[1] Science Panel At Odds With New BiOp Over Barging
The independent science panel that weighs in on various Northwest salmon recovery issues has recommended that spill be maintained while barging fish in May, a finding that's at odds with planned BiOp operations.
The new BiOp calls for shutting down spill at collector dams for two weeks, from May 7 to 21, to maximize benefits from transporting steelhead.
It's a controversial operation that has drawn fire from plaintiffs in the ongoing litigation over hydro operations.
But the feds say their passage survival model used to judge the relative merits of different options shows a definite benefit for ESA-listed steelhead from the action.
The model, called COMPASS, had already received a favorable review from the ISAB panel.
However, in its Sept. 17 report, the Independent Scientific Review Board called for maintaining spill-transport operations similar to those used in 2006 and 2007 during the barging season, "long enough to determine how much influence such operational changes have on downriver migration and total adult returns. Continuing recent spill-transport operations is advised to improve future evaluations of the trade-offs associated with spill and transport decisions."
The finding may lead to some headaches for federal attorneys. Last month, at a BiOp status hearing in Federal Judge James Redden's Portland courtroom, Justice Department attorney Coby Howell successfully argued against implementing a science panel to look at the new BiOp.
Plaintiffs had wanted such a review before the judge ruled on the validity of the newest salmon plan, but Howell argued that the ISAB had already looked at important elements of the BiOp and was almost finished with their report on the new BiOp's max transport strategy in May, where the issue was being "fully vetted."
On the new barging strategy, Howell told the judge, "We're convinced we're right."
But now that the science panel review has not supported the feds' May barging strategy, Howell may have some more explaining to do.
The ISAB made things even more confusing at a presentation on the new report last week when ISAB member Prof. J. Richard Alldredge, a statistician from Washington State University, briefed the Northwest Power and Conservation Council.
He said the panel's findings agreed with the results of the feds' COMPASS model. It was a rushed presentation before the council adjourned for lunch.
So if the feds are using the COMPASS model to justify their operations, how come the science panel came up with a different recommendation, especially since the ISAB had previously reviewed the COMPASS model and called it a valuable tool.
In its latest report, the ISAB still called COMPASS a valuable tool, and in its current state, the model "should yield rough indications of a good balance between transportation and spill, and once reliable data become available for more projects and configurations, it will be possible to better evaluate project and hydro system survival under various water management scenarios."
The panel's support for more spill counters the COMPASS model's results that shows the max barging/no spill strategy for a couple of weeks in May would boost returning steelhead stocks five or six percent over the old BiOp (not the court-ordered operation). Just about everyone agrees that steelhead runs always seem to do better when the juveniles are barged, no matter what part of the spring.
Generally, spring chinook returns improve as well, when the later part of the juvenile migration is barged. The two-week window of max barging beginning May 7 was a change in proposed operations from the draft BiOp, after federal scientists decided the steelhead stocks would do better if the new policy started a week later.
The ISAB review recognized that the steelhead would benefit from barging, but they pointed out that more spill would likely improve inriver survival of migrating salmonids, especially sockeye, and maybe even lamprey, even though they noted that "definitive data are lacking."
The review pointed out that the major portion of the sockeye run would pass lower Snake dams during the no-spill period. That meant the fish would have to negotiate either turbines or bypass systems where the sockeye seem to exhibit relatively high levels of descaling--a condition that can easily lead to future mortality.
It also pointed to some evidence that barged fish had higher rates of straying when they returned as adults.
Also noted was evidence that as inriver survival increased from increased levels of spill, the benefits of transportation decreased. "Terminating spill would eliminate the possibility of learning about the effect of partial spill during this critical period, thereby reducing opportunities for improved decision-making in the future."
But the feds say the COMPASS results are the best available science, and it seems likely they will stick with their proposed policy, though no federal representative would comment on the record. By barging fewer steelhead, the feds might not be able to meet the new BiOp's performance standards, which play an important role in providing a "reasonable prudent alternative" to older hydro operations that the feds concluded jeopardized ESA-listed salmon and steelhead runs.
They are still convinced by the COMPASS analysis that found a maxed-out fish barging from lower Snake dams in early May would boost survival of ESA-listed steelhead over the current court-ordered operation. The feds' computerized crystal ball says the change could boost steelhead returns by 18 percent over BiOp judge James Redden's temporary prescription.
