ATNI Resolution #04-007

2004 Winter Conference
Portland, Oregon
RESOLUTION #04 -007

"OPPOSING THE ELIMINATION OR REDUCTION OF THE SUMMER SPILL PROGRAM THAT BENEFITS MIGRATING SALMON AND OTHER ANADROMOUS FISH IN THE COLUMBIA AND SNAKE RIVERS"

PREAMBLE

We, the members of the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians of the United States, invoking the divine blessing of the Creator upon our efforts and purposes, in order to preserve for ourselves and our descendants rights secured under Indian Treaties and benefits to which we are entitled under the laws and constitution of the United States and several states, to enlighten the public toward a better understanding of the Indian people, to preserve Indian cultural values, and otherwise promote the welfare of the Indian people, do hereby establish and submit the following resolution:

WHEREAS, the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians (ATNI) are representatives of and advocates for national, regional, and specific Tribal concerns; and

WHEREAS, the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians is a regional organization comprised of American Indians in the states of Washington, Idaho, Oregon, Montana, Nevada, Northern California, and Alaska; and

WHEREAS, the health, safety, welfare, education, economic and employment opportunity, and preservation of cultural and natural resources are primary goals and objectives of Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians; and

WHEREAS, since time immemorial, our economy, culture, religion and way of life have been centered around our fishing, hunting and gathering resources, and the lands and waters on which they depend, and yet their health and well-being have suffered greatly as a result of many harmful non-Indian activities and actions; and

WHEREAS, the loss and diminishment of many of these resources has in turn caused substantial harm to tribal people and communities and has impacted our inherent tribal sovereignty, which is based in part on the free exercise of our rights to fish, hunt and gather, and the United States has a duty, based on treaties, executive orders, the federal trust responsibility and numerous court opinions, to ensure that those rights are honored; and

WHEREAS, among the many resources that have been destroyed and degraded by the development and operation of the Columbia River hydropower system are various populations of salmon, lamprey, sturgeon, resident fish and wildlife, to such an extent that numerous such species have gone extinct or are currently listed under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA); and

WHEREAS, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) have legal obligations, under the National Historic Preservation Act and other statutes, to identify and protect archaeological and cultural resource areas impacted by the operation of the Federal Columbia River Power System through identification, enforcement and education, particularly in light of the Lewis and Clark memorial events; and

WHEREAS, one of the primary specific factors in the loss and diminishment of fish populations has been the construction and operation of the federal hydrosystem in the Columbia Basin, which harms fish basin-wide by detrimentally altering their essential riverine habitat and by killing, injuring and disorienting those that pass through either dam turbines or extended-length screen systems; and

WHEREAS, in addition to directly and indirectly harming migrating fish populations, the federal hydrosystem has created reservoirs and affected riverine systems in the upper portion of the Columbia River Basin that have frequently been managed in ways that negatively impact many treaty and trust resources, including cultural and natural resources in both rivers and reservoirs; and

WHEREAS, the safest means of fish passage around dams is by controlled spill, a point on which there is virtually unanimous scientific agreement (including that of NOAA Fisheries); and

WHEREAS, four Columbia River treaty tribes fought hard for more than two decades to finally succeed in securing the summer spill program to protect outmigrating salmon and to improve survival and reproduction of lamprey and sturgeon; and

WHEREAS, additional political entities and other organizations, such as the State of Alaska and the Alaska Trollers Association, are concerned about healthy fish populations and habitat and the many benefits they provide, and, as such, are in substantial agreement with the tribal position in support of the continuation of the summer spill program; and

WHEREAS, federal agencies, led by BPA, have been engaged in a vague, unwritten yet aggressive campaign to eliminate spill during the summer based on claims that it is unjustifiably “expensive,” again inequitably blaming fish recovery measures for so-called “foregone revenues” lost while consistently failing to note or address revenues foregone from water devoted to irrigation, navigation and other non-Indian economic activities; and

WHEREAS, the United States District Court for the District of Oregon has ruled that the FCRPS Biological Opinion—even with its provision for summer spill—nevertheless violates the ESA and fails to ensure adequate protection for ESA-listed fish, and BPA’s proposal to curtail summer spill is therefore a step in the wrong direction, providing even less protection than that of a federal recovery plan already deemed legally insufficient; and

WHEREAS, eliminating or significantly reducing summer spill in 2004 will result in the loss of tens of thousands of fish (adult equivalents), which includes about 15% of the returning fall chinook, thus impacting tribal ocean and Columbia River fisheries, and BPA and the other federal agencies have yet to accurately and specifically determine or describe how to mitigate for this loss of salmon, lamprey and sturgeon; and

