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  • Litigation stay agreement increasing Columbia River spill, begins

    After an agreement to stay the Columbia River Basin litigation for up to 10 years, federal water managers will begin spilling more water over basin dams this spring than in past years. In the agreement, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has committed to spill more water over spillways instead of through turbines during its annual “spring spill” operations at dams on the lower Snake and Columbia rivers as well as expanding spill in the fall and early spring.

  • Pacific lamprey returns eclipsing other years

    *Our initial news release referenced adult Pacific Lamprey returns were 170 percent higher than the 10-year-average and then referenced the 10-year-average being 41,414 which is actually closer to 154 percent. The 170 percent number came from using the 2022 Annual Fish Passage Report, which references completed counts over ten years from 2013-2022. This average is 37,425. This has been updated online and addressed in other forums. Please excuse this mistake. Adult returns are indeed 252 percent higher than the four-year-average. Also, note these counts are daytime counts and lamprey passage numbers are still probably closer to 165,314 total fish. Pacific lamprey, an ancient, eel-like fish species, are seeing returns 170 percent higher than the 10-year average (2013-2022) at Bonneville Lock and Dam this year. Lamprey numbers are also 252 percent higher than the four-year average, according to biologists responsible for reporting the number of fish counted as they migrate upstream past mainstem Columbia and Snake River dams.

  • Corps’ summer recreational lock schedule to take effect May 15

    Motorized recreational boaters who need to pass through the three lower Columbia River dams must follow a lock schedule taking effect May 15.

  • EPA adds Bradford Island to the Superfund list

    Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency adds a portion of Bradford Island, which lies within the Bonneville Lock & Dam complex and is operated by Portland District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, to the National Priorities List.

  • Climbers inspect Bonneville Lock's miter gate

    The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers maintains and assesses the locks along the Columbia and Snake rivers on an annual basis to keep an estimated $23 billion dollars’ worth of commerce flowing.

  • Oregon Corps projects get $146 million for aging infrastructure

    Army Engineers and planners will receive $146 million for various infrastructure projects at U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) sites around Oregon. This funding came from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and the Disaster Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act.

  • That sounds fishy: demonized trash fish finally gets some respect

    Leaves are changing, the weather is cooling and getting wetter, and Fred Meyer is stocking its shelves with Christmas decorations, which means it’s October. Instead of skipping ahead to winter holidays, let’s fall back and celebrate autumn and Halloween by highlighting a fish that has been demonized in the past, partly for its looks, and partly for our past perceptions of it as a blood-sucking, bottom-feeding trash fish*: the Pacific lamprey.

  • The Dalles lock set to open after emergency repairs

    The Dalles Lock and Dam navigation lock will return to service March 31 at 6:30 a.m. Technicians are finalizing repairs on cracking engineers found in the downstream miter gate during annual inspections. This return to service is 36 hours earlier than officials initially predicted.

  • Columbia and Snake river navigation locks will close March 6 for annual maintenance

    The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Portland and Walla Walla districts will close all Corps navigation locks on the Columbia and Snake rivers March 6 at 6 a.m. for regularly-scheduled annual inspections, preventative maintenance and repairs.

  • The Anatomy of an Outage: A Look Back at Bonneville Navigation Lock's Sill Failure

    On Sept. 5, 2019, a long unknown and undetected flaw became an impending failure at Bonneville navigation lock. More than 70 feet underwater, sections of rebar, threaded through 40,000 pounds of concrete, had stretched and bent until the strain snapped them. The now deformed steel bars were no match for the force of water that came every time the lock filled with water to pass vessels through the lock.