24 May
2001
Media Contact:
Charles Hudson, CRITFC,
(503) 731-1257
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Tribes urge salmon lifeline
as barge malfunctions and hydropower sales go south; FERC to receive tribal
motion today opposing irresponsible spill-swap
Portland, Oregon
- Recent increases
in precipitation and snowmelt should be used to aid a dirge-like salmon
migration rather than sold as power outside the region said the Columbia
River Treaty Tribes today. The tribal appeal to the Bush Administration
is heightened after the weekend failure of a fish-hauling barge caused
the Army Corps of Engineers to dump 350,000 smolts in the Lower Snake
River. Clogging of a water circulation system reportedly caused the
barge failure.
The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) is currently selling power
outside the Northwest despite its self-declared emergency and just
as two critical reports are being made public. Analysis released Monday
by the Fish Passage Center said that juvenile salmon are experiencing
"specific and quantifiable deleterious effects" from decisions made
regarding hydrosystem operations. Also, the Northwest Power Planning
Council is expected to release early next week an update that will
indicate a substantial increase in the reliability of the power supply
system to meet regional power needs.
"Both electricity and a salmon migration are going South this spring,"
said Donald Sampson, Executive Director, Columbia River Inter-Tribal
Fish Commission. "The evidence is piling up that BPA's selfÐdeclared
emergency and reliability threat are not only dissipating but may
have disappeared entirely. How long does BPA expect the region to
play straight-man?"
A comprehensive Motion to Intervene and Comment will be filed with
the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) today. In the filing,
the Tribes will reiterate their rejection of a BPA proposal to swap
summer spill at Grant PUD for spring spill in the lower river - an
inappropriate and irresponsible trading of risk from one stock to
another. The BPA proposal would also force parties "to walk away from
a historical spill settlement agreement that took a decade to negotiate
and finalize" stated in a May 10 correspondence from Sampson to BPA
Administrator Steve Wright.
The joint filing will be made by the Yakama Nation, the Confederated
Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation and the Columbia River Inter-Tribal
Fish Commission. Each is party to the Grant PUD summer spill Memorandum
of Agreement (MOA) signed last year after years of negotiation.
"Each passing day shows more evidence of flexibility in the river
system to balance power and salmon needs yet the BPA is squandering
those opportunities," said Randy Settler, Yakama Nation Fish and Wildlife
Committee Chair. "BPA is in the midst of a self-inflicted crisis.
Now they would force the tribes to choose which fish should be killed
- that's a choice we refuse to make. Barring a change in the federal
lockdown of the river, the migration will be a crime scene. We refuse
complicity in any part of that," he added.
"It is another promise that is being broken when it comes to the protection
of the salmon in the Columbia River Basin. The MOA that we worked
together on is being put aside because the Columbia River is still
being driven by economic interest rather than a responsibility to
find a solution for the protection of our salmon," said Chairman Antone
Minthorn, Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation.
Spill Ð literally spilling water through dam spillways Ð has proven
to be the superior method of passing juvenile fish through hydroelectric
projects while reducing mortality. The Independent Scientific Advisory
Board along with other prominent fisheries biologists urge that spill
begin as soon as possible and continue through the spring and summer
migratory periods. Failure to dedicate water to spill programs at
federal dams leaves migrants vulnerable to the uncertainties of barging
and physical damage in screened bypass systems.
Information on the spring salmon migration can be found on the Fish
Passage Center website at www.fpc.org.
The Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission is the technical coordinating
agency for the Columbia River Treaty Tribes; Yakama, Nez Perce, Warm
Springs and Umatilla.
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About CRITFC
The Portland-based Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission is
the technical support and coordinating agency for fishery management
policies of the Columbia River Basin's four treaty tribes: the Confederated
Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, the Confederated Tribes
of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon, the Confederated Tribes
and Bands of the Yakama Nation and the Nez Perce Tribe.
CRITFC, formed in 1977, employs biologists, other scientists, public
information specialists, policy analysts and administrators who work
in fisheries research and analyses, advocacy, planning and coordination,
harvest control and law enforcement. |
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