Table of Contents

• Survey
• Updates
  • Federal
  • Regional
  • Alaska
  • Washington
  • Oregon
  • California
  • Climate/Ocean Conditions
  • Good News
  • Miscellaneous

Please assist us in making the Habitat Hotline a more reader-friendly document by filling out the 4-page survey that follows below. The results from the survey will be published in early 1999. Please return this survey no later than January 8, 1999. An "Updates" section can be found starting on page 5.

Questions pertaining to the Habitat Hotline:

1. Indicate which sections of the Habitat Hotline interest you the most:

	Congressional Information		State Issues Section
	Columbia River Information		Updates Section
	Forestry/Range/Mining and Other Land Use Issues		Good News
	Clean Water Act and Wetlands		Environmental Educational Materials
	Watershed Restoration Success Stories		Meeting Announcements
	Climate and Ocean Condition Information		Marine Habitat Topics
	Grants and Funding for Habitat Restoration		Other (specify) ____________________

2. The length of Hotline is:

3.Upon receiving the Hotline I read it:

4. Have you accessed the Hotline on PSMFC’s website at http://www.psmfc.org?

Yes

No

5. Do you use the Internet to obtain information on fisheries or fish habitat issues?

Yes

No

6.Do you think the Habitat Hotline should contain a more diverse set of viewpoints on issues, such as from the timber, mining, and grazing industries, wise use groups, etc.?

7. Have you ever taken an action (such as commenting on a rule making or calling a decision-maker) as a result of information you read in the Habitat Hotline?

8. Have you ever used the contacts listed at the end of the Hotline articles to obtain further information on an issue?

10. In 1999 the National Marine Fisheries Service is supposed to make a determination on long-term management of the Snake and Columbia Basins for salmon and steelhead recovery. Do you favor removal of the four dams on the lower Snake River as a long-term solution to salmon recovery?

11.Do you feel current state and federal regulations protecting fish habitat (i.e., pollution laws, forest practices, and wetlands regulations) are:

Habitat protection laws such as the Clean Water Act (including wetlands regulations) and the Endangered Species Act must be amended to accommodate economic growth (new houses, schools, roads).

Economic growth (new houses, schools, roads, factories) must take into account the protection of water quality, preservation of wetlands, and general watershed health, even if it means an increase in short term costs to tax payers.

We need stronger laws (in addition to what is already contained in the United States Constitution) to protect private property rights.

While fish habitat protection and restoration are important, without a significant reduction in the number of salmon harvesters, we will never realize salmon recovery.

As a taxpayer, I would be willing to pay the following amount of money per year that would go towards a salmon recovery fund.

17. How would describe your interest or knowledge regarding Essential Fish Habitat (EFH) appertaining to the 1996 Sustainable Fisheries Act?

18.Who are you?

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UPDATES

FEDERAL

• The 106th Congress will convene on 01/06/99. Reports are that Senate Environment and Public Works Committee chairman Senator John Chafee (R-R.I.) wants to make reauthorization of the CLEAN WATER ACT (CWA) a top priority in the new Congress. Expect CWA focus to be on non-point source pollution and wetland issues. However, according to the Water Policy Report, entrenched ideological differences within the House of Representatives could threaten any attempt to rewrite the CWA.

• On 11/20/98, the Environmental Protection Agency released for PUBLIC COMMENT a strategy to reduce mercury and other priority chemicals such as dioxin and PCBs. These chemicals, known as PERSISTENT, BIOAC-CUMULATIVE AND TOXIC (PBT) POLLUTANTS, are highly toxic, can remain in the environment for generations, and can travel long distances through the air to reach land and water. Action plans for other chemicals listed in the PBT strategy will be developed during 1999. To obtain a copy of the strategy, contact the Pollution Prevention Information Clearinghouse (7409), Environmental Protection Agency, 401 M St. SW, Washington, DC 20460; telephone: (202) 260-1023; Fax: (202) 260-0178; e-mail: PPIC@epa.gov. For further technical information contact: Sam K. Sasnett, EPA Pollution Prevention Division at (202) 260-8020, e-mail: sasnett.sam@epa.gov.

