House Republicans hope killing sea lions will restore waning salmon populations.
Hydropower
Posted inArticles
Peace River flood survivors live with a dam’s disruptive legacy
Tensions remain between residents and the hydropower company responsible for the event.
Posted inNovember 28, 2016: A Weird and Perfect Wilderness
Hope in a post-nature society
A writer seeks answers from Lake Powell.
Posted inArticles
How to share a dammed river
Boaters are joining wildlife advocates, farmers and power companies to parcel out each cubic foot of Western rivers.
Posted inFebruary 2, 2016: Sagebrush Insurgency
Hope fades for Klamath River accords
Could the breakdown of the landmark water agreement imperil other collaborative deals?
Posted inAugust 17, 2015: Little Big Bird
Sea lions feast on Columbia salmon
Fishermen, tribes and environmentalists flummoxed as predator numbers swell below Bonneville Dam.
Posted inArticles
Why is bad science protecting the Lower Snake River dams?
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the country’s dam-building agency, sounded like it knew what it was talking about in 2002. After spending six years and $30 million, the agency confidently recommended not breaching four fish-killing dams on the Lower Snake River. But now, backed by 15 years of data primarily from the Corps itself, […]
Posted inArticles
Mapping drought’s impact on electricity generation
Natural gas, wind and solar fill some of the hydropower deficit in California.
Posted inArticles
Dam bill for Green River revives industrialist dream
Boosters want Fontenelle Dam to divert more water in southwest Wyoming.
Posted inArticles
Lake Mead watch: As levels fall, hydropower dips
Why Southwest utilities are starting to sweat.
Posted inArticles
A rural utility bucks against its power supplier
In a coal-producing region, this western Colorado co-op fights for renewables.
Posted inArticles
Tribal water compact moving through Montana legislature
But the bill stirs up longstanding criticism of basic tribal sovereignty.
Posted inDecember 8, 2014: The Great Salmon Compromise
The great salmon compromise
The Columbia Basin Fish Accords have funded $1 billion worth of habitat restoration projects, but can they replace free-flowing rivers?
Posted inGoat
To protect hydropower, utilities will pay Colorado River water users to conserve
Here’s a sure sign that your region’s in drought: you stop paying your utility for the privilege of using water, and the utility starts paying you not to use water instead. Outlandish as it sounds, that’s what four major Western utilities and the federal government are planning to do next year through the $11 million […]
Posted inApril 18, 2011: Muddy Waters
Muddy Waters: Silt and the Slow Demise of Glen Canyon Dam
Updated 5/17/11 The Lower San Juan River courses through a rather forsaken landscape of clay hills and redrock plateaus in southeast Utah. At the end of a long, dusty road, there is a boat ramp at the water’s edge where, at any warm time of year, vans and roof-racked Subarus bake in the sun while […]
Posted inSeptember 19, 2005: Squeezing Water from a Stone
Dam breaching gets a surprise endorsement
When a longtime consultant for the hydropower industry suddenly announced that four dams in Washington needed to be breached to save Idaho’s salmon, he shook the region. For decades, Don Chapman, the “guru” of fisheries biologists, had staunchly defended technological fixes for the imperiled fish, recommending hauling salmon past the dams from their spawning grounds […]
Posted inJune 13, 2005: Owning a Piece of Paradise
For salmon, a crucial moment of decision
Ruling could set in motion dramatic changes on Northwest rivers
Posted inOctober 14, 2002: Democrats kick back: The politics of growth
Montanans may take back their dams
Initiative would undo some of the damage done by electricity deregulation
Posted inJune 18, 2001: Transforming powers
Transforming powers
Drought, salmon and the deregulated electricity market could end the Northwest’s love affair with public power
Posted inNovember 22, 1999: Go tell it on the mountain
Figuring out FERC
Note: in the print edition of this issue, this article appears as a sidebar to another news article, “A tired stream gains new steam.” Relicensing of a hydroelectric project begins at least two years before the old license expires. After an application is filed, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission gives public notice, and any member […]