Last May, when the new policy was announced at the time the final BiOp was unveiled, NOAA Fisheries hydro branch chief Ritchie Graves said the survival model found that moving the no-spill window up a week from the draft BiOp's operation would capture more steelhead.
At the time, Graves said the new BiOp's barging plan would transport about 76 percent of the steelhead and 60 percent of the spring chinook.
He pointed out that the spill operations added over the past three years (ordered by the court after environmental and fishing groups convinced the judge that it was a better alternative), haven't been fully analyzed since most adult fish have not yet returned from those outmigrations.
If future returns show more benefits from that high spill strategy, he said, NMFS would change its recommendation, because the agency is committed to an adaptive management policy.
But the ISAB has obviously taken a more cautious tone in its own analysis, after doing some of its own number-crunching. The board's report contains several graphs showing smolt-to-adult returns for inriver migrating spring chinook and steelhead improve as the spill percentage goes up.
However, the correlations are weak--with r2 only .35 in the best case, which means that 65 percent of the variation in the results can be explained by other variables. Most researchers don't consider a correlation very useful until it hits the 70-percent level.
The ISAB also suggested that by keeping more fish inriver, the overall rate of predation would actually decrease, which might account for their finding that the benefits of barging decreased as spill percentage increased.
But the ISAB was clear about one thing. In his Sept. 17 presentation, Prof. Alldredge told NWPPC members that barging improved chinook and steelhead returns in 75 percent of the years they had examined. -Bill Rudolph
[2] Decision Near On Dissolved Gas Waiver
Washington and Oregon water quality agencies have released a synopsis of technical information gathered from other regional agencies that echoes the continuing debate over modeling fish survival and spill that will soon be heard in the next round of BiOp litigation.
The Corps of Engineers is applying for a new 5-year waiver of Clean Water Act standards to allow spill at dams as called for in the new BiOp. But added spill usually boosts total dissolved gas (TDG) levels above the legal limit of 110 percent. Until now, the waiver has capped forebay limits at 115 percent and tailrace limits at 120 percent.
All parties support the waiver, but salmon advocates, and some conservation and fishing groups are lined up behind technical reviews supplied by the Fish Passage Center that have concluded taking out the forebay monitors would allow more spill and provide a significant boost to juvenile fish survival. And for years, state fish agencies and tribes have argued that because of their location, some of the monitors aren't producing reliable TDG readings.
However, processes to change standards are different for the two states. If Oregon's Department of Environmental Quality decides to remove the 115-percent requirement, it would only require the current total dissolved gas waiver be modified by order, undergo a 30-day public comment period, and possibly be issued in December.
For Washington to remove the 115-percent requirement, the state's Department of Ecology would have to change its water quality standards, which would require a rule change, APA requirements, public hearings, and EPA/ESA approval.
However, just because the states may throw out the 115-percent forebay limits doesn't mean dam operators have to run the river that way. But it could supply plaintiff environmental and fishing groups, and the state of Oregon with more legal ammunition in their upcoming challenge to the latest hydro BiOp and 2008 flow and spill operations.
The smart money is betting that the states will probably relent, even though analyses by both NOAA Fisheries' COMPASS model and the Corps of Engineers say the increased spill would have a slightly beneficial effect for some stocks like spring chinook, and a slightly negative effect on steelhead returns.
However, it's likely to be a tiny impact on overall fish returns and lost in the decimal dust, staffers say.
Both agencies also take issue with another part of the FPC analysis they say hugely overstates the amount of spill available to help juvenile fish pass the dams.
The FPC modeled an additional hydro scenario to the two in question--the current spill program with 115-percent forebay/120-percent tailrace limits, and spill with only a 120-percent tailrace limit. Depending on the dam, the change could be significant between the two operations, especially at Lower Monumental Dam on the Snake, and Bonneville in the lower Columbia.
The FPC analysis also looked at what could be gained in fish survival from an operation that spilled to 120 percent TDG limits, but is not constrained by what the FPC called "planned operations," a situation they never clearly defined in their submissions.
They said such a scenario could boost spring chinook survival to more than 90 percent from 65 percent under the scenario that was limited by planned operations.
BPA power analyst Roger Schiewe told NW Fishletter that the FPC's analysis had stripped out what is called "excess generation spill," spill that might occur from lack of marketing or needed when turbines go out. In other words, it doesn't reflect the reality of real-time hydro operations.
