Then, because of great floods, the memory of things contained in these
instruments will suffer incalculable loss, even letters. This will
happen to the "Aquiloners" [the Northern People] by the will of God.
Nostradamus, Epistle to Henri II
"We must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night
cometh, when no man can work."
Jesus, John 9:4
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"The lawsuit calls for the biological opinion to be deemed illegal and
for more water to be spilled over the dams to help juvenile salmon
migrating downstream, rather than being run through turbines for
power."
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Salmon advocates, feds spar about dams
Judge will rule about government's responsibility to fish
BY RUKMINI CALLIMACHI
The Associated Press
April 28, 2005
PORTLAND -- Conservationists and the federal government argued in court
Wednesday about whether the feds are responsible for the deaths of
threatened and endangered salmon making their way past hydroelectric
dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers.
A coalition of environmentalists, sports fishermen and American Indian
tribes argued that the latest federal program for operating the dams
under the Endangered Species Act treats the man-made structures as part
of the landscape and fails to take responsibility for irreparable harm
to the fish.
In their rebuttal in U.S. District Court in Portland, the U.S. Justice
Department argued that the federal agencies that control the 14 dams
dissecting the Columbia and Snake rivers cannot be held responsible for
the existence of the dams, which predate the passage of the Endangered
Species Act.
They can only be held responsible for the extra mortality caused by how
the dams are operated, not the mortality based on the existence of the
dams, said attorney Fred Disheroon, representing NOAA Fisheries, the
federal agency responsible for restoring salmon runs in danger of
extinction.
"The statute applies to those things you can stop," he said. "You
cannot stop operating the hydrosystem. You have to operate it in some
way."
At the end of the nearly eight-hour-long hearing, U.S. District Judge
James Redden said he intended to issue his decision in early May,
adding: "It is not an easy decision to make -- and I hope I make the
right one."
Under the Endangered Species Act, NOAA Fisheries must decide whether
the federally operated dams jeopardize the survival of 12 threatened
and endangered salmon runs, and if they do, propose ways to overcome
the harm. The review is known as a biological opinion.
In May 2003, Redden ruled that the biological opinion issued in 2000
was illegal because the federal government could not guarantee that
habitat enhancements and upgrades to hatchery and dam operations would
be done.
The latest biological opinion set a new course for salmon recovery by
doing away with the idea of restoring the rivers to a more natural
condition and taking the new stance that the dams are part of the
ecosystem and cannot be removed.
Oregon and Washington intervened on the side of conservationists, and
Idaho came in on the side of the government. Conservationists have
maintained that removing the four dams on the lower Snake is the best
course for salmon recovery.
The lawsuit calls for the biological opinion to be deemed illegal and
for more water to be spilled over the dams to help juvenile salmon
migrating downstream, rather than being run through turbines for power.
.
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