Judge warns dams could be breached

PORTLAND – U.S. District Judge James Redden reminded federal agencies Friday that four dams on the Lower Snake River could be breached if all else fails to save salmon.

Redden’s warning appeared in his final order on how the federal government should proceed in rewriting its salmon saving plan for the Columbia and Snake rivers. In a detailed follow-up to what he told attorneys last week, Redden gave federal agencies one year to come up with a new plan to keep threatened and endangered salmon from getting killed by the government’s hydroelectric dams.

NOAA Fisheries, which has jurisdiction over protected salmon, had asked for two years, but Redden said an extension could only be considered if agencies need to weigh the contributions of environmentalists, tribes and other groups.

The judge, however, said the agencies often “seem offended at the thought of doing more than merely listening to others.”

Redden ordered the agencies to report progress to him every 90 days.

Salmon are dwindling in the Columbia Basin because of the combined effects of dams, overfishing, logging, grazing, irrigation and urban development.

Last May, Redden rejected the Bush administration’s $6 billion plan to protect salmon. The plan relied heavily on installing huge fish slides on dams to keep migrating young salmon out of the turbines.

The new plan could call for spilling more water over dams and increasing river flows to help young salmon reach the ocean. But that could mean higher electric rates in the Pacific Northwest.

In Friday’s order, Redden raised the possibility of breaching dams if the agencies fail to produce an acceptable plan.

In a 2003 speech, President Bush pledged that the dams would not be breached. Redden seemed to reference that in Friday’s order.

“Speeching on the dams will not avoid breaching the dams,” Redden wrote.

Redden also took issue with NOAA Fisheries’ contention that the judge should not inject himself into the deliberative process of the agencies by providing step-by-step instructions to restore fish.

Redden said he has deferred to the agencies in the past, but they have not done the job.

“The government’s inaction appears to some parties to be a strategy intended to avoid making hard choices and offending those who favor the status quo.”

Federal attorneys have 60 days to appeal Redden’s ruling.

Brian Gorman, a spokesman for NOAA, told The Oregonian that the agency will try to comply with the judge’s order.

“We’ll roll up our sleeves and do our very best.”