This is excellent news!
There is a long way to go to protect this fishery, but little steps like this should keep things moving ahead! Yay!!
COURT ORDERS FEDERAL AGENCIES TO KEEP SPILLING FOR SALMON
Judge Enforces Requirement to Let Water Flow Past Dams to Help Migrating Salmon
Portland, OR - Today, a federal court stopped the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) from eliminating a federal requirement to spill water over dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers during August. The spill requirement allows young salmon to bypass the deadly dam turbines on their way to the ocean. Spill is the safest way to move young salmon downriver, and has been one of the few successful requirements in the federal Salmon Plan to aid overall survival of imperiled salmon and steelhead. The federal agencies had planned to nearly eliminate this important measure in order to generate additional hydropower during August.
"Today we celebrate a great victory for salmon," said Charles Hudson, public information manager, Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission. "Spill is a fundamental aspect of Northwest salmon recovery that will thankfully be retained. We can all rest a little easier knowing the court was able to see through the smoke and mirrors of the agencies' proposal."
As a result of today's ruling, the Corps will continue to let some water spill past dams throughout August rather than re-routing it through the dam turbines for extra energy production.
"The Court's decision is a significant step for the future of wild salmon," said Todd True, staff attorney, Earthjustice, the firm that represents the fishing and conservation groups in the case. "For the first time a federal court has held the federal agencies that operate Columbia River dams accountable to the promises they made to restore salmon to these rivers. We have a long way to go but this could be a turning point for the few wild salmon we have left."
Scientists from the Tribes, the states of Oregon, Washington and Idaho and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (joint fisheries agencies) unanimously concluded that spill is the best way to help young salmon survive federal dams, and that the government's proposed "offsets" for the damage were "speculative" and would not have compensated for cutting spill. The Bonneville Power Administration's (BPA) own analysis states that cutting spill would have killed more than 29,000 adult salmon. With severe regulations already in place for these fisheries, the government's decision would have truncated fishing seasons and tightened fishing restrictions, putting salmon dependent jobs at risk.
"With this decision we rest assured our industry will be 'open for business' when millions of visitors come to see the river of Lewis & Clark in the next few years," says Liz Hamilton, executive director, Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association. "We have not solved all the problems of the Northwest salmon economy, but this court prevented a long term problem by ruling that spill must continue. It's clear that spill is the most important safeguard under the current configuration of the hydrosystem."
In addition to harming fishing economies, cutting spill would have provided only minimal benefit to electricity ratepayers. Though BPA touted large savings for electricity customers, the plan would have saved Portland residents about seven cents per month and Seattle residents only ten cents per month.
"Today Judge Redden looked through the rhetoric and saw that pennies saved on a monthly electric bill were not worth risking the collapse of the salmon-dependent communities and economies of the Northwest," said Sara Patton, executive director, NW Energy Coalition. "Though we disagreed with many electric utilities on this issue, they have real concerns that we take seriously. Rising electric rates since 2001 have hurt people and businesses. Now it's time to listen to each other, and look for common ground. Northwest people want clean, affordable electricity AND wild salmon - and they're right. We can have both."
This decision is the culmination of a process that has been going on since BPA proposed in early 2004 to eliminate all summer spill. Because of its great impacts on fishing-based economies, the argument to continue spilling received much attention as well as the support from the Governor and the State of Oregon. Spill is a requirement of the federal Salmon Plan; however, because the plan relied on a variety of state and private actions that were not sufficiently certain to occur, a federal court ruled the plan illegal in May of 2003. The plan remains in force by court order until a new plan is completed in late November. The federal government's court ordered revision is due in draft form on August 30.
"This administration continues to demonstrate that it is out of step with the Pacific Northwest when it comes to protecting wild salmon and the communities that rely on them," said Jan Hasselman, counsel for National Wildlife Federation in Seattle. "The spill rollback plan was based on phony science and phantom trade-offs. It is becoming clear that this administration simply cannot be trusted when it comes to protecting our regional icon."
