Spring Chinook

The spring Chinook run has come to an end on the lower Snake River.  The finally tally for 2017 was dismal compared to last year and the 10 year average, with a 56% decline.

2017:  27,357

2016: 62,050

10 yr avg:  62,403

 

Summer Chinook

The summer Chinook run is not fairing much better.  It is currently half the 10 year average.

2017:  5,329

2016:  6,045

10 yr avg:  10,837

Counts taken at Lower Granite dam and reported by the Fish Passage Center (fpc.org).

But I thought we were having record fish returns?

This data does not support the reports of “record fish returns” cited by Washington Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers in her latest attempt to save the dams.   Record fish returns have been proclaimed by several groups including our own federal agencies like the US Army Corps of Engineers, Bonneville Power Administration, and Bureau of Reclamation.  Here is the chart they showed the public at the CRSO Open Houses last fall.  Looks great doesn’t it?

But if one were to look back farther in history, they would find a different story.  Here is a graph from Idaho Fish and Game going back to 1955.

Recent returns are far from being records.  This is nothing more than data manipulation to support their cause.

“There are 3 kinds of lies:  lies, damned lies, and statistics.”

-Mark Twain

Spring Chinook Salmon

The spring Chinook run is over at Bonneville dam.  The final tally:

2017:  83,624

2016:  137,215

10 yr avg:  150,783

Summer Chinook Salmon

Summer returns are now in progress at Bonneville dam:

2017:  63,253

2016:  81,652

10 yr avg:  69,802

As if those numbers were not depressing enough…

Sockeye Salmon

The sockeye salmon run is well underway.  Current returns at Bonneville dam:

2017:  67,621

2016:  300,833

10 yr avg:  239,986

At this point, 2017 is at 22% of 2016 and 28% of the 10 year average.

Steelhead

Steelhead returns at Bonneville dam have also begun:

2017:  5,389

2016:  16,420

10 yr avg:  17,085

These returns are less than a third of 2016 and the 10 year average returns.

Whatever the federal agencies are doing to save salmon, it’s not working.  Time to exercise Alternative 4 in the 2002 FR/EIS (breaching).  And the sooner the better.

July 2017

July has been a rough month so far for endangered salmon and steelhead migrating through the lower Snake River.  High air temperatures and lack of cloud cover have heated the reservoirs behind the four lower Snake River dams to 68 degrees and beyond.  At such high water temperatures, the salmon migration slows and it can cause mass mortality (remember 2015?).  Water temperatures on July 12th were 3 degrees higher than in 2016 and the 10 year average.  And they were equal to 2015.

Dworshak

In the past, Dworshak dam on the Clearwater River has been used to supply cold water that mixes with Snake River water to bring the temperatures down.  But that is not entirely possible in 2017.  Dworshak can release water in two ways:  one is to discharge it through the turbines and the other is to spill it through or over the dam.  If water is discharged through the turbines, it does not add considerable dissolved gases to the water.  But spilling water does increase the dissolved gas content and it if not monitored, can cause salmon and steelhead mortality.  Juvenile fish, like those in the Dworshak National Fish Hatchery just below the dam, are particularly susceptible to Gas Bubble Trauma (GBT).  The Nez Perce Tribe and the US Fish and Wildlife Service operate this hatchery.

The Problem

The US Army Corps of Engineers has been working on turbine 3, the largest of the turbines at Dworshak, for many months.  Work was supposed to be completed earlier this year.  But the contractor doing the work made an error and now the turbine is not expected to be operational until 2018.  So this leaves the US Army Corps in a bind.  Do they spill water to keep the river cool but poison the juvenile fish at the hatchery?  Or limit spill to a certain level and let the river heat up?  Total Dissolved Gas (TDG) limits are set by the state to protect fish.  A waiver has been issued by Idaho to allow the dam to spill more water and inject higher TDG levels into the river.  But thus far these higher levels of spill have not been able to keep the river below 68 F.

