Oregon and conservationists ask court to OK dam operation changes to help salmon

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PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Conservationists and the state of Oregon have asked a federal court to approve changes to dam operations on the lower Snake and Columbia Rivers to help restore salmon populations, the latest move in recently revived litigation over federally operated dams' impacts on the fish.

Key requests, among others, include lowering reservoir water levels, which can help fish travel through them faster, and increasing spill, which can help juvenile fish pass over dams instead of through turbines.

The requests covering eight dams were part of a motion for a preliminary injunction filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court by plaintiffs including environmental groups such as the National Wildlife Federation. Defendants include federal agencies such as the National Marine Fisheries Service and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Emails seeking comment that were sent to a federal fisheries spokesperson and several attorneys listed in court records for the federal defendants were met with automatic replies saying they have been furloughed due to the government shutdown.

The decades-long legal battle was revived last month after President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement in June. The pact with Washington, Oregon and four Native American tribes, reached in late 2023, was a $1 billion plan to help depleted salmon populations recover in the Pacific Northwest, and it allowed for a pause in the litigation.

The agreement was hailed as historic by the Biden administration, tribes and conservationists, but the current administration has deemed it "radical environmentalism” that could result in the breaching of four dams on the Snake River.

Following the federal withdrawal from the deal, “returning to court is the best tool we have to prevent the collapse of these imperiled fish populations,” Mike Leahy, senior director of wildlife, hunting and fishing policy for the National Wildlife Federation, said in a statement.

The Columbia River Basin, spanning an area roughly the size of Texas, was once the world’s greatest salmon-producing river system, with at least 16 stocks of salmon and steelhead. Today four species are extinct and seven are listed under the Endangered Species Act. Another iconic but endangered Northwest species, a population of killer whales, also depend on the salmon.

The construction of the first dams on the Columbia River, including the Grand Coulee and Bonneville in the 1930s, provided jobs during the Great Depression as well as hydropower and navigation. They made the town of Lewiston, Idaho, the most inland seaport on the West Coast, and many farmers in the region rely on barges to ship their crops.

Opponents of the proposed dam changes include the Inland Ports and Navigation Group, which said in a statement that increasing spill “can disproportionately hurt navigation, resulting in disruptions in the flow of commerce that has a highly destructive impact on our communities and economy.”

However the dams are also viewed as a main culprit behind the decline of salmon, which regional tribes consider part of their cultural and spiritual identity.

“They are the backbone of an entire ecosystem. They are a key economic and cultural resource for the whole region, and they are central to the way of life for so many Native American tribes,” said Amanda Goodin, senior attorney with the nonprofit Earthjustice, which represents conservation, clean energy and fishing groups in the litigation.

“Losing them, I think, means losing part of who we are as a people in the Northwest,” Goodin added.

The dams for which changes are being sought are Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose, Lower Granite, Bonneville, The Dalles, John Day and McNary.