Bush administration asks 9th Circuit to junk judge's salmon order

Bush administration asks 9th Circuit to junk judge's salmon order
By DAVID KRAVETS, Associated Press Writer

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

(07-13) 23:37 PDT Seattle (AP) --

The Bush administration asked a federal appeals court to stop water from being purposely spilled over five Northwest hydroelectric dams despite a lower court's unprecedented order that it was necessary to help young salmon migrating to the Pacific.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was forced to allow substantial flows to bypass energy generating turbines following a June 20 order by U.S. District Judge James Redden of Portland. Redden ruled that the salmon were imperiled when swimming through those dams' turbines as they headed to the sea hundreds of miles away.

"What the court has ordered is an untested experiment," Justice Department attorney Ellen Durkee argued to a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which is being asked to overturn Redden. Durkee said Redden is "micromanaging the Columbia power system."

The appeals court appeared divided on whether it would uphold Redden and did not indicate when it would rule.
(snip/...)

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/07/13/state/n164607D94.DTL

Good luck with that.