The Solution

Endangered Snake River salmon and steelhead are already in dire straits.  Their numbers dropped precipitously when the four lower Snake dams were built in the 1960’s and 70’s.  This landed them on the Endangered Species List.  Billions of dollars have been spent to recover them, but it has not worked.  In 2015, hundreds of thousands of adult salmon and steelhead died in the Snake and Columbia Rivers due to heat stress.  Over 50% of the juveniles headed to the ocean died that year on their way to the ocean.   With so few juveniles making it to the ocean, very few adults are returning this year.  There is only one solution to this problem.  At the very least, Lower Granite reservoir needs to be drawn down THIS YEAR.  And the remaining three dams in subsequent years.  Without this urgent action, Snake River salmon and steelhead don’t stand a chance.

The State of the Snake River

It’s the middle of July, 2017.  How is the salmon migration going?  A few lawmakers in the Pacific Northwest have been telling us how great the salmon recovery is going and how valuable the four lower Snake River dams are to the nation.  Let’s take a look at the numbers, as reported by the Fish Passage Center (fpc.org).

Salmon returns to Lower Granite dam, the uppermost of the four lower Snake dams are as follows:

Spring Chinook

2017:  27,357  (44% of 10 year average)

2016:  62,050

10 yr avg:  62,403

Summer Chinook

2017:  7,488  (50% of 10 year average)

2016:  9,388

10 yr avg:  15,008

Sockeye salmon

2017:  179  (26% of 10 year average)

2016:  682

10 yr avg:  699

Hmmmm… don’t see any records here.

Down at Ice Harbor dam, the farthest downstream of the four lower Snake dams, the yearly steelhead run is starting.  Maybe we’ll see some records there.

Steelhead

2017:  1,443  (15% of 10 year average)

2016:  4,240

10 yr avg:  9,688

Wow, definitely not a record.  Unless you are talking about record lows.

What does the future hold?

So, should we expect a recovery this year?  Probably not.  Temperatures in the Snake River at Lower Granite dam have hit 78 F on the surface already, and are 68 F at a depth of 20 m where the water is drawn for the fish ladders.  Salmon like cool water and this hot water slows their migration and can even cause death. Attempts by the Army Corps of Engineers to keep the water below 68 F have been unsuccessful.  Dworshak dam on the Clearwater River is normally used to cool the Snake River by passing water through it’s turbines.

This year those efforts are hampered because the largest turbine is out of service.

If they spill water instead, it drives up the dissolved gas levels which can be toxic to salmon and steelhead, especially juveniles.  So the Corps faces a dilemma… spill water to cool the adult salmon in the Snake River but potentially poison all the juvenile fish at the Dworshak fish hatchery, or not spill water to save the hatchery juveniles but potentially kill the adults migrating in the Snake.

 

It’s a rotten situation that the US Army Corps has placed itself and the salmon in.  There is still one alternative that the Corps has, but is unwilling to try.  That would be Alternative 4 in the 2002 EIS, the EIS under which they are currently operating the dams.  Alternative 4 involves drawing down the reservoirs and returning the Snake to a free flowing river.  It is the only way to save the Pacific Northwest’s salmon.  But the US Army Corps of Engineers seems perfectly content with allowing the extinction of the remaining salmon and steelhead stocks.

Fish counts at Bonneville Dam below that of 2016

By Eric Barer of the Lewiston Tribune

July 14, 2017

By all accounts, 2017 was never supposed to be a banner year for steelhead

The A-run is forecast to be a little better than last year’s dismal return – which some biologists called a complete year-class collapse – but still well below average. The B-run is expected to be terrible.

It’s too early to freak out, but counts of steelhead passing Bonneville Dam already are lagging behind those of 2016. Steelhead from the A-run, those that tend to spend just one year in the ocean, are arriving now and will be followed by the B-run in late August and September.From June 1 through Tuesday, just shy of 4,000 steelhead had passed the dam. Last year, one of the worst on record for the A-run, more than 20,000 steelhead passed the dam in the same time period.