In Aug. 21 comments submitted to the water quality agencies, BPA said its own hydro model "properly reflects the reality of the hydro system. At times, the hydro system can produce more energy than can be safely transmitted to serve load in the region or distant power markets. In addition, there are times when the hydro system can generate power in excess of demand. It would be irresponsible for these realities to be ignored and would distort the results."
Back in March, the Corps of Engineers said the FPC methodology left out many of the factors that its own hydro model included, and called the FPC result "unreliable." It came up with a maximum amount of additional spill that was about half of the FPC's 58 MAF that could occur if all limitations but the 120-percent tailrace limit for TDG were removed (minimum generation).
In high water years, the Corps figured that another 6 MAF could be spilled if the 115-percent TDG standard was removed. In low water years, that went down to 5.2 MAF.
More important, they said the kind of water year (low versus high) made more than an 11-MAF difference in the additional spill volume that could occur.
The Corps and NOAA never modeled the FPC's added scenario because they felt it didn't reflect a reasonable possibility. But for operations in a high-flow year, they estimated only a 1.9-percent boost in spring chinook survival if dams were managed without the 115-percent forebay limit, compared to the FPC's estimate of a 13-percent increase in survival.
NOAA Fisheries' COMPASS model estimated the 120-percent-only scenario would produce only a 0.922-percent increase for Snake spring chinook, and a 1.1-percent decline in survival of Snake steelhead because the slight increase in spill meant fewer of them would be routed to barges.
Comments are due soon. It's likely the Corps won't support any change that might reduce steelhead survival by as much as one percent. They also have pointed to possible adverse effects on adult passage from more spill. They say using performance standards for dam passage survival are better tools than managing spill with gas caps.
Of course, BiOp plaintiffs and Oregon fish agency officials have criticized the COMPASS model since it was built and calibrated to PIT-tag survival data over the past dozen years, to weigh the benefits of hydro options under consideration the latest BiOp collaboration.
Despite the fact the feds' model has been blessed by the region's independent science panel, ODFW still says COMPASS leaves out too much latent mortality of migrating fish--another issue the science panel said was something the region should quit arguing about and simply concentrate on measuring the survival differences between barged fish and those migrating inriver.
However, the state of Oregon may not be really interested in its own water quality agency getting to the bottom of this spill/survival issue at all.
In June, 2007, when the states were just beginning to wrestle with the new waiver, Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski's natural resource advisor Mike Carrier sent a letter to DEQ chair Stephanie Hallock outlining the governor's position.
Carrier said if the two states' adaptive management group couldn't resolve the issues, he supported suspending the use of the forebay monitors and using only the 120-percent TDG criteria to manage spill. He said over the last 15 years, monitoring and research has shown little risk to fish, while "potential biological benefits from increased spillway passage and reduction in fish transportation would be substantial. In the near term, there are few if any opportunities to enhance fish survival associated with dam passage, other than increased spill."
Several parties to the waiver process have told NW Fishletter they are afraid the letter, which was originally passed around at an Oregon Water Quality Commission meeting, may have had a bullying effect on the Oregon DEQ staff.
These parties are also afraid Oregon will support any dam operation for fish that adds to ratepayers' costs, hoping to keep lower Snake dam-breaching in the public view as a more cost-effective way to recover listed stocks. -B. R.
[3] Juvenile Fish Survival Suffers Big Drop In Lower Columbia
Overall survival of PIT-tagged yearling chinook from the Snake River to below Bonneville Dam dropped to only 42 percent this year, down from 60 percent in 2007. That's in spite of the court-ordered spill regime started in 2005 that BiOp parties agreed to implement again this year.
The PIT tag survival data created another head-scratcher for researchers. Snake steelhead survival was even higher than the chinook this year, at 46 percent, something very unusual. In recent years, the steelhead survival rate has sometimes been around 50 percent below the chinooks'.
With survival past the four lower Snake projects similar to that of the past several years, it looks likely that the large losses may have occurred in the lower mainstem Columbia.
The problem seems to be in the last leg of the young fishes' trip through the hydro system, from John Day and past The Dalles and Bonneville dams.
If the preliminary numbers are correct, only 50 percent made it down the three-dam stretch alive. Last year, it was more than 82 percent, and in 2006, more than 96 percent.
The PIT tag survival data created another head-scratcher for researchers, since it doesn't show that there was much fish loss between McNary and John Day dams, when survival over the past three years has ranged from 77 to 92 percent. In fact, the data show survival was higher than 100 percent.
That's a red flag for the scientists, who say it could mean one or more of the study's assumptions have been violated in their single release-recapture model.
