Changes In River Flows Advocated To Protect Salmon Conservationists, Fishermen Say Dams Endanger Species, Cut Jobs

Conservationists and fishermen are banding together to try to force federal dam regulators to better protect Northwest salmon by ordering changes in water flows at dams far upstream on the Snake River.

Eight groups petitioned the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission this week to address the increasing threat to endangered salmon and steelhead posed by the Idaho Power Co.’s hydropower dams in Hells Canyon.

The dams cut off more than 80 percent of the traditional spawning and rearing habitat of the Snake River fall chinook and slow water flows downstream, where the young fish need an extra push to get out to sea.

The National Marine Fisheries Service earlier concluded the dams are likely to be harming the salmon and have asked FERC to enter talks with NMFS regarding protection efforts required under the Endangered Species Act.

But so far, FERC has declined to enter the so-called “consultation” process.

“You have a situation where one federal agency is thumbing its nose at another, and in the meantime the salmon are being killed,” Todd True, an attorney for the Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, said Tuesday from Seattle.

“Continued agency inaction will lead to more extinctions, to the loss of more fishing jobs and the loss of millions of dollars to the region’s economy,” said Glen Spain of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations in Eugene, Ore.

FERC spokeswoman Celeste Miller said Tuesday the agency had no comment on the petition. A spokeswoman for Idaho Power Co. in Boise said there was no one immediately available to comment.

Will Stelle, Northwest regional administrator for the fisheries service in Seattle, notified FERC in May that the Hells Canyon dams are “likely to adversely affect the listed salmon and its designated critical habitat.”

That is the standard that triggers the consultation process required under the Endangered Species Act. For example, the Forest Service is required to consult with NMFS in cases where NMFS determines a certain logging operation is likely to harm listed fish species.

The petitioners say the dams drastically reduce flows of cool water the fish need for spawning and migration.