Fisheries agency says Columbia Basin dams don't threaten salmon

By JEFF BARNARD
The Associated Press

GORDON KING / YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC Michael Andy pulls a salmon from his net below the Columbia River's John Day Dam near Rufus, Wash., last summer. A government biological opinion issued yesterday concluded that the Columbia Basin's eight major dams can be operated without jeopardizing the survival of threatened and endangered salmon.

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NOAA Fisheries, the federal agency responsible for restoring dwindling salmon runs in the Northwest, came to that conclusion in a biological opinion filed with the U.S. District Court in Portland, where a judge had found a 2000 opinion inadequate because there was no assurance that mandated measures to protect salmon would actually be carried out by federal agencies.

The latest biological opinion sets a new course for salmon recovery in the Columbia Basin by jettisoning a movement toward restoring the Columbia and Snake rivers to a more natural condition, and by acknowledging the dams as part of the landscape that cannot be removed.

The plan drew sharp criticism from environmentalists and Indian tribes, who believe removing four dams on the lower Snake River is the best course to salmon recovery.

"It's an abandonment of the recovery of Columbia Basin salmon and steelhead," said Rob Masonis, Northwest regional director for American Rivers, a national conservation group.

But it drew support from utilities, irrigators, grain shippers and others who depend on the dams for power, navigation and water.

Under the Endangered Species Act, the operation of the dozens of federal hydroelectric dams, reservoirs and powerhouses on the Columbia and Snake rivers and their tributaries cannot jeopardize the survival of protected salmon. NOAA Fisheries has the responsibility to review the proposal for operating the dams and issue what is called a biological opinion.

In May 2003, U.S. District Judge James Redden in Portland ruled that the biological opinion issued in 2000 was illegal because the federal government could not guarantee that habitat enhancements and upgrades to hatchery and dam operations to prevent jeopardizing salmon survival would be done.

The new analysis takes a different approach, considering the harm dam operations cause to salmon, but not the harm caused by the dams simply being there, said Bob Lohn, Northwest regional director of NOAA Fisheries. Lohn said in a teleconference call from Portland that President Bush's promise not to remove the Snake River dams did not shape the biological opinion, because NOAA Fisheries had already advised the White House that salmon could be restored without removing the dams.

The agency based its analysis on two models — one on operating the dams in the best interests of fish, the other on actual dam operations.

The dams are operated by the Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation. The power is sold by the Bonneville Power Administration. By collaborating with them, NOAA came up with a plan of operations that would not jeopardize salmon survival, Lohn said.
 
The biggest single step is installation of removable spillway weirs that would increase survival of young fish migrating downstream to the ocean by easing them over the dams while requiring less water to be spilled rather than run through turbines, Lohn said. One has already been installed at Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River in Washington.

Measures to reduce predation by birds and fish will increase, as will habitat improvements and improvements to hatcheries. The amount of water spilled to help salmon migrate downstream will be reduced.

Overall, the plan will cost about $600 million a year for 10 years, Lohn said.

John Kober, wildlife program manager for the National Wildlife Federation, said the money would be better spent to remove the four Snake River dams and create new ways to offer the electricity, irrigation and grain shipping they provide.

Ron Suppah, chairman of the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation, said the plan relied upon measures "ranging from absurd to speculative" and did not follow Judge Redden's instructions.

"NOAA granted clemency to the biggest cause of mortality — the biggest killer — of all listed and nonlisted salmon stocks, the hydro system," Suppah said.

"NOAA Fisheries is moving in the right direction," said Glenn Vanselow of the Northwest Waterways Association, which represents ports, grain shippers, towboat operators, irrigators and utilities.

Seattle Times staff reporter Ian Ith contributed to this report.