Friday, June 03, 2011

More snow. Cold wet Spring. Flooding

Our cold wet spring has both added more snowfall and delayed melting of the snow pack. Reservoirs on the Columbia and other rivers are full already so warm weather will cause flooding.
And there is a man vs fish problem. Spilling water to reduce flooding adds nitrogen to the water kills fingerling fish. 
 
And a system problem. The Columbia and Snake River dams are a string. Releasing water from John Day dam sends it to the reservoir of The Dalles dam and so on. They all have to be managed together and they are by Bonneville Power Administration. It is very complex and the people/fish tradeoff and others. Power generation, agriculture, wildlife. 

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