“If the counts don’t improve and we go along for three more weeks like we have been, then it’s time to start telling people this year is bad and it might be worse than we forecast, but we are nowhere near there yet,” said Alan Byrne, an Idaho Department of Fish and Game fisheries biologist at Boise. “The counts could still improve. The facts of the matter are the Bonneville counts are way below what our average counts are this time of year. But we are only a couple of weeks into the run. We won’t know the strength of the run until the first week of August.”

The preseason forecast calls for a return of 112,100 A-run steelhead to Bonneville Dam, including 33,000 wild fish and 79,100 hatchery fish. Those steelhead will be bound for various parts of the Columbia Basin, and about 50 percent of them are expected to head up the Snake River and pass over Lower Granite Dam.

Fisheries managers are expecting only 7,300 B-run steelhead to pass Bonneville Dam, including just 1,100 wild fish. About 70 percent of them are expected to return to the Snake River, which works out to about 4,340 hatchery and 770 wild Bs at Lower Granite Dam.

“We were fully expecting a very down B-run and not that great of an A-run, but better than last year,” said Joe DuPont, regional fisheries manager for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. “Now it makes me a little uneasy.”

While the numbers of A-run steelhead counted at Bonneville are depressing, DuPont said there may be a glimmer of hope when you single out Idaho-bound hatchery fish. The numbers show the early part of the run is about average compared to those since 2010. But he cautioned the math is based on just two hatchery fish implanted with PIT tags that have passed Bonneville.

“What bothers me more is the big picture, when it’s more than just Idaho fish, when you are looking at all steelhead, counts over Bonneville are way down,” DuPont said.

Idaho Fish & Game Scrambling to Fill Hatchery Quotas of Spring Chinook

Abysmal run of fish to Clearwater River prompts use of nets and elite anglers to gather broodstock for hatcheries

By Eric Barker of the Lewiston Tribune

Idaho Fish and Game officials are taking some extraordinary measures to help ensure hatcheries on the Clearwater River aren’t short of adult spring chinook.
Regional Fisheries Manager Joe DuPont said the hatcheries collectively are about 1,500 fish short of the goals for adult returns, known as broodstock. To help close the gap, department employees will use nets to try to capture spring chinook that return to the South Fork of the Clearwater River. They have also recruited help from anglers on the Clearwater’s North Fork to assist with the effort.
This year’s spring chinook run fell well short of preseason predictions. Returns to the Clearwater River and its tributaries were so low that biologists feared hatcheries might not make their spawning goals, and the fishing season was closed early. Although there is still time for hatchery chinook to return to hatcheries, those fears are starting to play out.

Adult hatchery chinook returning to Red River, a tributary of the South Fork, are collected at a trap on the river and later trucked to hatcheries. It is common for many of the fish to stop short of the trap and instead spend time in deep pools.
“They have done a lot of habitat work with log jams and the fish just kind of hang in there, and a lot of the hatchery fish never go up (to the trap),” DuPont said.

He said department employees used nets in those pools this week with the goal of capturing about 150 chinook. They caught 99 and will return next week for another round of captures.
On the North Fork, the department has recruited a small group of elite anglers to catch adult spring chinook. Those that are caught will be moved to Dworshak National Fish Hatchery at Ahsahka.
DuPont said it’s still possible the hatcheries will meet spawning goals despite the present shortfall. Adult chinook will continue to be trapped at Dworshak Hatchery. Rapid River Hatchery near Riggins has surpassed its return goal, so some of those fish can be moved to hatcheries on the Clearwater.
DuPont said the department also is likely to trap more summer chinook on the Lochsa River than is needed for spawning. Summer chinook in the Lochsa return about a month later than spring chinook but spawn about the same time, in late August and early September. The extra Lochsa fish can take up any hatchery space left vacant by the low return of spring chinook. However, the summer chinook would not be spawned with the springers. Instead, they would be segregated within hatcheries.
“Hopefully we don’t need to do that, but it’s an option,” DuPont said. “We’d rather have the hatchery full of something rather than nothing.”