WHEREAS, the Deschutes fall chinook are an indicator stock under the Pacific Salmon Treaty and will be substantially impacted such that ocean fisheries management will be significantly affected; and

WHEREAS, the late portion of the juvenile summer salmon run through the lower Columbia River dams contributes most of the larger and older adults to harvest and to the spawning grounds, thereby ensuring stock resiliency in the face of poor environmental conditions such that curtailing summer spill would select against important stock life history diversity, and thus there are serious doubts about whether it is even possible to mitigate for curtailing summer spill; and

WHEREAS, BPA appears to be proposing, or has expressed support for, certain measures that it has already adopted or supported in the past, as so-called “offsets” for curtailing spill, thus effectively “double counting” its claimed commitments to fish and wildlife recovery; and

WHEREAS, BPA now offers to support the "Vernita Bar plus" operations as a spill “offset” if summer spill is reduced, even though BPA was supporting these operations before it proposed reducing summer spill; and

WHEREAS, it is not necessary to draw water from the upper reaches of the Columbia River Basin in order to implement the summer spill program, and

WHEREAS, the Columbia River tribes support implementation of a natural flow regime, including a lesser, stable rate and level of reservoir drawdown for the entire Columbia River Basin including Libby, Hungry Horse, and Grand Coulee reservoirs; and

WHEREAS, BPA similarly appears to be willing to continue to fund certain tribal law enforcement activities if tribes agree to reduce spill or, at a minimum, agree to negotiate possible reductions, even though BPA is already obligated, and has committed, to adequately fund tribal law enforcement that benefits fish and wildlife populations; and

WHEREAS, BPA’s claimed “offsets” do not come close to providing the same in-kind benefits as spill, they remain vague and unspecified as to where they will occur, when they will occur, what benefits they will provide, and when those benefits will accrue; and

WHEREAS, among the “offsets” that BPA has suggested is to further reduce tribal fisheries harvest to “mitigate” for the fish that will be killed by curtailing summer spill, a proposal which the tribes find insulting, outrageous, unjust, and unacceptable; and

WHEREAS, BPA has in the past failed to honor it commitments to “offsets” to mitigate for its actions that have killed fish, as was the case during BPA’s alleged financial “crisis” in 2001, when summer spill was reduced at BPA’s instigation and $25 million in “offsets” were identified, an amount that grossly underestimated that which was necessary to fully and properly mitigate for halting spill that year, and BPA then compounded this travesty by spending only about half of this amount, calling into serious question BPA’s integrity and willingness to honestly fulfill any promises regarding “offsets” or mitigation; and

WHEREAS, ATNI Resolution #03-31, dated February 13, 2003, supported the transfer of implementing authority and contracting functions of the Fish and Wildlife Program from BPA to another entity based on an obvious conflict of interest, which is clearly demonstrated by BPA’s current efforts to undermine and undercut the Program in order to increase it revenues from the sale of power; and

WHEREAS, BPA’s financial health appears to have substantially improved compared to what BPA has asserted in the past, and thus the primary motivation for its zeal to curtail summer spill this year appears to be greed and the desire to maximize its power revenues at the expense of fish and other resources in which the tribes retain sacred rights and interests; and

WHEREAS, the loss of thousands of salmon will inevitably lead to the further erosion of tribal fishing rights and the ability to freely exercise them; now

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians supports implementation of the summer spill program to pass anadromous fish, including but not limited to controlled spill at Bonneville, The Dalles, John Day, and Ice Harbor dams; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that BPA, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) and USACE must address their failure to meet their obligations under the National Historic Preservation Act by providing adequate funds to protect archaeological and cultural resource areas from looting, erosion and human impacts including surveys, law enforcement and public education; and

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, that the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians supports management of the upper Basin reservoirs and rivers so as to avoid harmful impacts to treaty and trust resources, including cultural and natural resources, and that BPA, BOR and USACE manage the Federal Columbia River Power System to implement the summer spill program while not impacting in any way upper Basin reservoir levels and river flows that support those treaty and trust resources especially in light of the BPA’s erroneous “lost revenue” arguments that call for more water out of upper reservoirs if the summer spill program is maintained.

CERTIFICATION
The foregoing resolution was adopted at the 2004 Winter Conference of the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians, held at the Embassy Suites Hotel Portland Airport in Portland, Oregon on February 12, 2004 with a quorum present.