This and the drought around Klammath will again bring the Endangered Species Act to the front pages.....

--------------------------------------
Judge orders higher spills on five NW dams

PORTLAND — U.S. District Judge James Redden ordered federal officials on Friday to substantially increase the volume of water spilled through the four Snake River dams and McNary Dam on the Columbia River to make it easier for imperiled juvenile salmon to reach the ocean.

But he rejected a request to increase by 10 percent the flows out of the Snake River and the upper Columbia, which environmentalists had sought in order to lower water temperatures and speed the migration of young salmon to the sea.

"The fall chinook run is in danger'' because of the small amount of water that is now being spilled through the dams, Redden said at the start of the hearing. "The law says you can't do that.''

The topic of Friday's hearing was how dam operations should be changed to help survival rates of threatened and endangered salmon protected by the Endangered Species Act.

Last month, Redden struck down the Bush administration's $6 billion plan for salmon recovery — saying it fell short of protecting the imperiled fish.

At the hearing on Friday, Redden ruled on several measures that are to be implemented immediately in order to help salmon survive until a new plan — called a "biological opinion'' — can be drafted by NOAA Fisheries, the federal agency responsible for restoring the salmon runs.

Redden predicted his ruling on increasing spill would be appealed to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and the federal government said it may do so.

The first spills are scheduled to begin in less than two weeks.

Environmentalists, Indian tribes and commercial fishermen wanted about two-thirds of the water that passes the dams to go through spillways instead of running through the dams' turbines to generate electricity. That would drop gradually to about half as river levels lowered through the summer.

Redden granted that request.

Environmentalists say passing through the turbines takes a high toll on juvenile fish.

The Bonneville Power Administration estimated the extra spill will cost ratepayers $67 million, amounting to an increase of 4 percent to 5 percent in the wholesale rate of about $32 per megawatt, said agency spokesman Mike Hansen.

That would typically amount to an increase of about 2 percent in the rates paid by residential customers.

The defendants, the Bonneville Power Administration, NOAA Fisheries, the Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, said they were disappointed with the ruling and that they had worked with the four Columbia Basin states to find a short-term solution to this year's low-water problems.

"We do not believe injunctive relief is warranted,'' they said in a joint statement.

"An appeal is under consideration. We are extremely concerned that the outcome provides no guarantee for the improvement of salmon stocks and it could make things worse at an enormous cost to the region.''

At Friday's hearing, lawyers for the government submitted a proposal to spill about $2.5 million worth of generating capacity at Lower Granite Dam on the Snake and $1 million worth from McNary Dam.

Todd True, an attorney for environmentalists groups at the hearing, said the offer "would amount to about six buckets'' of extra spillage.

He said the plan made no significant changes to the one Redden rejected earlier.

Ruth Lowrey, arguing for the government, questioned whether the rapid movement of juvenile fish to the sea is always desirable.

She said "holdover'' fish, the 3 percent or so that don't make it to the ocean the first year, return in far greater percentages than the others because they are bigger and can survive more easily.

"I'm not saying there will be fewer holdovers, but there is a risk of it,'' she said of the environmentalists' requests for more spillage and flow.

She also said that the judge's order to spill more water rather than use it for electricity generation "will cost jobs, stifle our economy'' and cost ratepayers $67 million.

But environmentalists said the judge was sending the government a message that can't be ignored.

"The ruling said the federal government cannot walk away from its responsibilities for salmon and to the communities that rely on them,'' said Jan Hasselman of Seattle, an attorney with the National Wildlife Federation, the lead plaintiff in Friday's case.

He and representatives of other environmental groups are pressing for the removal of the Snake River dams, which they say is the only long-term solution.

Governor joins critics of salmon ruling

By ROBERT McCLURE
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Gov. Christine Gregoire joined utility executives, a conservative Eastern Washington politician and federal agencies in attacking a judge's order yesterday to help salmon pass safely through Snake and Columbia river dams this summer.

Critics said the move -- urged by environmentalists and fishermen, and expected to cost between $57 million and $81 million -- risked upsetting the state's economic recovery.

The Bonneville Power Administration, which markets electricity produced at federally operated dams on the rivers, predicted a late-2005 cost increase of 4 percent to 5 percent.

But that's wholesale. Most Seattle residential customers should see an increase of less than $1 per month, Seattle City Light said. The exact amount will be worked out later.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge James Redden means additional water that otherwise would be used to produce power in the dams' turbines will be spilled through another part of the dams to help young salmon make their way to the ocean.

Redden's 11-page order said federal agencies' defense of their dam-operation plans relied on "so-called non-discretionary elements" that could, in fact, be altered to help salmon.

"As currently operated, I find that the dams strongly contribute to the endangerment of the (protected) species and irreparable injury will result if changes are not made," the judge's ruling said.

If not for Redden's order, more water would have been held back and used to produce electricity in the dams' turbines. With the state and particularly Eastern Washington headed into a drought, it was the wrong time to order use of water to help salmon, critics said.

Washington, like Oregon, had argued that the federal agencies' salmon-rescue plans for Snake and Columbia salmon stocks are so weak that they are illegal. But Redden's solution is wrong, Gregoire's office said.

"We question whether there is the environmental fish benefit. ... The science isn't really clear," said Tom Fitzsimmons, Gregoire's chief of staff. "The significance of the economic loss is what (Gregoire) is trying to highlight."

The National Marine Fisheries Service said the safest way to get the young salmon to the ocean is to collect them and transport them by barge so they aren't exposed to the dangers of passing through dams.

In a joint statement with three other federal agencies, the Fisheries Service yesterday questioned the wisdom of leaving young fish in the rivers, which are likely to grow too warm in a drought year. Young salmon need cold water to thrive.

"We are extremely concerned that the outcome provides no guarantee for the improvement of salmon stocks, and it could make things worse, at an enormous cost to the region," the federal agencies said.

Retorted Jan Hasselman, an attorney for the National Wildlife Federation, the lead plaintiff before Redden: "There's no support in the science for that position. The science shows that keeping the river as close as possible to natural river conditions is the best way to ensure that salmon can make it past the dams."

Redden's order means additional water will flow through the dams' spillways, which are like large artificial waterfalls, and more fish will pass through that way. The alternatives -- being barged or passing through the dams' power-producing turbines -- are more dangerous, environmentalists and fishermen contend.

Rep. Cathy McMorris, R-Spokane, urged the federal agencies to appeal Redden's ruling.

"This is the wrong decision that ignores the progress we have made in fish recovery," said McMorris, a member of the House Resources Committee, which is considering changes to the Endangered Species Act.

"We wouldn't let a judge dictate how we use our federal highway systems, and we shouldn't let one tell us how to use our river systems."

"Apparently, (Rep.) McMorris doesn't know any fishermen," said Todd True, a Seattle lawyer representing environmentalists and fishermen.

"The fishermen have been sitting on the banks of the river not fishing this year because we have been doing such a poor job taking care of the river. Those fishermen represent thousands of jobs, thousands of communities, thousands of families. "Apparently, ... McMorris doesn't care about them."