Reservoir Drawdown Not Salmon Solution, Experts Say

A drawdown of Lower Granite reservoir wouldn’t help young Snake River salmon survive, according to federal scientists who have spent two years tracking the migrating fish.

They found that nearly 100 percent of chinook salmon already survive their trip through the predator-filled reservoir on the Washington-Idaho state line.

“The results of our survival studies indicate that little or no improvement in survival of juvenile salmon through the Lower Granite Reservoir will result from drawdown,” says a memo summarizing the findings.

The researchers are with National Marine Fisheries Service and the University of Washington.

Their memo, released this week in Portland, was immediately hailed by critics of the expensive drawdowns that are being considered to save endangered salmon.

“This should be the final nail in the drawdown coffin,” said Bruce Lovelin of the Columbia River Alliance for Fish, Commerce and Communities.

But biologist Bert Bowler of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game called the researcher’s conclusion premature and politically motivated.

“The conclusion they make is based on a very small percentage of the whole reservoir system,” he said Wednesday.

“Do you assess this fish issue in one inning, or when the game is over?”

Efforts to reach Michael Schiewe, head of the National Marine Fisheries Service research center in Seattle, late Wednesday were unsuccessful.

The studies were conducted this year and last. In his Aug. 5. memo to the regional NMFS director, Schiewe emphasized that the test results for 1994 were preliminary. A final report will be available in November.

“We are providing these data at this time to allow their use in determining the preferred alternative for the proposed test of reservoir drawdown at Lower Granite Dam.”

That test is planned for 1996.

Among those who will consider the research findings is a federal judge who has said drastic changes must be made in the Columbia River Basin hydropower system to help the fish.

The states of Idaho and Oregon, as well as many Indian tribes and conservation groups, support annual drawdowns of four Lower Snake River reservoirs as a means of flushing young salmon to the ocean.

The fish must get past eight reservoirs and federal dams.

Hydropower utilities and inland ports oppose dropping the reservoirs to speed up the flow of water. Members of the Northwest Power Planning Council are among those who question if the expensive drawdowns would do much good.

NMFS has not yet endorsed drawdowns.

Bowler and others say the federal researchers are biased. While their numbers are accurate, he said, their conclusion is a way of telling politicians and hydropower interests what they want to hear.

On Wednesday, Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, used the new study to justify his opposition to the drawdowns.

“It’s time to move beyond the fixation on drawdowns,” Craig said.

Two days earlier, however, the draft environmental assessment of the Columbia River System Operation Review said the most effective salmon recovery option of seven operating alternatives would be to drop all the reservoirs to near the natural level of the river.

The “natural river” approach would be even more expensive, and disruptive, than the drawdowns Idaho is endorsing.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.