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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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