• On 10/13/98, at the fifty-first annual meeting of the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission, the following resolution was adopted on SNAKE RIVER Salmon and Steelhead Recovery:

• The Interior Columbia River Basin Ecosystem Management Project (ICBEMP) is part of a 1993 Presidential directive to develop a scientifically sound, ecosystem-based strategy for management of federal lands east of the Cascades. On 10/08/98, Secretary of the Interior BRUCE BABBITT, and Secretary of Agriculture DAN GL1CKMAN wrote to Representative George Nethercutt (R-Wash.) regarding the future plans of ICBEMP. In their letter, the Secretaries outlined future REDIRECTION of the program:

• On 10/29/98, Allan Dowd of Reuters reported that a battle is brewing over whether to end a 1972 moratorium on DRILLING FOR OIL and natural gas off Canada’s Pacific Coast. The battle began after the recent release of a geological report that said deposits in the region (especially around the Queen Charlotte Islands) may be far bigger than previously thought. Geologists have known for years there are potentially vast oil and natural gas deposits off BRITISH COLUMBIA. Chevron Canada Resources Ltd., Shell Canada Ltd., and Petro-Canada have held drilling rights in the region since the early 1970s. The pressure for oil development comes mainly from coastal business interests struggling to cope with the decline of British Columbia’s fishing, mining and timber industries. According to the article, western Canadian businesses are now looking with envy at promising oil and gas exploration now underway off Canada’s Atlantic coast.

• There is mounting evidence that farm raised ATLANTIC SALMON ARE REPRODUCING IN THE WILD on the West Coast. On 09/23/98, the Associated Press reported that juvenile Atlantic salmon were found by provincial biologists in mid-August in the Tsitika River on Vancouver Island. Also, in the Summer 1998 issue of the Alaska Fishery Research Bulletin (published by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game), an article written by National Marine Fisheries Service biologists Richard Brodeur and Morgan Busby describes the capture of an Atlantic salmon in the Bering Sea. According to the article, the specimen extends the known Pacific range westward about 595 km. Also, according to the article:

• On 10/19/98, the Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund announced that they had reached a settlement with the US Army Corps of Engineers and the US Environmental Protection Agency over the contested DREDGE DISPOSAL sites near the mouth of the Columbia River (see Habitat Hotline Number 31). The suit was filed in federal district court in Seattle on behalf of a coalition of fishing groups including the Columbia River Crab Fisherman’s Association, the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, and the Institute for Fisheries Resources. The federal government agreed to revoke their 1997 designation of a controversial ocean disposal site off the mouth of the COLUMBIA RIVER. Under that designation, the Corps was authorized to dump millions of cubic yards of dredge spoils on top of a productive Dungeness crab fishery. A lawsuit was filed in March 1998 by the Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund in an attempt to stop the dredge spoil disposal. According to the groups, the Corps and the EPA had violated federal environmental laws in 1997 when they decided to vastly expand two ocean dumpsites used for the disposal of sediments dredged from the Columbia River entrance channel without considering environmental impacts. One of these expanded sites covered 8 square miles of prime Dungeness crab habitat in the most heavily fished area off the mouth of the Columbia.

• In other Columbia River dredge news, the comment period on the proposed Columbia and Lower Willamette River channel deepening project has been extended until 02/05/99. The US Army Corps of Engineers is proposing to deepen the Columbia and Lower Willamette to a depth of 43 feet from its current depth of 40 feet. The $189 million project is currently scheduled to begin in October of 2001. There are currently four EPA designated dumpsites off the mouth of the Columbia River. It is estimated that the channel deepening project will result in 6.5 million cubic yards (mcy) of material for initial construction and 4.2 million mcy for channel maintenance over a 20 year period. This is in addition to the 4 mcy currently being disposed in the ocean from the mouth of the Columbia River dredging activity. The proposed dredge disposal sites for the channel deepening project are substantially larger than current disposal sites.

• From 03/09-03/11/99 the "Third KLAMATH Basin Watershed Restoration and Research CONFERENCE" will take place in Klamath Falls, Oregon. Conference topics include History of the Klamath Watershed, Restoration and Enhancement, Water Quality, and Habitat Restoration Programs. Call for papers: abstracts for the conference are due 01/09/99. For further information contact the Klamath Basin Ecosystem Restoration Office at (541) 885-8481.