July 12, 2017

 

Cathy McMorris Rodgers, U. S. House of Representatives (WA-05)

Jaime Herrera Beutler, U. S. House of Representatives (WA-3)

Dan Newhouse, U.S. House of Representatives (WA-4)

Kurt Schrader, U. S. House of Representatives (OR-05)

Greg Walden, U. S. House of Representatives (OR-2)

 

Greetings:

 

You recently sponsored a bill in the U. S. House of Representatives designed to protect the operation of the four lower Snake River (LSR) dams from environmental review and stop implementation of a scientifically-proven means (spill) of aiding threatened and endangered salmon and steelhead. Your statements in the press release addressing this bill, posted on McMorris Rodgers’ website, demonstrate either a lack of knowledge about the LSR dams or an attempt to deceive your constituents, colleagues in Congress and all Americans. Here are facts of which you are hopefully aware.

 

Hydropower

Those who wish to mislead the public frequently combine the power output of the Columbia River with that of the Snake, purposely failing to acknowledge that the LSR dams contribute little to the Northwest’s power supply. These four dams provide less than 4% of the electricity in the Pacific Northwest power grid and only 6.5% of the Northwest’s hydropower. They produce much of their power when demands for electricity and market price are both low.

 

PNW wind energy capacity is now three times greater than the combined capacity of all 4 LSR dams. The Pacific Northwest enjoys a surplus of energy, at times requiring wind turbines to be shut down and electricity to be exported at a negative price.

 

Savings in energy costs related to fish mitigation alone justifies breaching the LSR dams.

 

Navigation

Freight transport on the LSR’s four reservoirs has declined by more than 50% over the past 20 years.  Barges no longer carry logs, lumber, paper, pulp, or pulse. Even grain volume, which makes up over 90% of all freight, has declined 45% over the same period.

 

Every barge of grain that leaves the Port of Lewiston carries a taxpayer subsidy of over $20,000 to pay for channel dredging, navigation operations and maintenance. This figure does not include the many millions of dollars spent every few years on major lock rehabilitation. Commercial navigation on the LSR principally provides government-subsidized transportation of a government-subsidized crop.

 

Flood Control

The LSR dams are run-of-the-river dams that provide no flood control. Lower Granite dam actually creates flood risk to the principal city on the waterway—Lewiston, Idaho.  The arrival at the confluence of the Snake and Clearwater Rivers of over 2 million cubic yards of sediment each year perpetually adds to that flood risk and creates additional future costs to be borne by federal taxpayers.  Flood control as justification for maintaining the LSR dams is a false claim.

 

Irrigation

Only one reservoir in the LSR dam complex — behind Ice Harbor Dam— provides irrigation for between 13-17 land owners/farms on one-third the acreage the Corps of Engineers projected in claiming benefits for the LSR project. Water would still be available if Ice Harbor were breached, but at a higher (non-subsidized) cost. Irrigation as justification for maintaining the LSR dams is a weak argument that applies to a single dam.

 

Juvenile Fish Migration

Among the more egregious of the false claims made in the press release addressing the proposed legislation is that of the survival of Snake River juvenile salmon and steelhead through the 8-dam Columbia/Snake River complex.  The oft-repeated statement “an average of 97% of young salmon successfully make it past the dams” belies a juvenile fish survival rate through the dams and reservoirs of about 54% for wild Chinook and 45% for wild steelhead. Further losses then occur below Bonneville Dam due to avian predation and delayed mortality caused by the rigors of dam passage. In 2015 the juvenile survival rate Lower Granite to Bonneville for the Snake River’s most endangered fish, Idaho’s sockeye salmon, was 32%. In 2016 this rate declined farther to a mere 12%. The 97% claim is false. Repeating it constitutes political hucksterism.

 

In 2013, NOAA Fisheries acknowledged that no juvenile fish passage survival improvement had occurred over the previous 13 years—despite the expenditure of over $700 million on just the 4 lower Snake River dams for so-called “fish passage improvements.”  Stated NOAA: “Chinook survival through the hydropower system has remained relatively stable since 1999 with the exception of lower estimates in 2001 and 2004.” No significant change has occurred in the past four years. Claiming otherwise is lying.

