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Legislators Propose New Salmon Plan by Steve Jackson Spokane Public Radio, July 6, 2017

Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers, have proposed legislation that would
throw out the judge's ruling and implement the biological opinion plan through the year 2020.

Several northwest congressional members have proposed legislation that would override a federal judge's ruling that called a plan to restore endangered salmon inadequate.

Last year, a federal judge ruled that a plan to restore salmon runs called the "biological opinion" did not do enough to protect the fish. It was the 4th time a federal judge had ruled against various federal plans to save endangered salmon on the Columbia and Snake River systems.

Now, four northwest Republican lawmakers, including Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers, have proposed legislation that would throw out the judge's ruling and implement the biological opinion plan through the year 2020.

McMorris Rodgers says the collaborative effort to put the plan together and current efforts to improve fish runs have been very successful. "At a time when we're seeing record salmon returns up the Columbia and Snake River systems, 97 percent of the salmon are making it past the dams now. We're seeing because of fish ladders, technology at the dams can co-exist."

(bluefish corrects: 97 percent survival per dam and per reservoir is close to being accurate, but "97 percent of the salmon are making it past the dams now" is fallacious as the graphic here reveals.)

The bill would also overturn the judge requiring the Army Corps of Engineers to spill more water for fish at eight Columbia and Snake River dams starting next year. Fish advocates, like Sam Mace of the Save our Wild salmon organization say increased spill would mean more juvenile fish making it to the ocean. Mace says, "And the science is very clear, the more you operate the river like a river, rather than a series of lakes, the more abundant our salmon and steelhead runs are."

The lawmakers who support the new proposed legislation worry that additional water spilled over dams will lead to lost power generation.

The lawmakers are also proposing the legislation to thwart an environmental review of the Biological Option plan, which calls for studying the possible breaching of the four lower Snake River dams.

You can read the full text of the legislation here

. . . SEC. 4. LIMITATION ON RESTRICTING FCRPS ELECTRICAL GENERATION OR NAVIGATION ON THE SNAKE RIVER.

No structural modification, action, study, or engineering plan that restricts electrical generation at any Federal Columbia Power System hydroelectric dam, or that limits navigation on the Snake River in the State of Washington, Oregon, or Idaho, shall proceed unless such proposal is specifically and expressly authorized by an Act of Congress enacted after the date of submission to Congress of a proposal for such modification, action, study, or engineering plan, respectively.