Columbia Basin Bulletin - May 15, 2025

Columbia Basin Snowmelt, Spring Runoff Research, Spring Chinook Return... and more

Due to a drier and warmer than normal April, the water supply forecasts for May-September for the Columbia and Snake river basins have dropped, according to NOAA’s Northwest River Forecast Center’s last water supply briefing of the season held online this month.

Spring Runoff Older Than You Think: Hydrologists Show Streamflow Out Of Mountains Old Snowmelt On Years-Long Underground Journey

Growing communities and extensive agriculture throughout the Western United States rely on meltwater that spills out of snow-capped mountains every spring. The models for predicting the amount of this streamflow available each year have long assumed that a small fraction of snowmelt each year enters shallow soil, with the remainder rapidly exiting in rivers and creeks.

Columbia River fisheries forecasters confirmed Monday that their preseason run size forecast for upriver spring Chinook salmon was likely to be accurate, allowing Oregon and Washington to reopen recreational angling in the river between Tongue Point, near Astoria, OR, and the two-state line, near Pasco, WA.

Northwest states have been consuming about 22,000 average megawatts of electricity per year, but the Northwest Power and Conservation Council is forecasting double that amount by 2046 to as much as 44,000 aMW, according to a just-completed initial forecast of Northwest energy demand.

For First Time, California Releases Millions Of Juvenile Fall Chinook Into Mainstem Sacramento River, Timed With Water Flow Increases

In a significant shift of California’s salmon strategy, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife has begun releasing juvenile fall-run Chinook salmon from CDFW-operated hatcheries into the main stem of the Sacramento River for the first time.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation are extending the public comment period for the Columbia River System Operations Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement to August 15, 2025.

The Trump administration’s proposed budget released would cut all funding for the Marine Mammal Commission, a federal agency dedicated to the protection of marine mammals.

Scientists say human-caused climate change led to 15,000 additional deaths from wildfire air pollution in the continental United States during the 15-year period ending in 2020.