A NMFS Sept. 8 memo on the preliminary survival estimates speculates that debris on turbine screens may have played a role in decreased survival. Dam operators removed the screens in late May to reduce fish injuries, a time when the proportion of water passing through turbines increased due to greater flows.
The memo also pointed to anecdotal evidence that more gulls than normal were seen in the tailraces of John Day and The Dalles dams, which could mean higher predation. The new temporary spillway weirs at John Day "are suspected to have altered the hydrodynamics in the tailrace and created an upwelling in the center of the spillway downstream of the avian predation barriers. Predation by gulls was concentrated in that zone."
Also noted was a change in hydrodynamics that could have created areas of increased predation by other fish. The memo said it was possible higher predation also occurred at The Dalles Dam and in the tailrace of John Day.
But the other part of the puzzle--higher survival than possible from McNary to John Day--may not be as hard to explain as one might think. Such a state of affairs was also seen in PIT-tagged steelhead from the Snake and chinook from the upper Columbia.
The memo says the observed pattern "is consistent with the occurrence of differential mortality downstream of John Day Dam and those not detected . . . This would occur if fish leaving the juvenile bypass facility (where PIT-tag detectors are located), were more likely to pass into zones of increased predation than were non-bypassed fish."
The federal scientists say it's possible that the hydrodynamics in the dam's tailrace could cause such a differential mortality. If that's the case, they say "the result would be an underestimate of the detection probability at John Day Dam, and a resultant overestimate of the survival probability from McNary Dam to John Day Dam."
The memo also said that the survival estimate could have been further biased downward by fish losses from descaling of detected fish by debris on turbine screens at Bonneville Dam, while fish that passed the dam via the spillway (non-detected) would have fared better.
A clearer picture of the situation may emerge later this year when results of a study of fish survival from the tailrace of John Day Dam to a mile downstream will be presented at the Corps of Engineers' annual research review.
Also, examination of acoustic-tagged fish should be completed by then, which could shed further light on the lower river mortality issue. -B. R.
[4] Fall Chinook Run Upgrade Boosts Harvest Rates
Columbia Basin harvest managers re-opened part of the lower Columbia Sept. 20 to recreational and commercial fishing after their latest run upgrade triggered a boost in harvest rates for both tribal and non-tribal fishers.
"We're pleased that this run is coming in so much stronger than expected," said WDFW's Cindy LeFleur on Sept. 18. "This season is turning out quite a bit better than we expected."
The combination of strong returns and new catch rates may allow the states to open a chinook fishery in the lower Snake River in the coming weeks, she said. "If that occurs, it would be the first fall chinook opening we've had there in several decades."
Today, the agency announced part of the Snake was open with a catch limit of one hatchery chinook and two hatchery jacks. It's the first fall chinook fishery in the Snake since 1988.
Raising their estimate of the upriver bright chinook run from 164,000 (preseason) to 213,000 fish means the tribal harvest rate will go up from 23 percent to 27 percent and the non-tribal rate will rise from 8.25 percent to 11 percent, with the sports getting 53 percent of the share. The harvest boost is part of the newest US v. Oregon harvest agreement, which was finalized in May. The new rates are also conditional on the ESA-listed Snake wild run being over 6,000. Preseason, managers had estimated that 6,400 wilds (to Columbia River mouth) would return this year.
On Sept. 22, the managers maintained their latest estimate on upriver brights, but downgraded the Bonneville tule run slightly, to 96,500 from 102,000.
They weren't prepared to update the early-run coho, but said it looked to be higher than the current inseason projection of 135,000.
So far, about 13,000 hatchery and wild fall chinook have passed Lower Granite Dam. Last, year, barely 10,000 were counted for the entire fall season, with a final estimate of wild adults around 2,600 fish.
The managers also raised their estimate of the B-run steelhead from 50,000 to 90,000, which means the catch will now be managed for a 20 percent harvest rate.
With prices high, harvest effort has been high in the tribal fishery. Last week, an aerial survey counted 242 nets in Bonneville Pool, 150 nets behind The Dalles Dam, and 299 nets in John Day Pool.
By Sept. 22, about 285,000 fall chinook had been counted at Bonneville Dam. Harvest manager also noted hatchery tules are returning to Bonneville Pool in greater numbers than the expected 75,000 fish. By Sept. 18, more than 26,000 tule had entered Spring Creek Hatchery, with over 13,000 females. Only 7,000 are needed for broodstock.
