Orca report

[WSU]

Lower snake  dams don’t provide much (perhaps any?) irrigation.

I’ve also read that the price of bpa power won’t be competitive once the current contracts are up. Market price is significantly cheaper now. I’ll see if I can google up an article when I’m at a computer.

[KFhunter]

How about we all read what these dams do



The lower Snake River dams are equipped with the most advanced fish passage systems in the world.
https://www.nww.usace.army.mil/Missions/Lower-Snake-River-Dams/

The Snake River is the principal tributary to the Columbia River, draining approximately 107,000 square miles in Washington, Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming, Utah and Nevada. In the 1960s and early 1970s, the federal government built four large dams on the Snake River: Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose, and Lower Granite.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Walla Walla District owns and operates the four lower Snake River dams, all of which are multiple-use facilities that provide navigation, hydropower, recreation, and fish and wildlife conservation benefits.

Because of their locations, size and ability to help meet peak power loads, these four dams do much more than generate energy--they are key to keeping the system reliable and helping to meet its multiple uses — including supporting wind energy. The Snake River dams lie east of the other federal generators, so they provide a significant technical contribution to transmission grid reliability.

The Lower Snake River system of locks and dams deliver a significant economic benefit to the nation. Barging on the inland Columbia Snake River System moves, on average, approximately 10 million tons of cargo valued at over $3 billion each year. Forty percent of the Nation’s wheat transits through this system.



Current Fish Passage at the Lower Snake River Projects
The four lower Snake River dams were designed with features to aid the migration of both juvenile and adult fish. In the last 25 years, the Corps has consistently investigated and adopted new technologies for maximizing the survival of juvenile and adult fish.

Juvenile fish survival past the dams has increased through extensive dam modifications, such as surface passage, juvenile bypass systems, and more effective and efficient spill operations. Through their turbine improvement program, the Corps of Engineers has made improvements to turbine design and modified operations to improve fish survival through the turbines.

For adult fish returning from the Pacific Ocean to spawn, fish ladders and devices to attract fish to the entrances of the ladders are the primary aid to their passing the dams. Fish ladders have been in place since the dams were built in the 1960s and early 1970s. Improvements to these ladders have been made at all four dams.

Overall, these improvements are making a positive impact on salmon and steelhead returns.

[WSU]

They have improved from the past but still result in huge mortality because they turn hundreds of miles of river into a series of lakes.

[HntnFsh]

My apologies to all. I didn't process that these were Snake river dams being talked about. I was thinking dams as a whole. A lot of what I had to say was irrelevant!

[nwwanderer]

Some of the earliest cherries in the state are grown with Snake water, not a huge number of acres but $ wise a bunch.

[ASHQUACK]

Spotted owl of the salt water.

[WSU]

How about we all read what these dams do



The lower Snake River dams are equipped with the most advanced fish passage systems in the world.
https://www.nww.usace.army.mil/Missions/Lower-Snake-River-Dams/

The Snake River is the principal tributary to the Columbia River, draining approximately 107,000 square miles in Washington, Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming, Utah and Nevada. In the 1960s and early 1970s, the federal government built four large dams on the Snake River: Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose, and Lower Granite.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Walla Walla District owns and operates the four lower Snake River dams, all of which are multiple-use facilities that provide navigation, hydropower, recreation, and fish and wildlife conservation benefits.

Because of their locations, size and ability to help meet peak power loads, these four dams do much more than generate energy--they are key to keeping the system reliable and helping to meet its multiple uses — including supporting wind energy. The Snake River dams lie east of the other federal generators, so they provide a significant technical contribution to transmission grid reliability.

The Lower Snake River system of locks and dams deliver a significant economic benefit to the nation. Barging on the inland Columbia Snake River System moves, on average, approximately 10 million tons of cargo valued at over $3 billion each year. Forty percent of the Nation’s wheat transits through this system.



Current Fish Passage at the Lower Snake River Projects
The four lower Snake River dams were designed with features to aid the migration of both juvenile and adult fish. In the last 25 years, the Corps has consistently investigated and adopted new technologies for maximizing the survival of juvenile and adult fish.