• On 10/21/98, the US Army CORPS of Engineers announced the beginning of the first phase of a two-phase STUDY OF DRAWDOWN OPTIONS FOR JOHN DAY DAM on the Columbia River. Congress has directed that the Corps limit the first phase of the John Day Drawdown Study to two options for lowering, or drawing down, the reservoir: "spillway crest" and "natural river level." They appropriated $3.3 million for the first phase of the study. In this first phase, which began 10/01/98 and is to be completed in about one year, the Corps’ Portland District will begin to identify the impacts of both options. They will evaluate biological, social, and economic benefits and costs, plus potential physical impacts of each. The second phase, if directed by Congress, would evaluate the costs, benefits and physical impacts of a wide range of alternatives, including potential physical modifications to the dam. That phase would likely include an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and related National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) coordination. Public comments are part of those processes. For further information contact Dawn M. Edwards of the Corps at (503) 808-4510.

• On 11/22/98, Farrell Kramer and Hal Spencer of the Associated Press reported that the US NAVY SPILLS in US ports came to 181,453 gallons from fiscal years 1990 to 1997. Puget Sound ports had the greatest spillage: 56,674 gallons during the eight-year period. Navy and Coast Guard data indicate that this amount accounts for 60 percent of all spills in the Sound. Another West Coast port with significant spill included the San Diego Waterfront, which counted 33,584 gallons.

• On 10/28/98, the Portland District US Corps of Engineers released an Environmental Assessment (EA) on the proposed steps that will be taken to relocate a CASPIAN TERN colony on the Columbia River before the beginning of next spring’s juvenile fish migration. In the EA, the Corps’ Portland District outlines its plans to participate with other federal agencies to relocate the Rice Island colony of Caspian terns. The agencies plan to try various methods to attract the birds to East Sand Island, at rivermile 5 in the Columbia River. According to the Corps, scientists estimate that the colony of about 10,000 nesting pairs on Rice Island, at rivermile 21-22 on the Columbia River, is consuming 6 to 25 million salmonid smolts (migrating juvenile salmon and steelhead) per year. Two populations of anadromous salmonids in the Columbia Basin are listed as "endangered" under the Endangered Species Act, five are listed as "threatened", six are "proposed to be listed" within the year, and one is under review. According to the Corps, the timing of the proposed relocation project is critical, as juvenile salmonids begin migrating downriver in April. For further information contact the Corps at (503) 808-4510.

• In November, Montana citizens passed a ballot initiative by a 53-47 percent margin BANNING CYANIDE HEAP LEACH MINING. Expect to see legislative and court challenges to the ban.

• In September, the ALASKA SEALIFE CENTER was designated by Coastal America as a Coastal Ecosystem Learning Center. The center joins only eight other such institutions in the country. West Coast Learning Centers include the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, Oregon, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California. Coastal America is a partnership of federal agencies working to protect America’s coastal resources. The designation highlights the Center’s education achievements while reinforcing the commitment to public education and support of the marine environment. The Alaska SeaLife Center, located in Seward, is dedicated to understanding and maintaining the integrity of the marine ecosystem of Alaska through research, rehabilitation, and public education. For further information call (907) 224-6300 or 1-800-224-2525; or visit their website at http://www.alaskasealife.org/.
• On 11/24/98, Yereth Rosen of Reuters reported that a panel of federal and state officials bought 41,750 acres on northern Afognak Island in Alaska’s Kodiak Archipelago to protect the area from logging and help its ecosystem recover from the EXXON VALDEZ OIL SPILL. The $70.5 million Afognak deal was the most expensive land acquisition made by the Exxon Valdez Trustee Council. The six-member panel administers the $900 million that Exxon has pledged to pay over a decade to settle federal and state government civil claims filed against the corporation for the 1989 oil spill. Including completed purchases, pending purchases and the Afognak and Kenai River deals, the Trustee Council plans to buy or acquire protective easements for about 650,000 coastline acres. The 11 million-gallon Exxon Valdez oil spill was the worst tanker disaster in US waters.

• On 11/25/98, the Skokomish Indian Tribe filed a claim with the United States Department of Justice seeking $5.7 billion for ECONOMIC DAMAGES (including salmon losses) caused by the United State’s failure to regulate the City of Tacoma’s CUSHMAN HYDROELECTRIC PROJECT (see Habitat Hotline Number 38). According to Tribal Chairman Gordon James, "For more than 70 years the United States has refused to do its legal duty to protect the Tribe and general public from reckless, unregulated damage by Tacoma’s Cushman Project. It is time for the US to repair the damage." For further information contact Victor Martino of the Skokomish Tribe at (206) 842-5386.

