NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
A2
Portland will seek
tolls on I-5, I-205
Senate passes bill making
it easier to kill sea lions
other transportation.
Transportation com-
missioners acknowledged
that the tolls would affect
low-income drivers and
say they are consider-
ing ways to mitigate the
cost through more transit
options and subsidies.
“People are concerned
they are going to wake up
tomorrow, and all of a sud-
den, the roads are going
to have a cost to them to
be able to get to work,”
Baney said. “We don’t
have the transit options
that would make it conve-
nient and reliable for indi-
viduals to be able to get
off the (single-occupancy
vehicle) system. We know
that. There is the concern
also about diversion into
communities and what
that might mean, too. This
commission takes it very
seriously that those ques-
tions are still out there and
need to be answered.”
The triangle of free-
ways around Portland —
Interstates 5, 205 and 84
— are the heaviest trav-
eled roads in the Port-
land area. Traffic volumes
on those freeways hover
around 150,000 vehicles
per day, according to the
Oregon Department of
Transportation.
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
The Oregon Transpor-
tation Commission voted
unanimously Thursday to
seek federal approval to
toll two segments of Port-
land’s longest and most-
used freeways, but motor-
ists wouldn’t see such
tolls for years.
The state is apply-
ing to collect tolls on all
lanes along seven miles
of Interstate 5 through the
center of Portland and all
lanes of Interstate 205 as
motorists cross the Aber-
nethy Bridge between
Oregon City and West
Linn.
“I really want to make
sure folks understand
that this is going to be a
process that is going to
be years,” said Tammy
Baney,
transportation
commission chair. “For
some ... that is not fast
enough, it’s not aggres-
sive enough, and it won’t
meet the need, but for
some, it may be too fast,
too aggressive, and there
still are concerns.”
Officials said the tolls
are intended to pay for
road projects that expand
capacity while encour-
aging commuters to use
By PHUONG LE
Associated Press
SEATTLE — A bill that
would make it easier to kill
sea lions that feast on imper-
iled salmon in the Columbia
River has cleared the U.S.
Senate.
State wildlife manag-
ers say rebounding numbers
of sea lions are eating more
salmon than ever and their
appetites are undermining
billions of dollars of invest-
ments to restore endangered
fish runs.
Senate Bill 3119, which
passed Thursday by unan-
imous
consent,
would
streamline the process for
Washington, Idaho, Oregon
and several Pacific North-
west Native American tribes
to capture and euthanize
potentially hundreds of sea
lions found in the river east
of Portland, Oregon.
Sen. Jim Risch, an Idaho
Republican who co-spon-
sored the bill with senators
from all three states, said
the legislation would help
ensure healthy populations
of salmon for years to come.
“As endangered salmon
face extinction, we must
take steps to protect them,”
Sen. Maria Cantwell, a
Forecast for Pendleton Area
TODAY
SUNDAY
MONDAY
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
AP Photo/Don Ryan, File
A bill making it easier to kill sea lions that feast on
imperiled salmon in the Columbia River has cleared the
U.S. Senate.
Washington Democrat, said
in a statement.
The Senate bill is simi-
lar to one passed by the U.S.
House in June and spon-
sored by Reps. Jaime Her-
rera Beutler, a Washington
Republican, Kurt Schrader,
an Oregon Democrat, and
others.
The House will have to
consider the Senate’s bill, or
vice versa, before it heads
to President Donald Trump
for consideration. “We have
reason to believe they will
by the end of the year,” said
Kaylin Minton, communica-
tions director for Risch.
Mostly cloudy and
chilly
35° 26°
39° 31°
A bit of snow and
rain
A little afternoon
snow
A passing
afternoon shower
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
43° 29°
44° 29°
45° 36°
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
37° 24°
37° 30°
45° 27°
49° 31°
40° 36°
OREGON FORECAST
ALMANAC
Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.
PENDLETON
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Seattle
Olympia
50/44
35/28
36/27
Longview
Kennewick Walla Walla
35/28
Lewiston
48/39
35/24
Astoria
52/45
Pullman
Yakima 34/26
48/37
37/27
Portland
Hermiston
47/40
The Dalles 37/24
Salem
Corvallis
49/36
Yesterday
Normals
Records
La Grande
38/26
PRECIPITATION
John Day
Eugene
Bend
50/37
44/26
40/28
Ontario
35/24
Caldwell
Burns
33°
29°
41°
28°
68° (1938) -7° (2013)
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
Albany
50/37
Boardman
Pendleton
Medford
55/32
0.00"
0.01"
0.37"
6.97"
8.77"
8.84"
WINDS (in mph)
34/23
33/14
0.00"
0.01"
0.32"
8.88"
15.33"
11.79"
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Pendleton 36/22
49/37
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
HERMISTON
Enterprise
35/26
37/30
28°
24°
40°
27°
64° (1938) -7° (1972)
PRECIPITATION
Moses
Lake
49/36
Aberdeen
31/26
32/25
Tacoma
Yesterday
Normals
Records
Spokane
Wenatchee
49/41
Today
Sun.