Juvenile fish survival past the dams has increased through extensive dam modifications, such as surface passage, juvenile bypass systems, and more effective and efficient spill operations. Through their turbine improvement program, the Corps of Engineers has made improvements to turbine design and modified operations to improve fish survival through the turbines.

For adult fish returning from the Pacific Ocean to spawn, fish ladders and devices to attract fish to the entrances of the ladders are the primary aid to their passing the dams. Fish ladders have been in place since the dams were built in the 1960s and early 1970s. Improvements to these ladders have been made at all four dams.

Overall, these improvements are making a positive impact on salmon and steelhead returns.

I ran across this on another board: http://www.cbbulletin.com/439683.aspx

The takeaway is that survival through the various snake river dams is roughly 91% (9% die per dam) and lower at other dams.  Total survival through the dams in 2017 was 47.8%.  Lots die from the dam itself and lots die from predators in the now hundreds of miles long lake that used to be a river.

[Stein]

You guys are crazy, as long as we throw money at runoff water and pass a carbon tax the orcas will quickly rebound.


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[WSU]

You guys are crazy, as long as we throw money at runoff water and pass a carbon tax the orcas will quickly rebound.


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Don’t forget we have to convert 2 ferries to electric.

[Bullkllr]

You guys are crazy, as long as we throw money at runoff water and pass a carbon tax the orcas will quickly rebound.


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Don’t forget we have to convert 2 ferries to electric.

Runoff water is a huge impact, esp. in the Sound. Every time it rains heavy there are streams that get lethally toxic- and it all goes downstream- only question to me is what would it take exactly to fix enough of it to make a real positive impact.

[JimmyHoffa]

One of the big problems as I understand it, is the competition for forage out there (especially in the Gulf of Alaska).  Alaska has a huge hatchery pink program that is supposedly consuming a crazy amount of the salmon food.  So.....with ocean feed limited, if you send a bunch more Snake river (Columbia system) chinook out to sea, then you have Puget Sound chinook being outcompeted.  Result being that fewer chinook would return to Puget Sound, and the killer whales will have even less to eat.  So, removing the snake dams would be detrimental to Puget Sound whales.  Anyone else hear anything similar to this?

[HntnFsh]

You guys are crazy, as long as we throw money at runoff water and pass a carbon tax the orcas will quickly rebound.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Don’t forget we have to convert 2 ferries to electric.

Runoff water is a huge impact, esp. in the Sound. Every time it rains heavy there are streams that get lethally toxic- and it all goes downstream- only question to me is what would it take exactly to fix enough of it to make a real positive impact.

Add Vancouver dumping millions of gallons of untreated sewage a ways to the north a day I cant imagine that helps either.

[Jpmiller]

You guys are crazy, as long as we throw money at runoff water and pass a carbon tax the orcas will quickly rebound.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Don’t forget we have to convert 2 ferries to electric.

Runoff water is a huge impact, esp. in the Sound. Every time it rains heavy there are streams that get lethally toxic- and it all goes downstream- only question to me is what would it take exactly to fix enough of it to make a real positive impact.

Add Vancouver dumping millions of gallons of untreated sewage a ways to the north a day I cant imagine that helps either.

Or Seattle....

[fishngamereaper]

"Accidental" power outage at Minter crk hatchery causing the loss of 6.2 millon Chinook fry won't help....this states incompetence is amazing.

[Sandberm]

Lower snake  dams don’t provide much (perhaps any?) irrigation.

I’ve also read that the price of bpa power won’t be competitive once the current contracts are up. Market price is significantly cheaper now. I’ll see if I can google up an article when I’m at a computer.

http://www.csria.org/

Drive out of Pasco on either the Kahlotus highway on the North side of the Snake or Hwy 124 on the south side. LOTS of water being pumped out of the Snake to farm thousands of acres of land. Broetjes orchards on the Walla Walla county(south) side have thousands of acres of orchards and are some of the most generous people you could meet, providing housing and a step up to lots of immigrant families.

If you take out the dams the sediment flow would be terrible and would ruin the irrigation pumps. Millions of bushels of wheat would have to be trucked rather than barged down the river. Fuel, which is barged up the river before bringing wheat down would have to be trucked up river.