Wednesday 09 April 2008
Much of $900 million won't help endangered fish, groups say.
Washington - A deal unveiled this week commits federal agencies to spend $900 million to help endangered Northwest salmon - but just $540 million would go to new projects.
The Bonneville Power Administration said Monday four Indian tribes would get the $900 million for salmon restoration in return for dropping out of a lawsuit challenging operations of hydroelectric dams.
At least 40% of the money, about $360 million, would pay for existing programs over the next 10 years that don't have dedicated funding sources, said BPA spokesman Scott Simms.
Sara Patton, executive director of the Northwest Energy Coalition, a Seattle-based group that is part of the federal lawsuit, said she was disappointed that only 60% of money being spent by the BPA and other federal agencies would go to new projects.
"It makes me sad," she said.
But Patton said a bigger problem is that much of the money apparently will not go to help endangered salmon, as the lawsuit intends. Instead the money appears targeted for lamprey and other salmon species that are not listed as endangered.
"We're suing because Joe Salmon is endangered, and they are doing for something for Charlie Salmon and Jack Lamprey. That is good for those fish, but it doesn't help our salmon," she said.
The BPA, a regional power agency based in Portland, Ore., says the agreement should raise wholesale electric rates by 2% to 4%.
The deal would end years of legal battles between the Bush administration and the four Northwest tribes.
It would not affect a fifth tribe that is party to a lawsuit, nor would it affect environmental groups that vowed to press on in their efforts to breach four dams on the Lower Snake River in eastern Washington.
Federal officials call the agreement a landmark in the long-running dispute over balancing tribal and commercial fishing rights, protection for threatened salmon and power demands from the region's network of hydroelectric dams.
But environmentalists say the deal falls far short of what is needed to recover threatened salmon.
Deal Gives Money to Tribes to Drop Role in Fish Lawsuits
By William Yardley
The New York Times
Tuesday 08 April 2008
Seattle - The enduring battle over endangered salmon in the Northwest took a new turn on Monday with the announcement of a deal between the federal government and four Indian tribes.
The agreement would give the tribes nearly $1 billion to manage fish habitat and hatcheries in exchange for abandoning their opposition to federal fish-management policies in the region.
Indian tribes have long joined with environmental groups in their fight against federal agencies over the management of the Columbia and Snake Rivers and an extensive network of hydroelectric dams. The dams, which provide cheap electricity to the Northwest, have caused consistent declines in fish populations and generated court fights.
Fishing and conservation groups and the State of Oregon have led court fights, with tribes often filing briefs in support of the plaintiffs. A federal district judge in Oregon, James A. Redden, has repeatedly sided with the plaintiffs, rejecting proposals by the Bush administration as insufficient to restore and protect salmon and other species that historically have migrated up the rivers to spawn.
The deal has opened a rift between the tribes and environmental groups. In return for $900 million over the next 10 years, the tribes must agree to stop their involvement in the lawsuits.
"The focus will turn to implementation rather than litigation," said Steve Wright, the administrator of the Bonneville Power Administration, which would pay about $850 million of the settlement. Mr. Wright would not say if he expected electric rates to rise.
The other $50 million would come from the Army Corps of Engineers. The four tribes are the Umatilla, Warm Springs, Yakama and Colville of Washington State and Oregon. A fifth involved in the litigation, the Nez Perce, has not joined the agreement.
Mr. Wright said the Bonneville Power Administration, part of the Energy Department, would seek public input this month to refine the deal. But the agencies involved have authority to finalize it without outside approval.
Environmental groups involved in the litigation said the agreement, which focuses heavily on restoring habitat and expanding fish hatcheries in tributaries of the Columbia, did not directly address the main cause of the declining fish population: hydroelectric dams. Some groups want the dams removed. Oregon wants more aggressive measures to help fish pass over the dams.
"We're just saying keep your eye on the ball," said Todd True, a lawyer for Earthjustice, which represents some of the plaintiffs in the case before Judge Redden. "That is, what does the Endangered Species Act say needs to be done? And what does the science say needs to be done?"
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