PR 57 05
THE FOUR FEDERAL AGENCIES
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
THURSDAY, June 16, 2005
Contact:
See below
Feds appeal District Court decision
Believe appeal is best for fish
PORTLAND, Ore. -
CONTACT: Brian Gorman, NOAA Fisheries (206) 526-6613
Mike Hansen, BPA (503) 230-5131
Diana Cross, USBR (208) 378-5020
Adele Merchant, Corps (503) 808-3722
The federal agencies responsible for operating the Federal Columbia River Power System said today that the U.S. Department of Justice has appealed a ruling of the U.S. District Court in Portland that would require additional spill at federal dams on the Snake and Columbia rivers. The notice of appeal and a motion for an emergency stay on providing the additional spill was filed with the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco yesterday.
"We support the Department of Justice's decision to appeal the injunction decision," said Bob Lohn, Northwest regional administrator of NOAA Fisheries. "The primary effect of the injunction is to greatly reduce barging of Lower Snake River Fall Chinook this summer, at a time when the Snake River is likely to have especially low flows and warm water. Both of these conditions are risks for salmon."
The Bonneville Power Administration Administrator Steve Wright expressed extreme concern that the additional spill provides potentially no guarantee for improvement of salmon stocks at great cost to the region. BPA has estimated that the additional spill this summer could cost the region's ratepayers an estimated $67 million, raising its wholesale power rates, all other things being equal, by 4 to 5 percent.
Under a ruling issued June 10 in Portland, water would be spilled through August at McNary Dam on the Columbia River and at Lower Monumental, Little Goose and Lower Granite Dams on the Snake. Under the current biological plan, there would be no spill at those dams and juvenile fish would be gathered at collection facilities and transported downstream.
Salmon have experienced a notable resurgence over the past several years thanks to favorable ocean conditions and an aggressive policy of dam improvement, habitat restoration and conservation, predator control and survival improvements in the hydrosystem. From 2000 to
2004, the number of all listed stocks in the Snake River increased. Last fall, almost 15,000 Snake River fall chinook returned past the dams - over 300 percent more than the 3,600 that returned in 2000. Last year, for the fourth straight year, the number of Upper Columbia steelhead that returned has been more than double the 7,796 that returned in 2000. Lower Columbia steelhead, chinook and chum increased at a rate of double, triple or quadruple the numbers that returned in 2000.
While the legal process continues to move forward, the federal agencies will continue to work with the region to recover Pacific salmon and steelhead. The four federal agencies have been working collaboratively with the governors of Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana for several months, even before the court issued its decision. These unprecedented discussions have focused on both short-term and long-term solutions and commitments that will produce both healthy salmon stocks and a healthy Pacific Northwest economy. The federal agencies will also be seeking the participation of the Columbia Basin tribes in these government-to-government discussions.
For a copy of the Federal Defendants' Notice of Appeal From Grant of Preliminary Injunction, go to www.salmonrecovery.gov.
Submitted for distribution on 06-16-2005 at 9:59 AM
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