After a lengthy public process, the committee could decide that
economic concerns justify the extinction of endangered fish.
At the top of the Bush administration, the signal is clear: President
Bush has himself come to the lower Snake and pledged that dams such as
Little Goose will never be removed.
==================================================================
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
===================================================================
ECO-TERRORISM, MOTHER FUCKERS!!! BUP BUP BUP BUP BUP BUP BUP WING DING
BUP BUP!!! ***** YOU!!!
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Salmon's future leads to dispute over federal dams
By Blaine Harden
The Washington Post
LITTLE GOOSE DAM, Wash. - Behold the slab of concrete called Little
Goose - ground zero in the salmon wars that are escalating across the
Pacific Northwest.
Little Goose has turbines for power, locks for river transport and a
Rube Goldberg device for distilling young salmon out of the river,
sorting them by size, and hosing them into trucks and barges for
passage downriver.
This hulking gizmo has become part of the "environmental baseline" here
on the Snake River. At least that is how the Bush administration
characterizes Little Goose and 13 other federal dams on the Snake and
Columbia rivers.
This characterization, though, has stuck in the craw of a federal
judge. In his courtroom in Portland, U.S. District Judge James Redden
described the administration's 2004 biological opinion - it says dams
are a fundamental part of the river's environmental baseline - as a
document written "more in cynicism than in sincerity."
The sincerity of the administration's policy is also being questioned
by some scientists who work for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration Fisheries Service, according to a survey of agency
employees released last week by the Union of Concerned Scientists and
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. It found that about
two-thirds of those surveyed did not believe the agency, responsible
for protecting endangered fish and their habitat, was effectively doing
its job. More than half of respondents said they knew of cases in which
"commercial interests" or senior administration officials have
"inappropriately" influenced agency decisions.
Results of the survey, which went to 460 science professionals and had
a response rate of 27 percent, are similar to those of a survey early
this year of scientists at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The chief science adviser at NOAA Fisheries challenged the latest
survey, saying it obtained responses from only 6 percent of more than
2,000 agency scientists. Steven Murawski said the survey itself is poor
science because it was not sent to "the overwhelming number of our
science professionals."
In Portland, Redden has tossed out as "legally flawed" the
administration's 2004 biological opinion for the Columbia and Snake. He
declared that it "ignored the reality of past, present and future
effects" of dams on 12 species of endangered fish. Before the dams were
built, these rivers were conduits for the world's premier salmon run.
"As currently operated, I find that the DAMS strongly contribute to the
endangerment of the listed species and irreparable injury will result
if changes are not made," Redden wrote.
To that end, he supported a request from the National Wildlife
Federation and other salmon advocates, ordering that water be spilled
over Little Goose Dam and other dams on the lower Snake. The spill
started June 20. Spilling water over dams keeps migrating juvenile fish
in the river, while keeping them out of turbines that often kill them.
When less water goes through its turbines, though, Little Goose
produces less electricity. Through the end of August, this dam will
spill water that would be worth $267,288 a day if it had been fed into
turbines to generate electricity, said Carl Knaak, operations manager
at the dam.
The total tab for the spill ordered by Redden will come to about $67
million, according to the Bonneville Power Administration, which sells
power from federal dams in the Northwest and adamantly opposes the
spill. For the average electricity customer whose utility buys all its
power from BPA, the cost will be relatively low. It will require an
increase of about 87 cents in the monthly bill, said Ed Sheets, a
private consultant with expertise in the Northwest hydro system.
The spill appears to have angered the Bush administration. The Justice
Department tried last month and failed to persuade the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the 9th Circuit in San Francisco to issue an emergency
motion to stop the spill. Last week, that court also ruled against the
administration on another salmon dispute, upholding a Seattle federal
court decision that found that the Environmental Protection Agency
violated the Endangered Species Act by failing to protect salmon from
harmful pesticides.
In the dispute over the spill, the 9th Circuit has ordered an expedited
hearing on the government's appeal to the Redden ruling.
The Justice Department argues in its appeal that keeping endangered
salmon in the dammed-up river - rather than barging or trucking them
around federal dams - is "judicial experimentation."
"A federal judge just isn't in a position to step in and decide how to
operate the system," said Fred Disheroon, special litigation council
for the Justice Department on the salmon issue. "The judge is ordering
something that is untested and in our view puts the fish at greater
risk."
Research has shown that nearly all fish transported around the dams
survive the ride, but it has not conclusively shown that trucking or
barging them is better or worse for the longtime survival of salmon as
compared with letting them swim in the river and negotiate the dams.
Dams kill juvenile salmon in a number of ways: in turbines; in the
slow-moving, relatively warm reservoirs between dams; and by stunning
them in a way that makes them vulnerable to predators.
If the government does not win its appeal, Disheroon said, it might
invoke a rarely used provision of the Endangered Species Act, which
would convene a Cabinet-level committee informally called the "God
Squad." After a lengthy public process, the committee could decide that
economic concerns justify the extinction of endangered fish.
Given the judge's decision, Disheroon said, "it may not be possible to
come up with a way to avoid jeopardy for these fish."
Lawyers for the environmental groups that sued the government argue
that it is absurd for the Bush administration to argue that keeping
salmon in the river is an untested and risky plan.
"The science is clear. If we want to bring the salmon back, we have to
be willing to make the hydrosystem work more like a natural river,"
said Todd True, a staff attorney for Earthjustice. "The Bonneville
Power Administration thinks it owns the river, and they don't want to
give it up - not one drop."
Behind the legal arguments that are swirling this summer around the
river system lie two long-held and diametrically opposed views about
what should happen to Little Goose and three other dams in the lower
Snake River.
Environmental groups, some state fish agencies and many salmon
biologists argue that removing the dams is the only possible way to
prevent wholesale extinction of Snake River salmon. It is an argument
that dates back six decades - well before Little Goose and its sister
dams were built in the 1960s and '70s.
In 1946, the chief of fisheries for the Oregon Fish Commission warned
about what the four Snake River dams would do: "All western biologists
with whom I have talked agree that this plan, if followed, will spell
the doom of salmon and steelhead migration up the Snake."
But the dams are now embedded into the economic status quo of the
Northwest - producing power and enabling river transport and
irrigation. The federal government has promised to spend billions of
dollars in coming years to find better mechanical fixes for moving
salmon around dams.
At the top of the Bush administration, the signal is clear: President
Bush has himself come to the lower Snake and pledged that dams such as
Little Goose will never be removed.
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