 GRANTS
PASS, Oregon (AP) -- A final federal plan to save endangered and
threatened salmon species in the Columbia Basin will focus on
restoring habitat in tributaries and estuaries but does not rule
out breaching Snake River dams.
The final
plan, which was released Thursday, calls for federally owned hydroelectric
dams to be operated to minimize harm to salmon during migrations
to the ocean and spawning beds, as well as habitat improvements,
hatchery operations and fishing policy changes.
Removing
four hydroelectric dams on the lower Snake River in eastern Washington
has been a lightning-rod issue in Pacific Northwest and national
politics.
President-elect
Bush said during his campaign that the dams should not be breached.
Vice President Al Gore had said the issue needed more scientific
study.
Removing the
dams, which were built in the 1970s, would cut federal hydroelectric
production in the Northwest by 4 percent and wipe out barge service
between the Columbia and Lewiston, Idaho. It also would lower
reservoirs used for irrigation.
Salmon
runs threatened
 American
Indian tribes and environmentalists want to remove the dams to
return the river to a more natural condition. The federal plan
calls for studies to evaluate the species' recovery before removal
is reconsidered.
"Breaching
those dams remains an option if the recovery efforts don't meet
strict performance standards included in the strategy," Donna
Darm, acting Northwest regional administrator of the National
Marine Fisheries Service, said from Portland. "We believe
this plan has the best chance of recovering the fish."
A dozen different
runs of salmon in the Columbia Basin are listed as threatened
or endangered species. Numbers of steelhead and upper Columbia
spring chinook have dramatically diminished in recent years.
Brig. Gen.
Carl Strock, division engineer for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,
warned that if Congress fails to fully fund the plan, breaching
the four lower Snake River dams in eastern Washington "may
turn out to be the only thing we can do." The earliest a
move could be made to breach dams would be five to seven years.
Tribes
may sue
The plans
are estimated to cost up to $190 million a year on top of the
$252 million a year the Bonneville Power Administration already
uses on salmon recovery. It was unclear how much of the increase
would come from Congress and home much from BPA.
Four Indian
tribes that have treaty rights to fish for salmon may sue the
federal government to force more definitive action to save salmon,
said Charles Hudson, spokesman for the Columbia River Inter-Tribal
Fish Commission.
While happy
the plans represented a quicker path to deciding if dam removal
is necessary, environmentalists questioned the scientific basis
for not immediately embracing breaching, and said they were doubtful
that President-elect Bush and Congress would follow through with
funding.
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