Columbia Basin Dams Remain Under New Bush Salmon Plan

By J.R. Pegg

WASHINGTON, DC, December 1, 2004 (ENS) – Current operations at federal dams within the Columbia River Basin do not jeopardize the existence of endangered salmon and new technologies can help ensure their survival, Bush administration officials said on Tuesday.

A federal judge will ultimately decide if that position holds water, but salmon advocates say the administration’s court ordered revisions to the federal salmon plan further undermine the faltering effort to safeguard the endangered fish of the Pacific Northwest.

"We have gone from bad to worse," said Pat Ford, executive director Save Our Wild Salmon. "The new plan abandons the goal of recovering wild salmon and steelhead."

Endangered Chinook salmon (Photo courtesy Oregon Sea Grant)

Thirteen different salmon and steelhead populations listed as endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act live in waters impacted by the 14 federal dams on the Columbia River Basin.

Scientists estimate that each dam on the Columbia and Snake Rivers kills five to 15 percent of the salmon migrating through it.

The federal plan to protect and recover the endangered fish has long been the source of controversy as well as litigation by salmon advocates who believe it is inadequate and poorly implemented.

In May 2003 U.S. District Court Judge James Redden ruled the plan violated the Endangered Species Act because there was no certainty the recommended actions would be carried out and ordered the Bush administration to rewrite it.

The revised plan provides that certainty, administration officials told reporters, and ensures continued protection of salmon and steelhead listed under the Endangered Species Act.

"The negative effects of operating federal dams and reservoirs will be offset by the proposed actions," said Bob Lohn, northwest regional administrator for NOAA Fisheries.

The plan will ensure the viability of the listed species, according to officials, through an array of protection measures, including:

• installation of multi-million dollar, fish slides at dams to improve fish passage and survival
  
• targeting fish and wildlife funding for habitat improvements
  
• reforming hatcheries to boost naturally spawning runs in key areas

Officials touted the promise of new fish slides, also called removable spillway weirs.

Removable spillway weir awaits placement on the Lower Granite Dam. (Photo courtesy USACE)

Wright said the federal government would install this technology at eight federal dams in the basin within 10 years and told reporters the revised salmon plan is "both scientifically credible and legally defensible."

But a broad spectrum of critics – including conservationists, commercial fishers, outdoor recreation companies, fishery scientists and Native American tribes with treaty rights to the salmon – say the 10 year $6 billion plan is a disaster for the endangered fish and poor use of taxpayer money.

"This plan is a step backward. It fails the charge of serving longstanding recovery goals and tackling problems wrought by the federal dam system," said Olney Patt Jr., executive director of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, which represents the Nez Perce, Warm Springs, Yakama and Umatilla tribes. "As co-managers of the salmon resource, we believe this plan falls far short of its legal, biological and trust responsibility."

Central to criticism of the plan is the administration’s determination within the biological opinion that federal dams are a permanent part of the Columbia River Basin. This allows NOAA Fisheries to ignore the impact of the dams’ existence and instead only evaluate the impact of dam operations.

Both impacts were considered in the prior biological opinions that lay at the heart of the federal salmon plan, and the position contrasts with previous determinations made by federal scientists.

The Dalles Dam is located 192 miles upstream from the mouth of the Columbia River on the Oregon-Washington border. The project consists of a navigation lock, spillway, powerhouse and fish passage facilities. (Photo courtesy USACE)

But the Bush administration has been steadfast in its opposition to breaching any dams within the basin.

Lohn said the new position is sound because the dams were in place before the Endangered Species Act and the "action proposed here was not building dams, but operating the dams that are already in existence."

"Many of the effects occur from the existence of the dams, not the operations," he added.

Critics say that by including the dams in the "natural environmental baseline" the agency avoided examining the full effects of the dams on the salmon.

Some 250 scientists sent a letter to the White House last week calling the move "scientifically indefensible," and salmon advocates believe the plan is probably illegal.

Ice Harbor Dam on the Snake River in Washington generates electric power. (Photo courtesy DOE)

The revised plan comes in the wake of two other controversial moves by the Bush administration with regard to protecting endangered salmon.

The Bush administration tried to reduce summer spill - water spilled over dams to aid migrating salmon - for several dams this summer in favor of using that water to generate electricity, but the move was challenged by salmon advocates and blocked by Judge Redden.

The summer spill controversy came on the heels of a Bush administration determination to allow hatchery raised salmon to be counted when determining whether wild salmon should be protected under the Endangered Species Act.

The hatchery fish decision reverses the past position of NOAA Fisheries, which held that hatchery fish should not be included in population counts used to determine the status of wild salmon and steelhead stocks.

Millions of fish once ran each year in the Columbia Basin, but today less than two percent of wild salmon remain. All Snake River steelhead and salmon are now listed as endangered and one species, coho, is extinct. Twenty-six Pacific salmon and steelhead populations are listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act.