• The conservation group People For Puget Sound (as well as many others) continue to call FOR MANDATORY TUG ESCORTS for all oil tankers entering the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The fear is that if a boat were to lose power in or near the straits, rescue vessels could not get to it in time (the nearest rescue tugs are located in Port Angeles), thus threatening the productive nearshore water of Washington’s Coast, including the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary. On 11/20/98, People For Puget Sound’s Executive Director Kathy Fletcher said:

• On 11/20/98, Governor Gary Locke’s office, on behalf of the Joint Natural Resources Cabinet, updated their "Extinction is Not an Option" salmon recovery strategy (See Habitat Hotline Number 39). Below are upcoming key dates:

• Comments on proposed changes for processing water rights in the WALLA WALLA BASIN are due by 12/18/98. The proposed amendment to the existing water management rule would allow the Washington Department of Ecology (WADOE) to process some water right changes or transfer applications ahead of others. For further information contact Bill Neve at WADOE at (509) 527-4546; or visit their website at http://www.wa.gov/ ecology/.

• The US Fish and Wildlife Service recently announced they are accepting RESTORATION PROJECT PROPOSALS for the OREGON "PARTNERS FOR FISH AND WILDLIFE" PROGRAM. Projects must be located on private or non-federal lands within the boundaries of the State of Oregon, excluding Baker, Klamath, Malheur, Union, and Wallowa Counties. Please contact Peggy Guillory in Boise, Idaho at (208) 378-5098 for potential projects located in the Snake River Basin and Curt Mullis in Klamath Falls at (541) 885-8481 for Klamath County. Eligible habitat types for funding include wetland, riparian, and instream with associated upland habitats. If you have any questions or want an application form, please call Maureen Smith at (503) 231-6179. All proposal packages are to be postmarked no later than February 19, 1999. Send to:

• On 11/20/98, the Environmental Protection Agency announced the following:

• On 11/6/98, the Oregon Water Resources Commission canceled the Grant Pass Irrigation District’s (GPID) Rogue River water right permit. The action cancels one-third of the water the GPID takes from the Rogue River (effective 10/15/99). The action was a result of the GPID’s lack of progress towards removing SAVAGE RAPIDS DAM, which has been implicated in killing thousands of salmon and steelhead annually. The GPID has said it will continue to fight for dam retention in the state legislature and in the courts. In related news, on 11/11/98, the GPID patrons voted in board members who are reportedly dam retention proponents.

• On 10/28/98, the groups American Lands and Oregon Natural Resources Council reported that the Lake Oswego City Council voted to seek support of Oregon’s Congressional delegation in establishing new protections for the CLACKAMAS RIVER WATERSHED. The Clackamas Watershed, the source of Lake Oswego’s water, is the site of controversial timber sales in the Mt. Hood National Forest.

• On 11/03/98, Oregon voters crushed MEASURE 64, a ballot initiative that would have prohibited many present timber harvest practices including clear-cut logging. The (unofficial) final vote was Yes: 208,499 (19%); No: 878,267 (81%).

• On 11/29/98, the Associated Press reported that Southern California Edison wants to dump rocks or pieces of concrete on the ocean floor to help create an artificial kelp reef, replacing the natural one that was destroyed by the San Onofre nuclear plant.

• On 11/25/98, the Associated Press reported that a new study indicates that FISHING AND BOATING contribute more than $1 BILLION a year to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta region. The study by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley found that in 1995 delta fishing generated $746 million in the region, while boating generated $418 million. The figures included money spent on such things as gas, boating, fishing equipment and food.
• On 11/14/98, the Associated Press reported that the environmental group San Diego BayKeeper filed a $549 million federal LAWSUIT against the City of Los Angeles on 11/09/98, claiming aging pipes are leaking sewage and turning SANTA MONICA BAY into a giant "toilet bowl." According to the article, in its lawsuit alleging violations of the federal Clean Water Act, San Diego BayKeeper charges that nearly 1,000 spills have sent 50 million gallons of raw sewage down city storm drains in the past five years. The $549 million figure was based on penalties of $25,000 per violation, per day. The lawsuit lists 1,000 actual sewer violations derived from the Bureau of Sanitation’s own monitoring reports. BayKeeper wants the city to repair the entire sewer system within 10 years so no raw sewage winds up in storm drains. The city plans on spending $1.2 billion in pipeline improvements over the next 10 years. However, BayKeeper Board Member Terry Tamminen estimated a $2 billion cost to repair the entire pipeline system. For further information contact San Diego BayKeeper at (619) 299-4484.

