By Frank Lockwood

Staff writer

HERMISTON This summers predicted drought has agencies wondering if government should attempt to force water and energy curtailment.

Some other options might force BPA to default on loans or violate the Biological Opinion which was designed to protect salmon, they say.

Conservation is the first line of defense.

New power plants will help, but it takes five years to build them.

The Columbia River is so low and weather conditions so poor that Bonneville Power Administration have hinted they could have a problem making their annual payment to the United States Treasury on time, unless something is changed about in river management.

Winter power shortages, rising demands for electricity, and a skimpy snow pack foreshadow the third-lowest spring water-runoff in 73 years.

(For the complete story see the March 27 edition of the Hermiston Herald.)