Order to spill dam water for salmon upheld

SAN FRANCISCO – A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld a lower court order demanding that the government spill water through five Northwest hydroelectric dams to help young salmon migrating to the Pacific.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was forced to allow substantial flows to bypass energy generating turbines following a June 20 order by U.S. District Judge James Redden, of Portland. Redden ruled that the salmon were imperiled when swimming through those dams’ turbines as they headed to the sea hundreds of miles away.

The Bush administration called the order an “untested experiment” and “micromanaging the Columbia river” while urging the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse Redden’s order.

A three-judge panel of the appeals court ruled unanimously that the judge “did not abuse” his discretion in ordering the increased water flows, which are to last through August.

The Bonneville Power Administration, which sells the electricity generated by the dams, estimated spilling the water rather than running it through turbines will cost $67 million in lost revenue, which could be added to utility bills in the Pacific Northwest.

At the request of salmon advocates, fishermen and Indian tribes, Redden ruled: “As currently operated, I find that the dams strongly contributed to the endangerment of the listed species and irreparable injury will result if changes are not made.”

Environmentalists, who brought the case, said the government hasn’t been meeting its obligations to protect the threatened salmon and eventually want to close four dams in southeastern Washington.

Redden’s ruling targets Lower Granite, Little Goose, Lower Monumental and Ice Harbor dams on the Snake River in southeastern Washington, and McNary Dam on the Columbia River straddling Oregon and Washington. While each dam only kills a small percentage of fish, more than half of the spring-summer chinook run from the Snake River end up being killed as they maneuver through the dams’ turbines.

The government argued that it has a salmon recovery plan in place that is jeopardized by Redden’s ruling. For more than a decade, the government has been diverting fish captured in holding tanks at the dams. They are trucked or barged to the Columbia River in Oregon.

Since the water flows were increased, there have been 90 percent fewer fish transported downstream. Environmentalists argued that there was no evidence on whether the transported fish are able to migrate upstream, because they may not know the way.

“My take on this is that the second highest court in the country has confirmed that the federal agencies are failing to protect salmon,” said Jan Hasselman, an attorney with the National Wildlife Federation, which brought the case.

Redden has set a Sept. 14 hearing in the case, in which the federation and others are seeking to decommission the four Snake River dams.

The appeals court said that 13 species of salmon and steelhead in the Columbia, Snake and Willamette rivers in the Northwest are protected by the Endangered Species Act and reiterated Redden’s finding that they are not “evidencing signs of recovery.”

Brian Gorman, a spokesman for the National Marine Fisheries Service, said the government was “obviously disappointed” with the decision. “We all have the same goal: to recover listed salmon stocks in the basin,” he said.

Gorman said the agency would explore the court’s recommendation that the government and the National Wildlife Federation, the case’s lead plaintiff, hammer out an agreement that might alter “any problems with the district court’s” decision.

Redden ordered that about two-thirds of the water that passes the dams must go through spillways instead of running through the dams’ electricity generating turbines. That would drop gradually to about half as river levels lowered.

The Bonneville Power Administration estimated the extra spill will amount to an increase of 4 percent to 5 percent in the wholesale electricity rate of about $32 per megawatt. That would typically amount to an increase of about 2 percent in the rates paid by residential customers, the BPA said.

“The court has ruled that we must spill water at dams this summer and we will continue to operate the system accordingly,” BPA administator Steve Wright said. “In the future, we think we can make physical improvements at the dams and take other steps that will achieve better results for both fish and the region’s electric ratepayers.”