• On 03/17-19/99, the San Francisco Estuary Project will host "The Fourth Biennial State of the ESTUARY CONFERENCE" at St. Mary’s Conference Center in San Francisco. The conference provides a biennial assessment of the ecological health of the San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary. Organizers say that the conference will bring the latest information about the Estuary’s changing watersheds, impacts from major stressors, recovery programs for species and habitats, plus take a look at emerging issues. A poster session will offer an opportunity to talk informally with those involved in current research and restoration activities. For further information call (510) 622-2465.

• On 11/10/98, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CDF) suspended the conditional timber operating license of the Pacific Lumber Company because of continued environmental violations of the state’s forest practice rules. Said CDF director Richard Wilson about the 11/10 suspension:

• The GUADALUPE RIVER flows through the City of San Jose and into the South San Francisco Bay. The river supports runs of steelhead (listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act) and fall chinook salmon (proposed to be listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act). The run of chinook, which in some years number in the hundreds, spawn in reaches which are in the middle of downtown San Jose. Some have also been found spawning south of downtown. The downtown river reach however, has the cooler and deeper water and has been populated with greater numbers of spawning chinook.

• On 11/13/98, Peter Lardner of Reuters reported that scientists at the Buenos Aires climate talks said GLOBAL WARMING is killing the world’s CORAL REEFS, and with them the swarming sea life they shelter and support. Vast expanses of reef have been destroyed by abnormally high 1998 sea-surface temperatures, specialists from the United States and Canada told the United Nations summit. "More corals have died from heat stroke this year than have died from all other human causes to date,’’ said Thomas Goreau, President of the Global Coral Reef Alliance. According to the article, satellites measuring the surface temperature of the Earth’s oceans have tracked a steady rise since 1982. Warmer seas have led many corals to turn white ("bleach") as the algae that feed and color them are driven out and die.

• On 11/ 26/98, Michael Perry of Reuters wrote that scientists meeting in Townsville near Australia’s Great Barrier Reef said further SEA TEMPERATURE RISES PREDICTED over the next 50 years poses a serious THREAT to the world’s fragile CORAL REEF ecosystems. "Global coral bleaching and die-off was unprecedented in 1998 in geographic extent, depth and severity," said the International Coral Reef Initiative, a grouping of scientists and marine park managers. Also, said the scientists, the only major reef region spared from coral bleaching appears to be the central Pacific. The international marine scientists warned that the unprecedented coral bleaching in 1998 would not only have a negative impact on fragile marine environments, but would also have a negative economic and social impacts.

• On 11/27/98, the Worldwatch Institute announced that with one month remaining, 1998 has already set a new record for economic losses from WEATHER-RELATED DISASTERS. According to preliminary estimates by the Worldwatch Institute, storms, floods, droughts, and fires caused at least $89 billion in economic losses during the first eleven months of the year (see graph below). The 1998 preliminary total represents a 48 percent increase over the previous record of $60 billion in 1996—and far exceeds the $55 billion in losses for the entire decade of the 1980s.

• On 11/05/98, Oregon State climatologist George Taylor, said that the "If there’s a fight going on, La Niña’s winning." An analysis of October data from NASA’s TOPEX-Poseidon satellite shows that the sea across the tropical Pacific has remained the same since June, when warm El Niño waters gave way to much cooler La Niña conditions in the tropical Pacific, said Taylor, a faculty member in OSU’s College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences. Scientists studying the satellite images and other data are unsure whether the conditions are now ripe for this year’s La Niña, so far a moderate one, to mature into a truly strong LA NIÑA. If, as Taylor expects, the moderate La Niña conditions continue, the coming winter is likely to be much wetter and somewhat cooler than average, with the wettest weather coming through December and the coldest weather hitting the Northwest in early 1999. There is also a good chance for significant low-level snow this winter, including the Willamette Valley, he said. "In the Northwest, moderate La Niñas usually produce cool, very wet winters, while strong La Niñas yield somewhat wet, but very cold winters," Taylor said. "Remember the flood years of 1995-96 and 1996-97?" Forecasters at the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center in Washington, DC agree with Taylor. Weather service forecasters are now stating in their long-range forecast with "90 percent certainty" that moderate to strong La Niña conditions will develop through the end of the year and into February.
• On 11/09/98, NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center said that further development of cold episode conditions is likely, as negative subsurface temperature anomalies and shallower than normal oceanic thermocline continue to dominate the equatorial Pacific. The latest NCEP coupled model predictions indicate that cold episode conditions in the tropical Pacific will continue through May 1999.

