That call came in Pasco, Washington, last week, when a U-S House subcommittee held a field hearing there.

Nearly eight (b) billion dollars has been spent on fish and wildlife mitigation over the past seven years, by B-P-A, the federal power marketing agency based in Oregon.

Some B-P-A customers say those outlays have unjustifiably helped boost power rates, to levels that hurt businesses, schools, farmers and residential consumers of electricity.

But Rebecca Miles says blaming salmon recovery work for the cost of home heating is unfair. Miles is chairwoman of the Nez Perce Indian Tribe in Idaho, and a member of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission. She told people gathered in Pasco that salmon recovery must be viewed as an investment, not simply an expense.