Reservoir Drawdown Sought For Fish Coalition Wants Debate Kept Alive

A coalition of conservation groups is calling for a 28-foot drawdown of Lower Granite Reservoir on the Snake River this spring to help salmon and steelhead travel, although they doubt dam operators will listen.

Idaho Rivers United proposed the drawdown more to keep the debate alive than an expectation it will occur, said Justin Hayes for the group.

“I doubt very strongly that we would be able to gather the regional political support to have this type of drawdown, but we want to be sure people are aware of it as an issue,” Hayes said.

Taking Lower Granite down 28 feet from full would lower the reservoir level to the exit of an emergency fish ladder at the dam 32 miles west of Lewiston.

Any drawdown below 19 feet would stop river shipping. Another coalition led by Save Our Wild Salmon dispenses with the drawdown, focusing instead on keeping migrating fish in the river and out of barges.

Even Gov. Phil Batt’s blueprint for operating federal dams this spring calls for keeping two-thirds of the fish in the river, Hayes noted.

During a spring expected to be filled with high water, it makes sense to keep all of the young fish in the river, said Jim Baker of the Sierra Club, a Save Our Wild Salmon coalition spokesman.

The lack of a drawdown proposal in the Save Our Wild Salmon plan reflects more a matter of the style than the substance of recovery plans by fish advocates, Baker said.

The focus on keeping fish out of barges is to deflect the National Marine Fisheries Service away from its normal course, Baker said.

Conservation groups, state agencies and Indian tribes have been the strongest proponents for spilling the fish over the dams rather than loading them into barges for their trip to the lower Columbia River.

Federal agencies argue the barges protect the fish from high levels of dissolved gas and predators and move them speedily downriver.

Barging opponents reply barging does not work because Idaho’s salmon continued to dwindle until they received an endangered species listing.

“We don’t think NMFS has any justification for barging fish in a very good water year like this. In fact if NMFS and the corps conduct their usual program of barging every fish they can catch, the agencies will squander a golden opportunity for a good fish migration,” Baker said.

Fisheries service spokesman Brian Gorman said the agency plans to follow the same operating plan as last year.

“The record shows we barged only 51 percent of spring and summer chinook smolts, which is considerably less than in previous years,” he said.