• On 11/03/98, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced the start of a RESTORATION PROJECT to improve the habitat for native salmon populations along the DUWAMISH RIVER near Seattle. NOAA’s Damage Assessment and Restoration Program specialists working with Native American tribes and other natural resource trustees will recreate, restore, and preserve over 16 acres of aquatic and nearshore habitat at the former site of Seaboard Lumber. The project site will augment habitat in the last remaining oxbow of the Duwamish River and will serve as a model for future restoration projects in urban industrial waterways. During the past century, approximately 98 percent of salt marshes and tideflats were filled and converted to industrial land in this portion of the lower Duwamish River. The Seaboard Lumber restoration site is the third of nine projects to move forward under the 1991 Elliot Bay/Duwamish Restoration Program (EB/DRP) as part of a Natural Resources Damage Assessment settlement with the City of Seattle and King County Department of Natural Resources. The EB/DRP is administered by NOAA, the City of Seattle, the King County Department of Natural Resources, the Suquamish Tribe, the Muckleshoot Tribe, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Washington Department of Ecology.

• 11/8/98, R. Gregory Nokes of The Oregonian reported that the City of Portland and Portland General Electric are close to an agreement to REMOVE THE UTILITY COMPANY’S 92-YEAR-OLD DAM ON THE LITTLE SANDY RIVER as part of a broad habitat restoration strategy for threatened steelhead. Removal of the dam would open up the Little Sandy River basin for salmon and steelhead, allowing water to flow into a 13-mile stretch, now virtually dry, from the dam to where the Little Sandy meets the Bull Run River. The Bull Run River in turn flows into the Sandy River. Natural waterfalls above the Little Sandy Dam would stop fish from passing higher upstream.

• On 11/19/98, Bill Lindelof of the Scripps-McClatchy News Service reported that three agricultural islands in the Sacramento River’s Yolo Bypass between Rio Vista and Sacramento may someday become part of a NEW NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE. The proposed "North Delta National Wildlife Refuge" would at its core include Prospect, Little Holland and Liberty islands, making up 7,800 acres in Yolo and Solano counties. The islands have been surrounded by levees and farmed this century, but the islands once were rich marshland replenished by periodic overtopping of the Sacramento River. The region was once covered with willows and towering cottonwood. According to the article, at one time more than 250 species of birds and mammals lived in the area. Even today it provides habitat for fish such as the Sacramento splittail, CHINOOK SALMON and Delta smelt. Under the plan, the US Fish and Wildlife Service is close to buying Liberty Island, the Bureau of Reclamation has bought Prospect Island, and the Army Corps of Engineers has been trying to buy the Little Holland tract.

• On 10/20/98, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the American Sportfishing Association’s FishAmerica Foundation (ASA) announced an agreement to RESTORE MARINE FISH HABITATS across the country through effective partnering with local coastal communities. The agreement provides a framework for the two groups to partner in a range of remedies to restore coastal environment and help local communities accomplish meaningful habitat restoration in a cost-effective manner.

• For those interested in Columbia Basin fish news, The COLUMBIA BASIN BULLETIN: Weekly Fish and Wildlife News is an excellent source of information. Supported with Bonneville Power Administration fish and wildlife funds, the electronic WEEKLY NEWSLETTER tracks significant developments related to salmon and steelhead recovery and other important Basin fish and wildlife issues. Activities of the Northwest Power Planning Council, National Marine Fisheries Service, Northwest Indian tribes, federal and state agencies, governors’ offices, Congress, state legislatures, advocacy groups and industry representatives are included.

• On 10/23/98, the Environmental News Network reported that human activities may not be the cause of NITRATE POLLUTION in some lakes and streams, according to researchers at the University of California, Davis. Instead, weathering bedrock may be the culprit. Nitrate contamination in streams and lakes is considered a serious environmental and human-health issue worldwide. Human activities such as farming and factory pollution have been blamed for the pollution. Excessive nitrate levels can cause massive algae blooms that rob surface waters of oxygen and lead to large fish kills. Furthermore, elevated nitrate levels in drinking water have been implicated in some human cancers as well as an infant blood disorder commonly known as "blue baby syndrome."