(PORTLAND,
OR) -- So-called fish conservation groups again are blaming the Obama
Administration for “forcing” them into the courtroom. It’s ironic. It’s also
not true.
“They
are hardly being dragged into court,” said Terry Flores, Executive Director of
Northwest RiverPartners. “They are the ones bringing the litigation, despite
unprecedented support for this latest salmon plan from federal and state agencies
and more than a dozen Northwest tribes.”
Earthjustice,
National Wildlife Federation, Save Our Wild Salmon and various commercial and
sport fishing groups are the plaintiffs in a long-running lawsuit against NOAA
Fisheries, the federal agency responsible for ensuring protection of salmon and
steelhead listed under the Endangered Species Act. Today, these plaintiffs made sure that salmon
protection efforts will continue to remain mired in the courtroom—instead of allowing
them to work on the ground and in the rivers, where they could help fish. They filed
yet another legal challenge against the federal salmon plan, known as the
Biological Opinion or BiOp, in U.S. District Court – Court of Oregon.
“For
these perennial critics, it is déjà vu all over again as they repeat claims
they’ve made for years, despite documented progress that includes the most
abundant salmon returns we’ve seen in decades,” said Flores of Northwest
RiverPartners (NWRP), an alliance of
farmers, utilities, ports, businesses and other river users that is a party to
the litigation.
The plaintiffs
claim that the federal salmon plan reduces or rolls back spill (water spilled
over the dams to help young fish moving downstream). This is simply not true. Last Friday (June 13), federal dam operators filed
a “Fish Operations Plan” that continues spill at current levels to allow the
parties in the litigation to focus on the merits of the case.
“The agencies have been spilling at the dams at
safe levels for fish for years,” Flores said. “The litigants’ demands for ever
more spill could actually harm or kill the very salmon they say they want to
protect.”
As
for the overall salmon plan, “contrary to the plaintiffs’ claims, the truth is
that the plan approved by NOAA Fisheries accomplishes exactly what the law
demands—and more,” Flores noted.
Federal
law demands that federal hydropower dams do not jeopardize fish survival. The salmon
plan that’s now under fire already meets this standard through the use of new
fish-passage technologies and safe levels of spill. According to NOAA Fisheries, these methods
are helping salmon survive at levels similar
to those seen in rivers without any dams at all. But the plan also goes further, putting salmon
on the path to recovery with extensive habitat improvements that make this the
most comprehensive and expensive effort to protect an endangered species in the
nation. The plan is based on the best available science and has been vetted and
endorsed by the Obama Administration’s top scientists.
“For
proof of the plan’s success, look to the healthy fish returns over the last
decade, including the historic return of more than one million fall Chinook to
the Columbia River last fall,” Flores said. ”This year, Spring Chinook returns already
are well over that of the ten-year average, and 1.6 million Fall Chinook and 1.2
million coho are forecasted to return.”
Three
out of four Northwest residents agree that it’s critical for dams and salmon to
co-exist, according to results of a March 2014 poll conducted for Northwest
RiverPartners by DHM Research of Portland. By refusing to acknowledge that the
existing salmon plan not only fulfills—but goes beyond—the demands of federal
law, the plaintiffs show they are out of touch with public sentiment, Flores
said.
“It
is past time to acknowledge the obvious: Dams are only one of many factors that
determine the fate of salmon in the Columbia and Snake rivers. The hydropower
system is doing its part to prevent harm and speed salmon restoration, despite
the fact that most salmon mortality occurs in the ocean—making ocean conditions
a much larger factor affecting their survival,” Flores said.
It
will be up to U.S. District Judge Michael Simon to consider the salmon plan and
detractors’ complaints, a process that is likely to take most of 2014 and
possibly beyond to resolve.
“We
look forward to defending this plan in court and showing that the hydro system—and
the Northwest families and businesses who pay for restoration efforts through
their power bills—are more than doing their part to protect these iconic fish,”
Flores said.
