13 May
2003
Media Contact:
Charles Hudson, CRITFC,
(503) 731-1257
|
 |
Ruling against NMFS BiOp
revives dam breaching debate
Portland, Oregon
- A federal judge's
decision invalidating the National Marine Fisheries Service's biological
opinion places Snake River dam breaching back on the table, according
to Don Sampson, executive director of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal
Fish Commission.
United States District Judge James A. Redden's May 7 ruling found
that NMFS's 2000 biological opinion contained salmon habitat restoration
and protection measures that could not provide protection for hydroelectric
operations under the ESA unless they were "reasonably certain
to occur."
BPA's refusal to commit to funding salmon restoration highlights just
how uncertain NOAA's plan was," Sampson said. "We need a
plan to protect fish, not dams. Unless BPA provides actions certain
to restore salmon … and fund them, Snake River dam breaching
is back on the table."
" Bonneville wants to cut more than $100 million per year from
projects labeled high priority by the Independent Science Review Panel
and by Columbia Basin fishery agencies and tribes," Sampson said.
"Tribes have implemented highly successful salmon restoration
projects in the basin. Funding for these actions needs to be maintained
and increased in order to avoid jeopardy. Action, not more planning,
is the answer."
The ruling effectively remands the biological opinion back to NMFS
for revamping. Sampson said it could result in an improved, evidence-based
biological opinion containing stronger language directed toward the
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which
owns and operate the 31-dam Federal Columbia River Power System, and
the Bonneville Power Administration, which markets and sells the energy
it generates.
"Hopefully, the National Marine Fisheries Service will finally
get the picture and make this its last trip to the drawing board to
redo the biological opinion," Sampson said. "I also hope
it will send a message to Bonneville, the Bureau of Reclamation and
the Corps of Engineers that they can't use poorly written and researched
policy and empty promises to slide past their obligations to salmon."
In the complaint filed in May 2001, 16 non-profit environmental and
conservation organizations, backed by the State of Oregon and the
Columbia Basin's four treaty fishing tribes, argued that NMFS improperly
relies on future, federal, state and private mitigation actions that
aren't certain to occur and violate consultation requirements under
Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act.
Section 7 establishes an interagency consultation process to assist
federal agencies in complying with their duty to avoid jeopardy to
listed species or destruction or adverse modification of critical
habitat. Under this process, a federal agency proposing an action
that "may affect" a listed species, including salmon, must
prepare and provide NMFS with a "biological assessment"
of the proposed action's effects.
The complaint also contends the biological opinion relies on survival
improvements resulting from habitat and hatchery enhancement efforts
that may not occur. It also is flawed because it arbitrarily concludes
the "reasonable and prudent alternative" measures will be
enough to avoid jeopardizing salmon populations, and it doesn't account
for effects of delays in making salmon survival improvements. In addition,
it doesn't consider how emergency provisions that allow a federal
agency to forego improvements would affect salmon.
" We believe this decision will help hold the dams accountable
for their impacts on the salmon," Sampson said.
# # # #
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. |
|
