flatt October 18, 2018

A federal court ruled Wednesday that the Environmental Protection Agency must come up with a plan to protect salmon from warm water temperatures.Read More

Officials Weigh Costs Of Filling In Hanford Tanks, With Eye On Columbia River Impact

By Anna King October 10, 2018

After nearly two decades of work, contractors at Hanford have finished cleaning out the first of 177 radioactive waste tanks. CREDIT: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Keeping the Columbia River safe is at the core of several public meetings scheduled for Seattle and Portland next week. It all has to do with decisions being made hundreds of miles away in the desert at Hanford. The question regulators are tacking: How do you keep a mostly-empty radioactive waste tank safe for hundreds, thousands even a million years? Read More

U.S. Appeals Court Rules On Long-Running Columbia River Pollution Case From Canadian Smelter

By Doug Nadvornick September 14, 2018

In this 2002 photo, a dog drinks from the Columbia River in the shadow of Teck Cominco smelter, six miles north of the Canadian border at Trail, British Columbia. CREDIT: CHERYL HATCH/AP

A federal appeals court has upheld a lower court ruling in a case that revolves around metals pollution from a Trail, British Columbia smelter dumping in the Columbia River and flowing south to Washington state.Read More

Can Dams And Salmon Coexist? Congressional Hearing In Pasco Highlights Difference On Both Sides

By Anna King September 10, 2018

Tribal canoeists on the Memorial Bridge in Lewiston, Idaho, on the Clearwater River just before the confluence with the Snake River. The group joined the larger Free the Snake "flotilla" demonstration, Sept. 7-8, 2018. CREDIT: MIKE BEISER

In the past few days, dam advocates and people who want more wild salmon in the Columbia and Snake rivers have been putting on their best shows. At the U.S. House committee hearing on Monday, dam advocates gave the bulk of the testimony.Read More

Land Use Conflict Hangs Over Plan For Renewable Fuels Refinery On Columbia River

By Tony Schick September 4, 2018

A proposal for a $1.1 billion renewable fuels refinery on the Columbia River could be held up by a dispute over land use zoning.Read More

A Dispute Is Brewing Over Mercury Air Pollution In Columbia River Gorge

By Courtney Flatt August 24, 2018

A view of the Columbia River Gorge. CREDIT: GORD MCKENNA/FLICKR-CREATIVE COMMONS

Two hazardous waste companies operating along the Columbia River are arguing over mercury pollution getting into the air. One company, TD*X, is accusing the other, Chemical Waste Management, of releasing mercury into the air. The report goes on to say regulators aren’t requiring strong pollution controls.Read More

Investigation Into Leaky Spillway At Priest Rapids Dam Nearly Finished

By Anna King July 20, 2018

Priest Rapids Dam is located on the Columbia River, 24 miles south of Vantage, Washington. CREDIT: GRANT COUNTY PUD

Crews have finished drilling around 230 core samples in Priest Rapids Dam on the Columbia River in central Washington state.Read More

U.S. House Bill OKs Killing Sea Lions To Protect Columbia River Salmon

By Molly Solomon July 3, 2018

A sea lion eats a salmon at Bonneville Dam near Cascade Locks, Oregon. CREDIT: RICK BOWMER

The U.S. House approved a bill Jun 26 that makes it easier to kill a limited number of sea lions that threaten imperiled salmon and steelhead populations.Read More

Record Lamprey Return A Cultural Win For Native Tribes

By Courtney Flatt June 18, 2018

The upcoming generation of lamprey harvesters. Henry Begay helps his younger sister, Jackie, scale the slippery rocks at the base of Willamette Falls. CREDIT: IAN MCCLUSKEY

With funding help from the Bonneville Power Administration, the tribes have worked to move lamprey around the dams and up to the Umatilla River. Tribal members were excited when they saw the fish start returning. In 2011, Jackson thought 129 fish in the river was a major step.Read More

State Department Vague But Optimistic On Columbia River Treaty Renegotiations

By Emily Schwing May 31, 2018

An aerial photograph of the Revelstoke Dam in British Columbia. CREDIT - KELOWNIAN PILOT - TINYURL.COM/YDF7L9X2

The first round of talks to modernize the U.S.-Canada Columbia River Treaty took place this week. Officials from the U.S. negotiating team briefed reporters on Thursday on progress at the talks, which are aimed at revising the 54-year-old agreement which governs hydropower and flood control along the Columbia River.Read More

Canada And U.S. To Open Renegotiations Of Columbia River Treaty

By Emily Schwing May 23, 2018

Mica Dam in British Columbia is one of three Canadian projects under the terms of the 1964 Columbia River Treaty. CREDIT: DAR56 - TINYURL.COM/YC4K2DTJ

The United States and Canada next week will begin the official process of renegotiating the Columbia River Treaty, which expires in 2024. The 1964 agreement governs the upper reaches of the 1,200-mile Columbia River.Read More

Drilling Crews Search For More Leaks At Priest Rapids Dam

By Anna King April 27, 2018

Workers drill core samples in the grout galleries of Priest Rapids Dam in southeast Washington to figure out how extensive leaking is in the structure’s spillway. CREDIT: GRANT PUBLIC UTILITY DISTRICT

Crews are drilling deep into southeast Washington's Priest Rapids Dam on the Columbia River to find out the extent of damage after leaks were recently discovered. Read More

Northwest Tribes Noticeably Left Off U.S. Panel Renegotiating Columbia River Treaty With Canada

By Emily Schwing April 26, 2018

Norma Sanchez, a Colville Tribal Council member, gave public testimony during a meeting on Columbia River Treaty negotiations hosted by the U.S. State Department.

Federal officials were in Spokane this week to talk about the future of the Columbia River Treaty, an agreement between the U.S. and Canada that dates back to 1964. A six-member panel will represent the U.S. in negotiations to update the treaty. Noticeably absent were members of any of the numerous Native American tribes along the Columbia, which have been pushing to Read More

Workers Set To Empty Hanford’s Infamous K-Basin Of Radioactive Sludge

By Anna King April 12, 2018

CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company Sludge Removal Project workers prepare for DOE Operational Readiness Review in the 100 K Reactor Area. CREDIT: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Workers plan to tackle some of the nastiest waste on the massive Hanford cleanup site next month. The so-called K-Basin holds sandy, explosive, potentially flammable and highly-radioactive sludge stored in six large containers.Read More

Priest Rapids Dam On Columbia River Leaking In Several Sections

By Anna King April 10, 2018

File photo of Priest Rapids Dam on the Columbia River. CREDIT: GRANT COUNTY PUD

Priest Rapids Dam on the Columbia River in southeast Washington state has multiple leaks and structural problems.Read More

What Are Mini Versions Of Northwest Dams Doing In Mississippi? (Hint: Salmon, Of Course)

By Cassandra Profita April 3, 2018

Sean Milligan of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Walla Walla District sends hot pink dye through the spill bay of the Little Goose Dam model in Vicksburg, Mississippi. CREDIT: CASSANDRA PROFITA

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is gearing up for its biggest-ever planned spill of water over dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers. It’s a move ordered by a federal court to help endangered fish. To make sure it’s done right, dam managers tested options first using miniature models of Northwest dams way down in Vicksburg, Mississippi.Read More

Appeals Court Affirms Order For More Spill Over Dams To Help Columbia River Salmon

By Courtney Flatt April 2, 2018

The federal government will have to spill more water over Columbia and Snake river dams starting Tuesday in an effort to help young salmon migrating to the ocean. This will make up the biggest planned water spill over dams for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.Read More