Adult Salmon Returns

As with hydropower, LSR dam supporters deceive the public by using data for the combined Columbia/Snake system, purposely ignoring the vast differences in fish numbers in these two rivers. As sponsors of the House Bill in question, you likewise employ this deception in claiming the achievement of “record fish returns.”

Historically, the Snake River produced an estimated half or more of all the anadromous fish in the Columbia Basin. However, in 2014 just 14% of the Chinook counted at Bonneville Dam were Snake River fish. For Coho the percentage was 6%, for sockeye it was less than half of one percent. The same pattern held in 2015 at 15%, 3.5%, and 2/10ths of one percent. Claiming that salmon numbers at Bonneville Dam provide meaningful and honest information about fish numbers on the Snake River, let alone about the Snake’s threatened and endangered salmon and steelhead, is beyond the pale.

In 2015, 99% of adult Snake River sockeye died before reaching their spawning grounds. The Idaho Fish and Game Department has predicted 2017 and 2018 will see steelhead returns lower than those in the 1980s, with the Clearwater River’s once famous wild B-run steelhead numbers predicted to be a mere 1000 fish in 2017.

The true measure of successful recovery of threatened and endangered fish species is the smolt-to-adult return (SAR) ratio. Mere survival (non-extinction) of wild fish species requires a minimum 1% SAR, while recovery of Snake River salmon and steelhead requires a 2%-6% SAR. From 1993-2013 the SAR for wild Chinook salmon averaged .89%. The return exceeded the minimum 2% SAR needed for recovery during only 2 of those 20 years. Idaho’s Snake River sockeye are on the brink of extinction. No Snake River threatened and endangered salmon or steelhead species is on a path to recovery.

The claim of “record runs of fish” in a bill designed to maintain the status quo on the lower Snake River is deliberate deception.

The High Cost of Failure

Several other statements you have made about the LSR dams fall beyond this communiqué—for example, your twisted claim that science should govern dam operations rather than politics while you undertake to assure that politics continue to defy science. However, one additional topic must be addressed. While I question your claim that “one-third of our electric bills pay for fish passage,” we do know the cost to taxpayers and ratepayers of supporting mostly failing salmon and steelhead recovery in the Snake and Columbia Rivers has topped $15 billion. As noted above, at least $700 million has been spent just on “system improvements” designed to increase the rate of juvenile fish passage on the four LSR dams. However, overall juvenile fish survival rates have not improved over the past 20 years, smolt-to-adult wild fish returns remain below the level needed to avoid species extinction, and no Snake River threatened and endangered species is on a path to recovery. Three federal judges over a twenty-year period have declared plans for the operation of the federal dams on the Columbia and Snake Rivers illegal.  Despite all of this information, you 5 Northwest members of the U. S. House of Representatives, who claim to be fiscal conservatives, have sponsored a bill to continue pouring more taxpayer and ratepayer money into an atrociously expensive, flawed and failed experiment that is destroying two of the Pacific Northwest’s most iconic species —Pacific salmon and Southern Resident Killer Whales— while inflicting economic hardship on small communities from the Pacific Coast to the interior of Idaho.

A boondoggle is defined as “a wasteful or pointless activity that gives the appearance of having value; “ and “a public project of questionable merit that typically involves political patronage and graft.”

The lower Snake River dams meet both definitions. Your referenced House Bill does as well.

 

Linwood Laughy        Kooskia, Idaho      [email protected]

ACTION REQUIRED – PLEASE SPEAK UP BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE!

BPA has raised power rates 28% in the last eight years! They don’t want to recognize that breaching the four Lower Snake River dams will help REDUCE the cost of power. What’s worse is that the pro-dam lobby and sympathetic politicians in the Northwest have already convinced many Public Utilities in Washington & Oregon to support a radical and misguided House Resolution 3144 now being reviewed & evaluated in congress. Approval of HR 3144 would force administrators to keep the dams, regardless of the science. If your own power rates and wild salmon are important to you, you must ACT NOW.