By Sept. 20, tribal fishers had caught about 120,000 fall chinook and 22,000 steelhead. Non-Indians had caught more than 47,000 fall chinook. -B. R.
[5] Mid-C Steelhead Recovery Plan Ripe For Public Comment
NOAA Fisheries has just released its newest fish recovery plan for public comment. The latest plan focuses on mid-Columbia steelhead populations that inhabit mainstem tributaries in Washington and Oregon and is expected to cost close to $235 million over the next five years, with a final price tag that approaches a billion dollars.
"By involving so many local groups, all of which have a passionate interest in seeing that these steelhead once again thrive, we have a proposed recovery plan that's scientifically sound and highly workable," said Bob Lohn, NOAA Fisheries regional administrator.
The plan is the product of a collaboration between the feds and the Mid-Columbia Recovery Forum, with help from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Yakima Basin Fish and Wildlife Recovery Board, the Snake River Salmon Recovery Board, and numerous tribal, state, and federal stakeholders.
The Interior Columbia Technical Recovery Team pegged degraded tributary habitat, dam passage problems, adverse effects from hatchery influences, and the combined effects of competition, predation and disease, as the major factors in their decline.
The plan says current harvest levels are not a major threat to the recovery of the steelhead, but harvest should be monitored to verify impacts and reduce uncertainties. Prior to the 1970's, harvest rates on the Mid-C steelhead were about 65 percent, but much less since then.
Currently, non-treaty recreational fishers are limited by a 2-percent harvest rate. While tribal fishers have no set harvest rate. According to the plan, ODFW reported that non-reported tribal catch in 2004 was estimated at nearly 5 percent.
WDFW has estimated that the tribal harvest rate on the Mid-C summer run was 7.5 percent in 2002, with less than a 4-percent impact from non-tribal mainstem fisheries and only a .3 percent impact from recreational fishers in the tributaries.
To achieve recovery, survival gaps were developed by the technical recovery team, who modeled the needs based on three ocean regimes of varying productivity.
Under the most optimistic ocean regime, the Upper Yakima population would still need a 95-percent boost in abundance and productivity, while the most negative ocean regime would require a 120-percent boost. The Upper Yakima steelhead numbers have fluctuated between 34 and 283 in recent years, with a 10-year geometric mean of 84 fish. The TRT estimated that it would take a population of 1,500 to achieve what they call a "viability threshold," or less than a 5-percent chance of extinction in 100 years.
Some stocks are doing fine, like most in Oregon's John Day River, where numbers in the North Fork have ranged between 369 to more than 10,000, and the Umatilla, from around 600 to more than 3,500.
But fish in the westside Deschutes (10-yr. geomean 456) need at least a 60-percent improvement in abundance and productivity, according the TRT results. The eastside Deschutes population (10-yr. geomean 1,599), on the other hand, is classified as "viable."
The TRT classifies five stocks at "high risk" of extinction in 100 years and nine at "moderate" risk. The feds said it could take 50 to 100 years to restore them all. That's about the same time frame the feds figure it will take to recover most of the other ESA-listed populations in the Columbia Basin. -B. R.
[6] Shoshone-Bannock Tribes Sign MOA
The Shoshone-Bannock Tribes based in southeastern Idaho is the latest group to sign a 10-year agreement with federal agencies promising to improve fish habitat in return for support of the latest hydro BiOp. The $61-million proposal became available for public comment last Friday.
Tribal chair Alonzo Coby said the proposed agreement would pay for nutrient supplementation, artificial propagation and habitat restoration for spring/summer chinook, Snake River steelhead and sockeye and native yellow cutthroat in the upper Snake River.
"This proposal is another step toward 'gravel-to-gravel'--rather than 'gavel-to-gavel'--management of fisheries in our region," said BPA Administrator Steve Wright. "This newest proposed agreement builds on the historic Columbia Basin Fish Accord announced earlier this year that bring the tribes, federal agencies and states together to be even more effective at fish recovery in the region. These agreements show the collaboration approach initiated by Judge James Redden is paying real dividends."
The previous agreements were expected to cost BPA about $900 million over the next 10 years, and include a mix of projects related both to BiOp actions and to helping non-listed stocks.
The Shoshone-Bannock deal breaks down into about $3 million in spending on ESA-listed species every year and $2.4 million for habitat restoration and enhancement, including a one-time capital expense of $7.75 million for hatchery facilities.
