Judge: Plan for Restoring Northwest Salmon Runs Not Enough

Source: Associated Press

Judge: Plan for Restoring Northwest Salmon Runs Not Enough

By GENE JOHNSON, ASSOCIATED PRESS
SEATTLE — May 4, 2016, 8:17 PM ET

A massive habitat restoration effort by the U.S. government doesn't do nearly enough to improve Northwest salmon runs, a federal judge ruled Thursday, handing a major victory to conservationists, anglers and others who hope to someday see four dams on the Snake River breached to make way for the fish.

In a long-running lawsuit, U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon in Portland, Oregon, rejected the federal government's latest plan for offsetting the damage that dams in the Columbia River Basin pose to salmon, saying it violates the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act.

It was the fifth time since 2001 that the court has invalidated the government's plans, and rulings in the case show increasing impatience with federal agencies, including NOAA Fisheries. Simon found that for the past 20 years, the agencies have focused on trying to revive the basin's 13 endangered and threatened salmon and steelhead runs by restoring habitat without compromising the generation of electricity.

"These efforts have already cost billions of dollars, yet they are failing," he wrote.

Meanwhile, he said, federal agencies have "done their utmost" to avoid even considering breaching the Snake River dams — despite strong suggestions to do so by Judge James Redden, who oversaw the case from 2001 to 2011.

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