Delay Sought For Salmon Recovery Plan

The U.S. Justice Department asked a federal judge Thursday for a one-week extension of the deadline for submitting a plan for operating the Columbia-Snake hydropower system to help salmon survival.

The government acted at the request of the National Marine Fisheries Service, which said it needed more time to develop the final proposal.

U.S. District Judge Malcolm Marsh had set Wednesday as the deadline for submitting the plan, known as a biological opinion. The Justice Department asked that the deadline be extended to March 1.

Marsh ordered the federal fisheries agency to develop the plan after finding that its 1993 biological opinion was inadequate to help endangered Snake River chinook and sockeye runs recover.

Brian Gorman, spokesman for the NMFS regional office in Seattle, said his agency needed more time to review the comments it received on its draft proposal. The deadline for receiving those comments was Feb. 10.

The agency’s draft proposal came under fire from all sides. Utilities and industries felt it went too far in allowing water through the system’s hydroelectric dams to help young salmon make it to the ocean.

State biologists, affected Indian tribes and environmental groups said it fell far short of what was needed to prevent the salmon runs from becoming extinct.The agency still will rely on barging young fish, however, an aspect of the plan severely criticized by the tribes and environmentalists.

Gorman said NMFS officials expect Marsh to go along with the extension request because all of the parties involved agreed it was necessary.