The Shoshone-Bannock Tribes was the first group in the basin to petition the Snake River sockeye for ESA protection, way back in 1991. -B. R.
[7] Lone Ratepayer Challenges BPA Fish Accords
Charles Pace, an economist who runs a consulting firm in Challis, Idaho, has filed a petition asking the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to review the 10-year, $900-million fish & wildlife memoranda of agreement (MOA) that BPA signed in May.
"Essentially I am a ratepayer and I don't believe that is a reasonably prudent commitment of ratepayer funds," Pace told NW Fishletter.
A BPA attorney said the agency had not yet seen Pace's brief and could not comment on its merits. The state of Idaho and the Yakama, Umatilla and Warm Springs tribes, all MOA signers, have filed to intervene, citing their interests in the agreements.
The "Fish Accords," were agreed to by four Columbia Basin tribes, the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission and the states of Montana and Idaho [08-73381]. The deal offers funding for new habitat and hatchery projects for the tribes and states in exchange for their support of the new Biological Opinion on operations of the Federal Columbia River Power System.
Environmental groups, the Nez Perce Tribe and the State of Oregon were not parties to the MOAs, and have gone forward with a challenge to the new BiOp, filed after the original was remanded by Federal District Court Judge Redden.
Pace, who runs Regional Services, filed the case pro se, or without an attorney representing him. The court offered him guidance and an informal brief format to make it easier for him to present his case "without worrying about the rules."
As a consultant to the Spokane Tribe, Pace was on the Policy Working Group, a committee convened to carry out the collaborative that Redden ordered as part of the BiOp remand. The Spokane Tribe did not sign the MOA and has recently pulled out of the coalition of tribes and states that did. But Pace said his petition was filed as a ratepayer and not on behalf of the Spokane Tribe or any other client.
"I'm all alone," Pace said.
He was unable to persuade the Salmon River Electric Cooperative (SREC), which serves his business, to join the filing.
"The phone is not ringing off the wall with entities that would like to join," Pace acknowledged, but he was "a little surprised" the filing garnered interventions from some of the MOA signatories.
Although some BPA customers and other constituents expressed concern about the rate impacts of the MOAs, none have actively opposed them since it appears they will be subject to the scrutiny of the Independent Scientific Review Panel. However, they have questioned BPA's legal obligation to fund offsite mitigation since the Power Act says fish and wildlife spending should be directly tied to losses attributable to hydro operations.
In comments he sent in June to the SREC in connection with BPA's proposed amendments to the Power Council's Fish and Wildlife Program, Pace said the MOAs "will divert ratepayer funds in order to obtain 'forbearance'" in the litigation, even though they "do not resolve the substantive issues before the court or affect the rights of petitioners, respondents or other parties participating in the litigation."
He noted BPA and CRITFC are not parties in the BiOp litigation, but filed only friend-of-the court briefs offering their perspectives.
"It makes no sense for Bonneville to commit to use ratepayers' funds to remove those perspectives from the district court's view absent tangible results" for ratepayers, he wrote.
BPA's decision to sign the MOAs is "particularly troublesome given Bonneville's schedule and timeline for concluding its rate proceeding and entering power contracts" to implement the Tiered Rate Methodology, he added. "The existing schedule/timeline for rate development clearly defeats the purpose of the TRM and undermines the ability of utilities in the region to plan responsibly for the future."
Pace said in his petition that he will argue the MOAs violate the Administrative Procedure Act in that they are arbitrary or capricious, an abuse of discretion or otherwise not in compliance with the Northwest Power Act, the Endangered Species Act or the National Environmental Policy Act. The brief was due Sept. 15. -Ben Tansey
[8] Feds Release Disaster Aid For Coastal Salmon Fishermen
The federal government announced Sept. 17 that it would begin distributing $100 million in financial aid to West Coast fishermen and coastal businesses hurt by this year's closure of most ocean waters to salmon fishing.
NOAA Fisheries said the money will be distributed through the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission and was triggered by disaster declarations from the governors of California, Oregon and Washington. Congress passed a $170-million disaster relief package in July.
"The salmon fishery has been a mainstay of the West Coast's fishing revenues for many years," said Commerce secretary Carlos Gutierrez. "This year's closure left thousands of fishermen and dependent businesses struggling to make ends meet. This disaster aid package of $100 million will help them get back on their feet."
The remaining $70 million is expected to become available later in the year.
Fishermen with permits should expect to see applications in the mail soon, but affected businesses can download application forms at the commission's website. -B. R.
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