NE 3-6
NNE 4-8
NNE 3-6
NE 4-8
Supporters,
including
the governors of Oregon,
Washington and Idaho, fish-
ing groups and tribes, say
the bill will give wildlife
managers greater flexibil-
ity in controlling Califor-
nia sea lions that dramati-
cally increased from about
30,000 in the 1960s to about
300,000 under the 1972
Marine Mammal Protection
Act.
Critics called it ill-con-
ceived and say it won’t
solve the problem of declin-
ing salmon, which also face
other problems such as habi-
tat loss and dams.
“This bill changes the
core protective nature of the
Marine Mammal Protec-
tion Act by allowing for the
indiscriminate killing of sea
lions throughout the Colum-
bia River and its tributar-
ies,” Naomi Rose, marine
mammal scientist for Ani-
mal Welfare Institute, said in
a statement.
Washington, Idaho and
Oregon wildlife manag-
ers currently have federal
authorization to kill prob-
lem sea lions that eat salmon
in the Columbia River near
Bonneville Dam east of
Portland.
But they must first go
through a lengthy process
to identify and document
specific sea lions that cause
problems, including observ-
ing them eating a salmon
and using non-lethal hazing
measures on them.
Both the House and Sen-
ate bills would remove
those requirements, so states
and several Native Ameri-
can tribes could get a fed-
eral permit to remove any
sea lion east of the Interstate
205 bridge that connects
Vancouver with Portland, as
well as in tributaries of the
Columbia River where there
are federally protected fish.
Oregon water year off to slow start
By GEORGE PLAVEN
EO Media Group
Mostly cloudy and
chilly
Saturday, December 8, 2018
Just two months into the
new water year, Oregon is
already lagging behind in
precipitation and snowpack
across much of the state,
deepening concerns about
another difficult drought year
in 2019.
The
Oregon
Water
Resources
Department
released its latest water con-
ditions report Dec. 3, show-
ing average temperatures for
the month of November were
2 to 5 degrees above normal
in most of western and north-
east Oregon. Precipitation
was also well below normal
statewide, as much as 1 to 3
inches in parts of northeast
and northwest Oregon.
Racquel Rancier, senior
policy coordinator for the
OWRD, said it is still too
early to make predictions
about water conditions next
year, though soil moisture,
stream flows and mountain
snowpack are all lower than
usual out of the starting gate.
“If temperatures con-
tinue to be warmer than nor-
mal and we don’t get a good
snowpack, and if precipita-
tion is low, we could be head-
ing into a difficult drought
year for 2019,” Rancier said.
Long-term forecasts are
not calling for much relief.
The National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administra-
tion’s Climate Prediction
Center calculates the odds
of El Niño at more than 80
percent through February,
which typically means mild
winter weather in store for
the Pacific Northwest.
“This is concerning, as
this could result in less pre-
cipitation fall as snow,”
Rancier said. “If the fore-
cast is correct, we could see
a continuation of drought
conditions.”
Snowpack is critical for
farmers, ranchers and fish-
eries in the West, because it
acts as a natural reservoir for
water to gradually replenish
streams and reservoirs into
summer. So far, water basins
in southern Oregon, includ-
ing the Klamath, Harney,
Owyhee, Malheur and Lake
County basins, are all experi-
encing average- to above-av-
erage snow. The situation is
more dire farther north, with
the Willamette Basin cur-
rently at 51 percent of nor-
mal, and the Hood, Sandy
and Lower Deschutes basins
at 35 percent.
Average stream flows
were about 50 percent of nor-
mal in November, including
30 percent of normal west of
the Cascades. Rancier said
many reservoirs also have
little to no carryover water
for next year, making precip-
itation all the more critical
for irrigation supplies.
“This could make drought
more challenging in 2019,
as water in reservoirs in
2018 helped reduce drought
impacts in 2018,” she said.
Oregon remains mired
in a statewide drought, with
the U.S. Drought Monitor
reporting more than half the
state in “severe drought,”
and 34 percent in “extreme
drought.”
SUN AND MOON
Klamath Falls
42/22
Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2018
Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
7:23 a.m.
4:11 p.m.
8:29 a.m.
5:38 p.m.
First
Full
Last
New
Dec 15
Dec 22
Dec 29
Jan 5
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