[6] 103 House Members Ask Feds To Look At Dam Breaching

A congressman from Wisconsin was sounding off last week about the failure of federal salmon plans on the West Coast. Rep. Tom Petri (R) said the plans had failed local communities, taxpayers and salmon. "It's time for all options to be put on the table," he said in a June 22 press release from the Save Our Wild Salmon coalition.

Petri, a lead sponsor of the Salmon Planning Act that has yet to get out of committee, along with Rep. Earl Blumenauer, (D-OR) have solicited the signatures of more than a hundred fellow House members in a letter to the federal government that asks the feds to look at all options for recovering salmon in the Columbia Basin as it writes its next salmon plan, including breaching lower Snake dams. That's also the gist of the Salmon Planning Act, which calls for looking at both biological and economic effects of breaching.

The June 20 letter to NOAA head Conrad Lautenbaucher called for the salmon recovery effort to be guided by the "best available economics and science," and include other options for study like breaching lower Snake dams and much more flow augmentation.

Blumenauer's remarks seemed to blame this year's draconian harvest cuts in southern Oregon and California on declining fish numbers in the Columbia River rather than the Klamath Basin, which is why the action was taken--to improve returning numbers of fall chinook to the Klamath, a population that is not even low enough to be listed for protection under the ESA.

"I am deeply trouble by the signals Mother Nature is sending about salmon recovery," Blumenauer said in a June 22 press release from the Save Our Wild Salmon coalition. "This year's virtual closure of Oregon's coastal commercial salmon season and the declining condition of our oceans means that we must get serious about the health of the Columbia River Basin, our compliance with federal endangered species laws and our commitments to native Americans."

Twenty-four other California politicians signed the letter, but only three from the Northwest, Diane Hooley (D-OR), Jim McDermott (D-WA) and Adam Smith (D-WA). It also had the support of Save Our Wild Salmon, Taxpayers for Common sense, the Northwest Energy Coalition, Sierra Club American Rivers, and US PIRG.

The letter will not likely have any effect, since it was reported last week by participants in the BiOp remand that breaching lower Snake dams is not on their list of potential options to be addressed. A progress report on the creation of the new hydro BiOp is slated for July.

Meanwhile, two Republican members of the Washington delegation will take part in a July 7 field hearing in Pasco of the House Water and Power Subcommittee on "Electricity Costs and Salmon--Finding a Balance." Cathy McMorris (R-WA) has introduced, and Doc Hastings (R-WA) is an original cosponsor of the Endangered Species Compliance and Transparency Cost Act to give consumers information on how much of the federal government's ESA costs are passed on to the electricity consumer. -B. R.

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