In the Media

Hydro industry hopes to make permitting splash

A new bipartisan Senate bill has gained backing from industry, tribal and environmental groups — even the White House.

As lawmakers seek common ground on permitting overhaul, the hydropower industry is hoping to hitch a ride on any potential legislative package.

Advocates for one of the nation’s largest clean energy sources believe momentum for the idea is only growing, thanks in part to a new bipartisan proposal from Sens. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), the “Community and Hydropower Improvement Act,” S. 1521.

Drought causing dramatic erosion in Grand Canyon

The biodiversity in the Grand Canyon is dependent on annual buildups of sediment rich sandbars, which have eroded after 20 years of drought. Because of the strong snow pack from this past winter, scientists are relying on a pulse of water released from Glen Canyon Dam, called a high flow experiment, to push monsoonal runoff into the canyon and restore seasonal sandbars.

California pledges to build channel for threatened fish to bypass Gold Rush-era dam

California officials on Tuesday said they will spend about $60 million to build a channel along the Yuba River so that salmon and other threatened fish species can get around a Gold Rush-era dam that for more than a century has cut off their migration along the chilly waters of Sierra Nevada streams.

The project is the latest example of state and federal officials trying to reverse the environmental harms caused by the century-old infrastructure along California’s major rivers and streams. Those dams and canals allowed the state to grow into the economic powerhouse it is today. But they have devastated natural ecosystems that have pushed salmon — a species once so abundant it sustained Native American populations — to the edge of extinction.

Newsom touts $60-million plan for ‘fishway’ along Yuba River; critics say it falls short

Citing the need to boost survival rates for imperiled salmon and sturgeon along the heavily dammed Yuba River, state, local and federal officials have announced a $60-million plan to build a channel that will allow fish to swim easily around a dam that has impeded their passage for more than a century.

Joined by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday, officials announced that the fishway would bypass the DaGuerre Point Dam, in Marysville, and allow spring-run chinook salmon, green sturgeon, steelhead, and lamprey to access 10 to 12 miles of spawning habitat upstream.

Gavin Newsom announces $60 million plan to build channel, reintroduce salmon on Yuba River

Gov. Gavin Newsom joined state and federal officials at Daguerre Point Dam in Marysville Tuesday to tout a long-sought deal to reintroduce Chinook salmon to the northern fork of the Yuba River for the first time in nearly 100 years. As part of the agreement, state and federal officials will build a fishway — a channel for migrating fish — around the century-old dam to open up 12 miles of habitat for salmon, steelhead, sturgeon and lamprey. The announcement was met with both optimism and frustration from environmentalists who have long advocated for the dam’s removal.