Citing new information and changed circumstances, two federal agencies are reopening this week their 2020 final environmental impact study for operations at 14 Columbia/Snake river federal hydroelectric dams and are now seeking public input. The final EIS guides the dams’ impacts on salmon and steelhead listed under the federal Endangered Species Act.
Three federal agencies — U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Reclamation and Bonneville Power Administration – had issued in 2020 the Columbia River System Operations (CRSO) Final Environmental Impact Statement that addressed the ongoing operations, maintenance and configuration at the 14 multiple purpose dams. While not recommending breaching the four lower Snake River dams, the 2020 FEIS laid the groundwork if breaching was decided on later.
Piggy-backing on the FEIS, NOAA Fisheries and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, at the same time completed biological opinions of the dam operations and their impact on fish and wildlife.
This week, two of the federal agencies – the Corps and BOR – said they are preparing a supplemental EIS to address environmental effects from proposed changes to the selected alternative in the CRSO EIS. BPA has not elected to serve as a co-lead agency for this SEIS and has instead expressed interest in participating as a cooperating agency, a Federal Register Notice says.
The Dec. 18 Federal Register Notice is here: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/12/18/2024-29936/notice-of-intent-to-prepare-a-supplemental-environmental-impact-statement-seis-for-the-columbia
“At least four Columbia and Snake River salmon and steelhead stocks have already gone extinct and 13 others — including all four remaining Snake River stocks — are listed under the Endangered Species Act. We must have a strong study and plan based on the best available science that will ensure restoration of imperiled native fish populations to healthy and harvestable levels,” said Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association Policy Director Liz Hamilton. “Revising this study is the logical next step toward meaningful change that complies with the law and the needs of the fish.”
As part of scoping, the co-lead agencies will seek input from the public to inform the supplemental EIS as they recognize the need for additional collaborative dialogue about the system, the Federal Register says. The agencies will take public comment for 90 days through March 20,2025.
Earthjustice said the 2020 CRSO EIS was flawed and that revising it “should lead to changes in the Columbia Basin that would help prevent extinction and restore imperiled salmon and steelhead populations to healthy and harvestable abundance.” Since 2001, Earthjustice attorneys have successfully fought the federal agencies in court on behalf of the National Wildlife Federation and others and forced the agencies to redo both their EIS and NOAA Fisheries’ and the U.S. Wildlife Service’s BiOps.
“The 2020 EIS and Record of Decision continued the flawed and failed results of previous plans,” said Sierra Club’s Snake/Columbia River Salmon Campaign Director Bill Arthur. “We appreciate the decision to do a supplemental process to address these flaws and evaluate stronger measures in how we operate the hydropower system including breaching the lower Snake River dams. Extinction is not an option and that is the trajectory we are on without stronger actions.”
Not all groups agree that the federal agencies should take another look at their 2020 EIS. The Pacific Northwest Waterways Association said that a new National Environmental Policy Act analysis would be premature and unlawful and warned that “it would be incomplete and could mislead the public about these dams’ vital role in supporting the region’s economy and environment.”
PNWA said that any supplemental NEPA analysis would be fundamentally flawed and misleading.
“There are significant concerns regarding the Co-Lead Agencies’ proposal to base the analysis on interim reports from the 12/14 Agreement studies and unscientific policy documents, which lack conclusive findings. Relying on these incomplete studies undermines the integrity of the NEPA process and risks rendering the Final NEPA document unlawful, as NEPA is designed to promote informed decision-making,” the group said.
Further, PNWA said that the review could lead to breaching the lower Snake River dams that “serve as the largest source of affordable, reliable, clean energy for millions of people in the region while also providing world-class, clean river transportation for the regions and nation’s economies.”
The 2020 study, PNWA said, “concluded that federal hydropower dams and locks are essential to maintaining affordable electric rates, reliable energy service to homes and businesses, and lower carbon emissions. Hydropower is the largest source of affordable, renewable, dispatchable generation in the Pacific Northwest.”
Furthermore, the 2020 CRSO EIS is “just four years old and cost regional electric customers more than $55 million and considered more than 400,000 comments before concluding that our hydropower dams need to stay in place,” the group said.
PNWA is a diverse group of power, navigation, and agricultural users in the Northwest
The Corps and BOR recently made the decision to supplement the 2020 CRSO EIS after a review process that considered available facts and input from Tribal partners, stakeholders, and federal and state agencies in fall 2024, a Dec. 18 Corps news release said. After this review, the co-lead agencies determined that initiating a supplemental EIS was appropriate to evaluate the updated and changed circumstances that include, but are not limited to:
— Changes to operations, maintenance, and configuration of the 14 projects that make up the Columbia River System;
— New species that have been listed or proposed for listing under the ESA (e.g., Wolverine);
— Relevant U.S. government commitments, new reports, studies, or other information published since the CRSO EIS was completed, such as the Department of the Interior’s report, Historic and Ongoing Impacts of Federal Dams on the Columbia River Basin Tribes.
