Epa Dives Head First Into Salmon-Dam Debate Rules On Reservoir Water Temperature Allow Agency To In The Door For Dialogue With Corps Of Engineers

With a gently worded letter, the Environmental Protection Agency has entered the salmon-coexisting-with-and-in-spite-of-dams debate.

The federal environmental agency maintains the letter merely seeks a dialogue on how it can work with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to protect salmon from too-warm water in dam reservoirs along the Snake and Lower Columbia rivers.

But it’s the first time the EPA is wielding its enforcement wand - even indirectly - when it comes to salmon and dams. The letter plops the mighty federal agency in the middle of the barging-versus-spills dispute, as well.

While the letter is an invitation to talk, it strongly states continued violations of a 68-degree temperature standard also violate the federal Clean Water and Endangered Species acts. Oregon, Idaho and Washington set the temperature standard under the Clean Water Act.

Tribal fisheries managers who persuaded the EPA to write the letter are hoping it will get results where state enforcement has not, and will lead to cooler reservoir waters. Scientists say water that is too warm can daze, weaken and even kill the fish.

“It could be a very big thing if someone is going to insist on measures that require actions be taken to comply with the water temperature standards,” said Rick Taylor, spokesman for the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission.

Roy Hemmingway, salmon policy adviser to Gov. John Kitzhaber, agreed the EPA’s entry is significant.

“It brings the capabilities of the federal government to bear on a serious problem for salmon in the Snake and the Columbia, which is water temperature,” Hemmingway said.

Reservoir temperatures for parts of August have exceeded 68 degrees behind the Bonneville and McNary dams on the Columbia, and behind Ice Harbor and Lower Granite dams on the Snake, according to the Fish Passage Center in Portland.

The temperatures combined with close quarters as juvenile and adult salmon are channeled through a dam bypass or as young salmon are barged downstream can be fatal. In 1994, 90,000 to 100,000 young salmon died at the McNary Dam because of crowding and warm waters, said Bob Heinith, hydropower coordinator for the tribes.

The Clean Water Act requires the EPA to approve states’ temperature standards, but enforcement is up to the states, said Steve Ralph, the EPA’s regional salmon ecologist.

The EPA’s entry into the dams-and-salmon debate also was prompted by a directive in the National Marine Fisheries Service’s draft salmon recovery plan. It charges the EPA with responsibility for reducing losses of listed species due to poor water quality, said Sally Brough, EPA water quality standards coordinator in Seattle.

“We’re saying we’re ready. We’re stepping up to the plate,” she said.

EPA lawyers are researching what legal power the agency has to enforce the temperature standards, Brough said.

“I’m not sure the states would be happy to see us come in and do enforcement over them, I’m not sure we have the legal capability to do that,” she said.

Oregon and Washington environmental agencies say they have not taken any enforcement action against the Corps because their laws allow them only to regulate water quality via discharge permits.

The corps has released cold water from Idaho’s Dworshak Reservoir to cool downriver waters, and wants to solve the temperature problem, said Bolyvong Tanovan, chief of fish and water quality in the corps’ Portland reservoir control office.