Reaction to Washington’s and Oregon’s denial of water quality permits
for deepening the Columbia River estuary ranged from proposed
celebrations in Astoria to a belief in Portland the process will still
work.
“Please pinch me, I might be dreaming,” said Peter Huhtala, executive
director of the Columbia Deepening Opposition Group in Astoria.
The Senate gave final approval Monday to a $23.6 billion energy and
water spending bill, which includes $5.5 million for the Columbia River
channel deepening project.
The vote was 57-37, short of the 67 needed to override the veto that
White House officials have vowed because the bill would block the Army
Corps of Engineers from implementing a plan to alter the flow of the
Missouri River. The House passed the FY01 energy and water
appropriations measure last week, 301-118.
Columbia Basin states, tribes and others have all pointed out what they
see as major flaws in two draft federal salmon recovery documents
designed to ensure survive of 12 salmon and steelhead species listed
under the federal Endangered Species Act.
In the face of a presidential veto threat, Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Wash.,
on Thursday agreed to drop his spending bill rider to prohibit studies
of federal dam removal in the Columbia Basin.
The one-year funding restriction was added last week to the final FY01
interior appropriations bill by a vote of 9-5 by the House-Senate
conference committee.
The House of Representatives on Thursday passed a final FY01 spending
bill that includes $4.5 million to improve fish habitat and water
quality in the lower Columbia River.
The restoration of 1,550 acres of wetland and riparian habitat at
Shillapoo Lake, Wash., and elsewhere would mitigate for the impacts of
the Army Corps of Engineers’ project to lower the Columbia River
shipping channel by three feet, to 43 feet.
A draft Northwest Power Planning Council program amendment pays too
little attention to looming Endangered Species Act mandates and aims to
delve inappropriately into state and local watershed and land use
arenas, according to comments submitted last week by Washington state
agencies.
An amendment by Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Wash., that would block federal
agencies from further studying proposals to breach Columbia and Snake
river federal dams has been included in Congress’ final interior
appropriations bill.
The House-Senate conference committee working on the final FY01 spending
measure voted 9-5 on Thursday to add the one-year funding restriction.
The Northwest Power Planning Council on Wednesday endorsed a $135
million spending package for fiscal year 2001 that pares back a majority
of the more than 200 ongoing fish and wildlife projects and leaves
uncommitted an estimated $7.3 million to answer a variety of anticipated
new funding needs.
Much of this week’s Northwest Power Planning Council program budget
discussion focused not on what was on the table, but on expected “new”
demands for fish and wildlife resources during fiscal year 2001.
The Council on Wednesday recommended that the Bonneville Power
Administration fund $135 million worth of fish and wildlife project
renewals.
Three days of hearings before two Senate subcommittees this week
provided the first public forum for a direct exchange of views on the
Clinton administration’s salmon recovery plan between top federal
officials and their strongest critics in the Northwest congressional
delegation.
Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne and representatives of other Northwest
governors and the Northwest Power Council this week went to Washington,
D.C., to seek a greater role for states in salmon recovery.
They testified at a Senate hearing, and Kempthorne met with two Cabinet
members about the issue — Secretary of Commerce Norman Mineta and
Secretary of Interior Bruce Babbitt. Kempthorne was accompanied by Idaho
Attorney General Al Lance.
State and tribal fisheries scientists told Congress on Thursday that the
National Marine Fisheries Service failed to collaborate with them on its
draft biological opinion for endangered Columbia Basin salmon.
Testifying on the last of three days of Senate hearings on the Clinton
administration’s salmon plan, four officials said collaboration ended in
late 1998 and early 1999 when NMFS abandoned the PATH process.
Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Wash., this week announced he will seek to block
funding for federal agencies to further study the option of breaching
Columbia and Snake river dams to restore salmon.
In a Senate floor speech on Wednesday, Gorton said he would add the
funding restriction to the interior appropriations bill for FY2001.
Gorton chairs the Senate interior appropriations subcommittee.
The federal government’s top regional salmon recovery official has opted
for the private life, leaving his job little more than a month after his
and other federal agencies unveiled their sweeping plan for restoring 12
Columbia Basin salmon and steelhead runs listed under the Endangered
Species Act.
A summer-long battle by tribes and a local citizens group to find a home
for surplus hatchery spring chinook salmon and their progeny entered a
new phase this week with Washington Sen. Slade Gorton promising funds to
avert “destruction” of those fishes’ eggs and challenging ESA guardians
to rethink genetic rules.
A plan to deepen the Columbia River channel from Portland to the ocean
was put on hold last week when the National Marine Fisheries Service
reversed its “not likely to jeopardize” biological opinion on the
project in order to reopen a consultation process with the Army Corps of
Engineers.
Some hope NMFS’ reversal dooms the $196 million channel dredging
project, while others believe the decision will, at most, delay it.
The Bonneville Power Administration skirted another power emergency last
week that could have affected salmon recovery operations at Columbia and
Snake river dams, but at a cost for energy that was four to five times
higher than normal.
A draft federal hydrosystem biological opinion released last month
ventures into new territory and leaves, at least at this point, blurry
lines of funding responsibility, according to Northwest Power Planning
Council staff members.
Conservation groups and individuals on Wednesday asked the Northwest
Power Planning Council to take up the pro-dam breaching cause as part of
its amended Columbia Basin fish and wildlife program.
Breaching of four Lower Snake River hydroelectric dams “is the most
viable solution” to give impetus to salmon recovery efforts, Karie
Korporaal said during a public hearing on the Council’s draft amendment
to its fish and wildlife program. “You need to take a stand.”
Federal agencies intend to keep a closer eye on how available Columbia
Basin fish and wildlife funds are spent to ensure decisions are made
with Endangered Species Act recovery goals in mind.
The Bonneville Power Administration for the second week continued its
control of Columbia River operations as it declined to set absolute
river flow targets for upcoming weeks, but did say its intentions were
to operate the river according to projections by the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers’ Reservoir Control Center.
Blue Heron paper mill representatives and owner/workers said their
facility has been unfairly put into the spotlight of an effort to clean
up, and cool down Oregon’s Willamette River.
And, during a packed Tuesday public hearing, they said the plant’s
hot-water effluent has little overall effect on river conditions
encountered by threatened salmon and steelhead passing up and down
stream.
A proposal to ban road building, but not logging, on 43 million acres of
National Forest System land is a step is a step in the right direction,
but does not go quite far enough, according to the agency burdened with
the task of recovering Columbia Basin salmon and steelhead stocks.
A series of public hearings have been scheduled over the next few weeks
to allow people in the region to deliver in person comments on draft
revisions to the Columbia Basin fish and wildlife program.
Bonneville Power Administration representatives this week said a
presidential order to ensure West Coast power system reliability
requires the agency to take control of operations at federal hydropower
dams.
As a result, a request by fisheries managers to continue higher flows at
McNary Dam to aid fish passage became moot at this week’s Technical
Management Team meeting.
An Earthwise Knowledge Initiative Publication