— And, anticipated changes in Columbia River inflows to the U.S. from Canada and operational effects in the U.S. related to the modernization of the Columbia River Treaty.
“With respect to the latter, the Columbia River’s flow at the U.S.-Canada border is affected by how Canada operates storage reservoirs in its portion of the basin,” the Federal Register says. “Canada’s reservoir operations are affected in part by how the Columbia River Treaty operations are managed for flood risk management, hydropower generation, and ecosystem purposes in coordination with the United States.”
The CRSO EIS used 2016 Columbia River Treaty operations data as the best-available information. However, certain terms of the Columbia River Treaty regarding preplanned flood risk management changed on Sept. 16, 2024, and the countries have been negotiating modernized provisions of the Treaty to address these changes, along with updates to hydropower coordination, the inclusion of ecosystem purposes, and increased Canadian flexibility.
“The existing Treaty’s changes in flood risk management along with expected updates from the modernization process may lead to changed flows across the border from Canada that vary from the assumptions and effects contemplated in the 2020 CRSO EIS under certain hydrological conditions,” the Federal Register says.
The supplemental process will be focused on addressing “potentially substantial changes to the Selected Alternative, reviewing potentially substantial new circumstances and information that arose or became available after completion of the CRSO EIS, and preparing a SEIS,” the Federal Register says. “The SEIS will evaluate potential benefits and impacts of changes made to the Selected Alternative including direct, indirect, and cumulative effects to the human and natural environments.”
The full scope of the supplemental EIS is ambitious. It will include re-evaluating river hydrology and hydraulics; water quality; aquatic habitat, invertebrates, and fish; vegetation, wetlands, wildlife, and floodplains; power generation and transmission; air quality and greenhouse gases; flood risk management; navigation and transportation; recreation; water supply; visual and noise resources; fisheries and passive use; cultural resources; Indian trust assets, tribal perspectives, and tribal interests; environmental justice; and implementation and system costs.
“It’s clearer than ever that we need a major course change, with new information showing many salmon populations in the basin hovering near extinction,” said Earthjustice Senior Attorney Amanda Goodin. “The information available now provides us with all we need to chart a successful path forward. We know we can avoid extinction and rebuild salmon and native fisheries to a healthy and harvestable abundance if we commit to the centerpiece actions they need, including breaching the four lower Snake River dams and replacing their services. We also know we have no time to lose.”
Twelve of the 14 federal Columbia River basin dams are authorized for multiple purposes, including flood risk management, power generation, navigation, fish and wildlife conservation, recreation, and municipal and industrial water supply. Libby, Albeni Falls, Dworshak, Chief Joseph, Lower Granite, Little Goose, Lower Monumental, Ice Harbor, McNary, John Day, The Dalles, and Bonneville dams fall into this category. The other two dams – Grand Coulee and Hungry Horse – are authorized for flood risk management, power generation, navigation and irrigation.
In 2020, the Corps, Reclamation, and Bonneville completed the CRSO EIS and signed a Record of Decision selecting their preferred alternative identified in that EIS, the Federal Register says. Afterwards, multiple parties filed legal challenges to the CRSO EIS and ROD, as well as to the BiOps released at the same time.
Plaintiffs in the legal challenge are American Rivers, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, Institute For Fisheries Resources, Sierra Club, Idaho Rivers United, Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association, NW Energy Coalition, National Wildlife Federation, Columbia Riverkeeper, Idaho Conservation League the state of Oregon and the Spokane Tribe of Indians.
The litigation in the federal District Court of Oregon challenging the CRSO EIS and BiOps has been stayed or administratively terminated since 2021, allowing the U.S. government, including the Corps, BOR, BPA, FWS and NOAA to engage in mediated discussions, the Federal Register says.
Those discussions were with the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, the Coeur d’Alene Tribe, and the Spokane Tribe of Indians as well as Oregon, Washington, the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon, the Nez Perce Tribe, local governments, stakeholder groups, and nongovernmental organizations.
