Agency Files Columbia Basin Salmon Plan

[Quetzal]

Agency Files Columbia Basin Salmon Plan

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) - By spending $6 billion on improvements over the next 10 years, the Columbia Basin's federal hydroelectric dams can be operated without jeopardizing the survival of threatened and endangered salmon, the government said in a report.

NOAA Fisheries, the federal agency responsible for restoring dwindling salmon runs in the Northwest, filed a biological opinion Thursday with the U.S. District Court in Portland. A judge had found a 2000 opinion inadequate because there was no assurance that mandated measures to protect salmon would actually be carried out by federal agencies.

Thursday's opinion sets a new course for salmon recovery in the Columbia Basin by jettisoning a movement toward restoring the Columbia and Snake rivers to a more natural condition, and acknowledging the dams as part of the landscape that cannot be removed.

The plan drew sharp criticism from environmentalists and American Indian tribes, who continue to believe removing four dams on the lower Snake River is the best course to salmon recovery, but got support from utilities, irrigators, grain shippers and others who depend on the dams for power, navigation and water.

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http://news.findlaw.com/ap_stories/other/1110/9-10-2004/20040910003010_29.html