A federal submittal says agencies will do the work necessary to correct “legal deficiencies” in 2005’s biological opinion on the operation of upper Snake River irrigation projects, and offers a brief outline of progress reporting tasks and schedule.

But the fishing and conservation groups that challenged that biological assessment of operational effects on salmon and steelhead told U.S. District Court Judge Redden that a more detailed plan of action for the remand is needed.

The prospective remand order must require an analysis of how much water might be needed to augment flows for salmon to avoid jeopardizing their survival, according to documents filed Sept. 5 by Earthjustice, which represents the groups.

If the needed flows cannot be obtained, the federal agencies must detail what mitigation measures will be taken to make up for the shortfall, the Earthjustice filings say.

The submittals came at the request of Redden, who on Aug. 21 told the parties to the lawsuit to confer and come up with a proposed remand order and schedule. He will follow with his remand order for the upper Snake BiOp in the coming days.

The 2005 NOAA Fisheries’ BiOp on the operations of Bureau of Reclamation irrigation projects in, mostly, Idaho and a 2004 BiOp on the Federal Columbia River Power System have both been declared illegal by Redden. BiOps evaluate whether federal “actions” jeopardize the survival of ESA-listed fish and animal species. The FCRPS action includes operational strategies and off-site habitat, hatchery and harvest mitigation actions to improve survival.

Both opinions concluded listed Columbia basin salmon and steelhead stocks were not jeopardized. The 2004 FCRPS BiOp remains in place while federal agencies work in remand to correct its legal flows. It covers federal hydro projects on the lower Snake and Columbia rivers.

The fishing and conservation groups had requested that the ESA-required “consultation” for both sets of dams be carried out as one and produce a single BiOp judging their effects. Redden decided this summer that the biological analysis of the effects from FCRPS and upper Snake projects can be carried out separately, and produce separate BiOps, but each must take into account the other’s effect in their analyses’ environmental baseline.

“NOAA may include the FCRPS in the environmental baseline of BOR’s proposed action in the upper Snake River, or vice versa,” Redden said in a May 31 order declaring the upper Snake BiOp illegal. “However only if NOAA examines the effects of the federal action on the listed species and any cumulative effects and the environmental baseline in the aggregate, can the agency insure that a proposed action will not jeopardize the continued existence of the listed species.”

During an Aug. 21 status conference said the two processes must be closely “coordinated.”

The federal remand proposal asks that the 2005 BiOp’s terms be left in place during the course of the upcoming remand. It said that the federal agencies would file quarterly status reports detailing remand progress on the same days that FCRPS remand progress reports are due. An initial report would be due Oct. 3.

The Justice Department filing also suggested that status conferences be held on the same day as FCRPS conferences, though convened separately. It suggested that a new upper Snake BiOp could be completed within four months of completion of the FCRPS BiOp.

The fishing and conservation groups want the judge to take the remand order several steps further by requiring certain products to be delivered at certain times. In that first report, the groups say they want it spelled out specifically how the two remand processes will be coordinated and what exactly will be done to produce that “comprehensive analysis” that Redden has said is required.

“The October 3, 2006, report shall include a description of how the agencies will determine whether more than 487 kaf (thousand acre feet) is necessary from the Upper Snake to avoid jeopardy from the separate and combined effects of Upper Snake and FCRPS project operations and related direct and indirect effects,” according to Earthjustice’s proposed remand order.

Salmon passage to historic spawning grounds in the upper Snake basin is blocked by three private hydroprojects in Hells Canyon on the Idaho-Oregon border. Flows from the upper Snake do, however, add to those in the lower Snake and Columbia rivers still inhabited by ESA-listed salmon and steelhead.

By Jan. 3, the groups want to know what potential sources of water could be tapped, if it is deemed necessary to avoid jeopardy, and what it might cost to obtain that extra water.

The groups point out that the federal agencies has said that the upper Snake “action” to be assessed will include the provision of no more than 487 kaf for flow augmentation, a cap established by the Snake River Basin Adjudication settlement between the state of Idaho, the Nez Perce Tribes, water user groups and federal agencies.

“… the agencies must perform a careful and detailed analysis that examines whether that amount of water, when combined with the other effects of the BOR’s Upper Snake projects, such as the flow depletion effects of federal and non-federal diversion in the Upper Snake, and when combined with the harm caused by the downstream FCRPS projects, will allow salmon and steelhead to survive and recovery,” according to Earthjustice.

The federal remand proposal notes that it was informed only on the day of the filings that the fishing and conservation groups would make their request for a more detailed order. It asked that the Justice Department be allowed to file a response before Redden issues his remand order.