The outcome of these discussions was a Memorandum of Understanding (now known as the Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement) with Oregon, Washington, Columbia River tribes (together the Six Sovereigns) and the National Wildlife Federation plaintiffs. The RCBA provides for a stay of litigation on the CRSO EIS ROD and related biological opinions for up to 10 years and includes agreed upon operations at Columbia River dams. Earthjustice calls the RCBA a “comprehensive plan to restore the basin’s native fisheries.”
It also includes commitments by the U.S. “to carry out certain analyses related to regional energy needs, Tribal circumstances, water supply replacement, transportation infrastructure, and recreation and public access, as well as commitments on a series of actions to improve conditions for native fish species,” the Federal Register says. “As part of the RCBA, and consistent with Corps’, Reclamation’s, and Bonneville’s ongoing responsibilities under NEPA, the USG committed to reviewing existing environmental compliance documents and initiating any supplemental or additional environmental compliance determined to be necessary in fall of 2024.”
While the co-lead agencies prepare the supplemental EIS, they will continue to operate the Columbia River hydro system to meet their authorized purposes.
More information is at www.nwd.usace.army.mil/columbiariver.
To complete a supplemental EIS, the co-lead agencies need input and invite federal and state agencies, Native American Tribes, local governments and the public to submit scoping comments relevant to the supplemental NEPA process no later than March 20, 2025. In addition, the agencies will hold at least three virtual public meetings the week of February 10, 2025. Details of those meetings will be posted on the project website early in the new year.
Written comments, requests to be placed on the project mailing list, and requests for information may be mailed by letter to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Northwestern Division Attn: CRSO SEIS, P.O. Box 2870, Portland, OR 97208-2870; or by email to [email protected]. All comment letters will be available via the project website at More information and instructions on comments will be at https://www.nwd.usace.army.mil/CRSO/. All comments and materials received, including names and addresses, will become part of the administrative record, and may be released to the public. Interested parties should not submit confidential business or otherwise sensitive or protected information.
For more information, contact:
Tim Fleeger, Columbia River Basin Policy and Environmental Coordinator, Northwestern Division, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 1 (800) 290-5033 or email [email protected]. Additional information can be found at the project website: https://www.nwd.usace.army.mil/CRSO/Final-EIS.
For background, see:
–CBB, June 21, 2024, Administration Report Describes Harm Of Dams To Columbia Basin Tribes, White House Sets Up Task Force To Coordinate Basin Salmon Recovery https://columbiabasinbulletin.org/administration-report-describes-harm-of-dams-to-columbia-basin-tribes-white-house-sets-up-task-force-to-coordinate-basin-salmon-recovery/
–CBB, Feb. 9, 2024, Federal Judge Approves Years-Long Pause On Basin Salmon Recovery Litigation So Parties Can Pursue Tribal-States-Feds Restoration Plan https://columbiabasinbulletin.org/federal-judge-approves-years-long-pause-on-basin-salmon-recovery-litigation-so-parties-can-pursue-tribal-states-feds-restoration-plan/
–CBB, Dec. 15, 2023, Biden Administration, Two States, Treaty Tribes Reach MOU On Columbia River Basin Salmon Recovery, Litigation Paused For At Least Five Years https://columbiabasinbulletin.org/biden-administration-two-states-treaty-tribes-reach-mou-on-columbia-river-basin-salmon-recovery-litigation-paused-for-at-least-five-years/
— CBB, July 15, 2022, White House Issues Reports On Basin Salmon Recovery, Costs; ‘Business As Usual’ Not Restoring ESA-Listed Salmon, Steelhead, https://columbiabasinbulletin.org/white-house-issues-reports-on-basin-salmon-recovery-costs-business-as-usual-not-restoring-esa-listed-salmon-steelhead/
— CBB, October 27, 2021, Federal Judge Approves Pause In Salmon/Steelhead EIS/BiOp Case; Parties ‘In Good Faith Discussions To Resolve Litigation’ https://columbiabasinbulletin.org/federal-judge-approves-pause-in-salmon-steelhead-eis-biop-case-parties-in-good-faith-discussions-to-resolve-litigation/
— CBB, October 22, 2021, Parties Put Salmon/Steelhead BiOp Litigation On Hold, Commit To Working Together To Find ‘Comprehensive, Long-Term Solution’ https://columbiabasinbulletin.org/parties-put-salmon-steelhead-biop-litigation-on-hold-commit-to-working-together-to-find-comprehensive-long-term-solution/
–CBB, February 5, 2021, “Conservation Groups File Complaint Against New Columbia River System Operations EIS, BiOp For Salmon, Steelhead,” https://columbiabasinbulletin.org/conservation-groups-file-complaint-against-new-columbia-river-system-operations-eis-biop-for-salmon-steelhead/