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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Coalition revives suit over upper Snake plans

Christopher Smith Associated Press

BOISE – A coalition of salmon advocates on Thursday resurrected a lawsuit seeking to overturn a federal operating plan for 22 irrigation reservoirs on the upper Snake River.

The coalition argued that plan has the same flaws as an operating plan for lower Snake dams that has already been ruled illegal.

A group of Idaho water users and farmers denounced the complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Portland as a move intended to force Idaho’s agriculture industry to choose between sending vital irrigation water downstream to help migrating fish or support breaching four dams on the lower Snake and Columbia rivers.

The suit was first filed in January 2004 against the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations-Fisheries’ 2000 analysis on the effect of the upper Snake dams on endangered salmon and steelhead runs. It was brought by Idaho Rivers United, the National Wildlife Federation, American Rivers, the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations and the Institute for Fisheries Resources.

U.S. District Judge James Redden set the suit aside earlier this year because the federal agencies were developing a new “biological opinion” on the operation of the water storage facilities upstream from Hells Canyon Dam. That new upper Snake biological opinion was released in March. Ruling in a separate lawsuit in May, Redden struck down the Bush administration’s proposals for salmon recovery efforts on the lower Snake portion of the fish migration route and ordered the agencies to try again.

Thursday’s amended complaint now asks Redden to similarly rule on the federal plan for dam operation on the upper reaches of the Snake. It also asks Redden to order NOAA to combine the upper and lower Snake dam operating plans into a single biological opinion to save dwindling salmon and steelhead runs.

“To come up with a viable solution to Idaho’s salmon crisis, we need to do a complete and honest basinwide analysis of the impact of all federal facilities on the recovery,” said Bill Sedivy, director of Idaho Rivers United. “It’s one river, and water flows downhill.”

Idaho Water Users Association Director Norm Semanko said the suit threatens the state’s $4 billion agriculture industry.

“It’s a gambit designed to psychologically force the Idaho water user community to move toward dam removal as the alternative to losing desperately needed water stored in Snake River reservoirs,” he said in a statement. “Our members represent the true will of the citizens of Idaho and will not permit our natural resources lifeblood to be held hostage.”

Both sides took part in negotiations with U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, in 2003 in hopes of avoiding a court fight. Sedivy said salmon advocates still believe removal of the four lower Snake dams – Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose and Lower Granite – would best improve salmon and steelhead survival on their migration to and from the Pacific.

“But given the lack of political movement in that direction, then they’ve got to give us an option that will work,” he said.