VANCOUVER, Wash. (AP)  — An eruption in the crater of Mount St. Helens is definitely over, so the U.S. Geological Survey has lowered the alert level for the volcano to “normal.”

Five months have passed with no earthquakes, gas emissions or ground deformation.

The Cascades Volcano Observatory in Vancouver said in Thursday’s statement that the lava dome in the crater remains hot in places and is capable of minor explosions that could spread dust for tens of miles downwind.

The eruption started in the fall of 2004 and pushed 125 million cubic yards of lava into the crater.

In the past 28 years, lava has replaced about 7 percent of the mountaintop that was removed in the 1980 blast.

Feds push for fish passage in dams

PORTLAND — A federal agency says three dams in the Willamette Valley should have fish passage structures if the stream’s Chinook salmon and steelhead are to avoid extinction.

The National Marine Fisheries Service released an assessment Friday of the operation of the 13 dams in the Willamette River basin.

The Chinook and steelhead are protected by the Endangered Species Act.

The agency says the dams and other parts of the basin’s flood control project keep the fish out of their historic spawning grounds upstream and damage their habitat downstream.

The agency says the three fish passage structures should be finished by 2023.

It calls for a variety of other measures to keep fish populations going in the meantime.