Kempthorne Ready To Give Up On Dam Spills Senator Tells Federal Officials That Strategy Is Too Costly To Taxpayers And Salmon

Spilling extra water over Northwest dams to help endangered salmon may be too expensive for taxpayers and too dangerous for the fish, Sen. Dirk Kempthorne told federal officials Thursday.

“All of us have been saying we’ve been spending a bundle of money with very few results,” Kempthorne, R-Idaho, told scientists from the National Marine Fisheries Service. “I think it’s time we alter course and get on with something that’s going to work.”

Agency fish experts and independent biologists gave the Senate subcommittee chaired by Kempthorne a crash course in the controversial science of fish spills as they argued over its effectiveness.

There were no definitive answers at the Senate Drinking Water, Fisheries and Wildlife Subcommittee hearing that served as a prelude to Republican efforts to amend the Endangered Species Act.

At issue is whether the government should continue to release extra water over Columbia and Snake River dams to push young salmon to the Pacific Ocean.

The Corps of Engineers “spilled” water over the dams the last two springs to help the dwindling Snake River salmon population, which was declared endangered in 1992. The additional water allowed the young fish to skirt the potentially deadly dam turbines.

All the scientists agreed Thursday that more smolts survive spills than turbines. But spilling can give the young fish “gas bubble trauma,” which is similar to the “bends,” and kill them.

No one knows how many of the smolts are killed by gas bubble trauma.

Four scientists told the panel they were opposed to spilling. Some said it was harmful to the fish. Others said it was ineffective.

Gerald Bouck, a biologist from Portland, said the debate over different data, models and assumptions show the scientific community is divided over spills.

But the agencies responsible for the spills, the fisheries service and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, have been operating behind an “iron curtain of isolation,” he contended.

Bouck said that when he expressed reservations about spilling to the NMFS, he was quickly made to feel “unwelcome” by the agency.

Agency spokesmen said many diverse opinions, including those of 14 Indian tribes, went into their decision to again spill over the dams this spring.

Kempthorne, however, seemed skeptical.

“I believe that this policy was hastily conceived, without sufficient safeguards provided in the scientific method and that as a result we may be continuing to endanger the very species we want to protect,” he said.