On the Docket
Feds Reject Breaching Hydro Dams
Representatives of the Obama administration say they can protect endangered species of fish in the Pacific Northwest without tearing down hydroelectric dams that are essential to the region’s power generation.
A government plan avoids breaching dams on the Snake River, such as the Palisades dam. (Photo By: Bonneville Power Administration)
In a Dec. 23 court filing, officials from NOAA Fisheries Services and three federal agencies said the administration considered breaching dams along the Snake River, but decided against adding it to a 10-year plan to boost populations of salmon and steelhead.
“The administration’s review ultimately determined that dam breaching was not necessary because of the improving status of the Snake River stocks,” according to the brief, the final one in a long-running legal dispute about salmon recovery.
U.S. District Court Judge James Redden of Portland, Ore., is expected to rule on the plan, known as a biological opinion, sometime in 2011.
Dam breaching has been supported by some environmental groups, but Northwest utilities have opposed it, saying it would undermine hydropower production in the region.
Fish and wildlife expenditures amount to $135 a year for a typical retail customer of a publicly or consumer-owned utility that gets power through Bonneville Power Adminisration.
In the brief, federal officials said breaching dams also could lead to buildup and erosion of sediments, contaminants and construction debris that would work at cross purposes with the fish recovery plan.
If salmon stocks show sudden and precipitous declines, the administration said it will re-open a study of breaching as a last resort within six months, unless what it identifies as the “best available science” shows breaching is unwarranted.
Officials encouraged Redden to approve the biological opinion on the grounds that measures taken in the last few years have improved fish habitats and minimized the effects of hydroelectric production.
“Snake River sockeye continue to shatter all expectations and this year we experienced, yet again, one of the best steelhead runs in recent memory,” they wrote.
“The technological advancements that aid in the hydrosystem migration have given the agencies the capacity to safely guide juveniles to the estuary so that, when ocean conditions allow, as they have in recent years, the species experience record-setting adult returns,” they wrote.
Tags: Obama Administration, On the Docket, Salmon