PR 60 05
BPA & Upper Columbia United Tribes
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
THURSDAY, June 30, 2005
Upper Columbia Tribes and BPA sign agreement
Spokane, Wash. -
The Upper Columbia United Tribes and the Bonneville Power Administration have signed a memorandum of understanding intended to benefit fish and wildlife in the Columbia Basin. It will result in a request by all parties to dismiss a lawsuit pending in the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.
"The MOU marks a new era of cooperation between BPA and the tribes," said UCUT Chairman Warren Seyler. "We believe the agreement will help bring additional focus on mitigating the effects of the federal hydrosystem on fish and wildlife habitat and populations in the upper Columbia Basin."
The Upper Columbia United Tribes organization was formed in the late 1980s and includes the Coeur d'Alene Tribe, Kalispel Tribe, Spokane Tribe, Colville Confederated Tribes and the Kootenai Tribe. The upper Columbia Basin includes the Okanogan, Kootenai, Pend Oreille, Coeur d'Alene, Sanpoil, Lake Rufus Woods, Columbia Upper, and Spokane subbasins.
"The UCUT tribes are dedicated to the resources we're trying to mitigate for," said Greg Delwiche, BPA vice president of Environment, Fish and Wildlife. "They have some of the region's most experienced resource managers, and they have a lot of ideas on how to move ahead to cost-effectively produce more mitigation on the ground in areas with some of our greatest mitigation needs. I'm excited by the possibilities our renewed partnership holds."
The parties to the agreement will move to dismiss a petition before the 9th Circuit Court filed under Upper Columbia United Tribes, et al, v. Bonneville Power Administration. The MOU will become effective on the date the court dismisses the petition and will expire on Sept. 30, 2009, unless the parties agree otherwise.
"The upper Columbia Basin provides about 35 percent of the power generation of the federal hydrosystem," said Mary Verner, UCUT executive director, "and is responsible for about 40 percent of the fish and wildlife habitat and population losses resulting from construction and operation of the system. We are pleased that BPA has demonstrated its willingness to work with the tribes to mitigate the effects on the fish and wildlife resources which are integral to our way of life and our culture."
"The MOU is in alignment with the principle expressed in the Northwest Planning and Conservation Council's 2000 Fish and Wildlife Program that 'wildlife mitigation should emphasize addressing areas of the basin with the highest proportion of unmitigated losses,'" said UCUT Vice-Chairman Gary Aitken Sr. "The upper Columbia River ecoregion has one of the highest proportions of unmitigated wildlife habitat losses in the basin."
BPA, a part of the Department of Energy, is not tax supported through government appropriations but recovers all of its costs through sales of electricity and transmission and repays the U.S. Treasury in full with interest for any money it borrows.
Submitted for distribution on 06-30-2005 at 9:33 AM
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