Northwest rivers near record low flows

10/28/2002

By JIM KLOCKOW / KING5.com

SEATTLE, WA – Record low water levels in rivers across the Northwest have power planners watching closely and fisherman barred from dropping a line in some rivers.

In Washington, Oregon and Idaho, rivers are setting daily records for low flows as the hydro-power-dependent Northwest’s typically wet fall appears to be retreating further into November.

Only about a third of the normal volume flowed down the Nisqually River Monday. Drought in the Northwest two years ago crimped the region’s ability to produce its typical volume of hydroelectric power just as power deregulation in California sent rates soaring across the West.

Although the power market appears to have stabilized, the region could be headed for more problems if the current drought stretches into the winter.

Stream flow Monday in the Nisqually was 157 cubic feet per second, less than a third of what it normally carries.

The Nisqually is typical of the flows in many places across the region.

“We're watching it closely, just like everyone else is, in trying to really strike that balance,” said Tacoma Utilities Resource Manager Debbie Young.

Resource Links

USGS Drought Watch

Washington fishing restrictions

Oregon fishing restrictions


Bonneville Power Administration spokesman Bill Murlin said the agency is tracking water levels, but isn’t yet worried about a crisis.

“We’re not yet concerned to the point of raising the flag,’” he said, “the reservoirs are still in relatively decent shape.”

And the weather could change quickly.

But the rivers are affecting fish runs in Washington and Oregon where flows are so low that fish are becoming trapped during low tide in pools in the broad shallow mouths of several rivers.

The trapped fish are then susceptible to being illegally taken.

In Oregon, fisheries officials have prohibited salmon, steelhead and trout fishing at the mouth of the Yachats river at the center of Oregon’s coast, according to Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife spokesperson Ann Snyder.

The Yachats has a protected run of coho salmon.

Other rivers may be restricted if the dry conditions continue, Snyder said.

In Washington, chinook salmon fishing is closed on the, Clearwater, Quillayute, Bogachiel, Calawah, Dickey, Sol Duc, Hoh and Queets rivers on the Olympic Peninsula, according to the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife.