29 April
2003
Media Contact:
Charles Hudson
(503) 731-1257
Dale McCullough
(503) 731-1236
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Tribes: EPA water temperature
guide requires fine-tuning
'Guidance' document is
step in right direction, but is too vague in places
Portland, Oregon
- An Environmental
Protection Agency guide to help regulators develop water temperature
standards for protecting Northwest salmon and trout is a positive
achievement, but some fine-tuning is needed, Columbia Basin tribes
say.
Water temperatures recommended in the Guidance for Pacific Northwest
State and Tribal Temperature Water Quality Standards, released today
by EPA's Region 10 office, appear to be consistent with those required
by salmonid species during certain growth stages, scientists at the
Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission say.
However, the Guidance's recommendations for applying biologically
based water temperature standards to a stream system permit a great
deal of discretion, said Dr. Dale McCullough, CRITFC senior fishery
scientist. Regulators' determinations about the degree of disturbance
to a watershed, the quality of temperature models and what constitutes
"core" areas for species' life stages can vary widely.
"This could allow standards to be assigned to stream reaches
in a manner that is not protective of the fish populations,"
he said. And that could open the door for polluters to operate under
standards that deviate greatly from natural conditions called for
under the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act.
The guide "recognizes that water temperatures are variable spatially
and in the process suggests the development of temperature zones from
headwaters to the downstream extent of fish distribution," he
added. "However, the means to identify precisely where these
zones start and end is hazy."
A strong, biologically based standard can be undermined by applying
it only in the far upper reaches of a stream system where temperatures
are naturally colder, McCullough said.
"The freedom given in the determination of where these zones
are on the landscape can easily be applied to the benefit or detriment
of the salmonids depending on the skill of the regulatory personnel,"
he said.
The guide also relies heavily on the Washington Department of Natural
Resources' forest practice rules, known as Forests and Fish Rules,
which the Society of Ecological Restoration, the American Fisheries
Society, an independent science panel and an environmental impact
statement have criticized for allowing extensive headwater logging
near streambanks.
Patti Howard, water quality coordinator in CRITFC's watershed department,
acknowledged that EPA's water temperature guide is a step forward
in addressing thermal impacts to salmon, trout and other salmonid
species. It also recognizes the role that human modification of the
landscape has played in downgrading the thermal regime of Pacific
Northwest waters.
But she has trepidations.
"While the recommended biological criteria appear to support
salmonid life history stages, the application of those criteria in
National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits with
regards to thermal plumes causes some concern," she said.
"I would like to see EPA put the fish first and, rather than
look at this as a one-size-fits-all program, I would like to be assured
that EPA will look at each situation on a case-by-case basis. Our
highly modified landscape requires this."
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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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