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Last Round of Legal Briefs Filed Over Making Hydroelectric Dams Safer for Salmon by Rachael Giffon KMVT, December 24, 2010

The last scheduled round of legal briefs has been filed in the long-running battle over making hydroelectric dams on the lower Snake and Columbia rivers safer for endangered salmon.

Attorneys for the U.S Government's Fisheries and Wildlife Service argue their plan, known as a biological opinion, should be upheld because of improvements to dams, and indications of improving conditions for salmon.

Federal Judge James Redden is expected to rule on the matter sometime next year.

Salmon advocates say the current plan is little different from the one Judge Redden ruled in 2008 violated the Endangered Species Act.