Portland, Ore.– Lawyers for conservation groups, Native American tribes and the states of Oregon and Washington return to court Friday to demand changes to dam construction on the Snake and Columbia rivers, in the wake of the flooding. Collapse of the historic agreement With the federal government to help restore critically endangered salmon.
President Donald Trump blew up last year 2023 dealwith the Biden administration promising to spend $1 billion over a decade to help restore salmon while also promoting tribal clean energy projects. The White House called it “radical environmentalism” that could have led to the breach of four controversial dams on the Snake River.
Plaintiffs say the way the government manages the dams violates the Endangered Species Act. They are asking the court to order changes at eight large hydroelectric dams, including lowering reservoir water levels, which could help fish travel through them faster, and increasing spillage, which could help smaller fish pass over dams instead of turbines.
In court filings, the federal government called the request a “sweeping scheme to wrest control” of the dams that would harm the ability to operate them safely and efficiently. Any court order could also result in higher rates for utility customers, the government said.
“We are going back to court because the situation for salmon and steelhead in the Columbia River Basin is dire,” said Christine Boyles, managing attorney at Earthjustice, a nonprofit law firm representing conservation, clean energy and fishing groups in the lawsuit. “There are groups on the verge of extinction, and this species is the center of Northwest tribal life and identity.”
The long legal battle has been revived after Trump The United States withdrew From the Columbia Basin Flexible Agreement last June. The agreement with Washington, Oregon and four Native American tribes allowed the lawsuit to be temporarily halted.
The plaintiffs, which include the state of Oregon and a coalition of conservation and fishing groups such as the National Wildlife Federation, filed a request for a preliminary injunction, with support from the state of Washington and the Nez Perce Tribe and Yakama Nation as “friends of the court.” The U.S. District Court in Portland will hear oral arguments.
The Columbia River Basin, spanning an area roughly the size of Texas, was once the world’s greatest salmon-producing river system, containing at least 16 salmon and steelhead stocks. Today, four of them are extinct and seven are endangered or threatened with extinction. Another distinctive but endangered species in the northwest of the country is a group of killer whales. Also based on salmon.
The construction of the first dams on the Columbia River, including the Grand Coulee and Bonneville Dams in the 1930s, provided jobs during the Great Depression, as well as hydroelectric power and navigation. They made Lewiston, Idaho, the most inland seaport on the West Coast, and many farmers still depend on barges to ship their crops.
Opponents of the proposed dam changes include the Ports and Inland Navigation Group, which said in a statement last year that increased seepage “could disproportionately harm navigation, leading to disruptions to the flow of trade that have a deeply devastating impact on our communities and economy.”
However, dams are too The main culprit Behind the decline of salmon, which regional tribes consider part of their diet Cultural and spiritual identity.
The dams being considered for changes are Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose and Lower Granite on the Snake River, and Bonneville, The Dalles, John Day and McNary on the Columbia River.