By Ley Garnett
OPB News
PORTLAND, OR 2005-04-05 (Oregon Considered) -
Federal agencies that manage the Columbia River system announced today that
they're implementing their drought plan. Under the plan, young salmon and
steelhead would be removed from the Lower Snake River and inserted in barges and
specialized tanker trucks.
But as Ley Garnett reports, conservation and fishing groups say the fed's main
concern is maximum power generation.
This is a long running dispute---whether fish do better in a drought year
swimming down river on their own or getting a ride. Brian Gorman of NOAA
Fisheries says artificial transportation is better.
Brian Gorman: In low water years when the river is sluggish and volumes are low
we think the most judicious thing to do is to transport as many fish as we
possibly can. That is to say: put them in tanker trucks or barges and ship them
around all the dams and release them below Bonneville.
Jan Hasselman of the National Wildlife Federation believes just the opposite is
true.
Jan Hasselman: The fisheries managers and the scientists in the region have
uniformly called for less transportation and more natural river conditions, in
other words, better flow, more spill.
Beginning in April, federal agencies normally open the spillways on the four
Snake River Dams for part of the day to let migrating juvenile fish get through.
This year they won't spill water at three of the dams so they can generate more
electricity.
Bonneville Power spokesman Mike Hansen says they used the same drought plan in
2001 and it worked for fish.
Mike Hansen: Given the fact that we were dealing with one of the worst droughts
we ever had we had very good returns a couple of years later of the adults that
had migrated that year as juveniles. So we think what we're doing is working and
the evidence supports that.
Jan Hasselman: If there is any indication that fish do better transported during
a drought year it's only because the river has been run so hard for power
production.
Again, Jan Hasselman of the National Wildlife Federation.
Jan Hasselman: And conditions are so lethal for fish that transportation winds
up, compared to that, being an improvement.
Hasselman's organization is the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit against the federal
salmon plan. He says the litigation is aimed at ensuring that the government
doesn't skimp on protection for Columbia River fish this summer.