10 june 2004
Media Contact:
Charles Hudson, CRITFC,
(503) 731-1257
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Strike
two for BPA's summer-spill proposal
Amended
plan to cut salmon protections violates federal court order
Portland, Oregon
- Citing a potential
federal-court violation, leaders of the Columbia River treaty tribes
today denounced the Bonneville Power Administration and U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers' revised proposal to squeeze more power from Columbia
Basin dams at the expense of hard-fought salmon protections. At a
Monday, June 14, face-to-face meeting, the tribes will formally request
the agencies withdraw the proposal.
The revised spill-reduction plan, retooled from an earlier version
roundly rejected as a Draconian break from common sense and science,
continues the agencies' charge toward erasing a program that helps
young salmon safely migrate over Columbia and Snake river dams while
heading out to sea.
"This second proposal is strike 2 in a campaign to sell out salmon
and tribal treaty obligations in order to ship more electricity to
power-hungry California," said Ronald Suppah Sr., chairman of
the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon.
Added Jerry Meninick, chairman of the Confederated Tribes and Bands
of the Yakama Nation, "The plan still lacks adequate measures
to offset the salmon and steelhead we would lose if BPA gets its way.
We want this haphazard plan off the table."
BPA claims it can save ratepayers up to $31 million by cutting summer
spill for 10 days in August at Ice Harbor and John Day dams and by
wiping out the entire August spill schedule at Bonneville and The
Dalles dams.
Estimates show, however, that ratepayers would pocket no more than
an average 10 cents per month in additional savings at best.
Tribal scientists estimate tens of thousands of adult fish –
including some populations listed under the Endangered Species Act
– would die if the Corps and BPA suspend the summer program
of spilling water over selected Columbia and Snake river dams.
The tribes and the region still are paying the cost of lost salmon
production and biodiversity resulting from the agencies' reducing
summer spill in 2001. Final tallies of adult fish lost from that curtailment
are unavailable until early fall.
Meanwhile tribal officials note that proposed offsets to compensate
for lost fish include changes at Lyons Ferry Hatchery, a state-run
program on the Snake River in Eastern Washington, that would violate
a court-ordered agreement among three western states, the U.S. government
and the four Columbia Basin treaty tribes.
The proposed changes at Lyons Ferry also would adversely affect management
of Chinook fisheries under the United States' Pacific Salmon Treaty
with Canada.
"Halting summer spill would prove devastating for both the natural
production of Snake River fall Chinook – an ESA-listed species
– and the hatchery program, which is demonstrating strong success
in rebuilding this important fish population," said Nez Perce
Tribe chairman Anthony D. Johnson.
"We're now convinced it's time for BPA to stop proposing
to end summer spill. Their most recent proposal violates the Endangered
Species Act, violates a federal court order, violates the United States
– Canada Salmon Treaty and is a violation of our treaty rights,"
said Antone Minthorn, who chairs the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla
Indian Reservation. "It's time for BPA to admit that this
proposal is a loser and take it off the table. The new proposal doesn't
satisfy the conditions set forth by the Governor of Oregon and our
congressional delegation – the condition that the spill proposal
not continue the decades-long saga of killing salmon."
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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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