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Plaintiff: BiOp still "mushy information without any standards" by Cassandra Profita Oregon Public Broadcasting, May 9, 2011

Todd True, the EarthJustice attorney representing environmental groups in the BiOp lawsuit, made several points clear throughout the hearing today. In contrast to Bonneville Power Administration's position - that the biological opinion is ready to be implemented and will protect salmon as required by law - True says the BiOp is based on a false conclusion that the current plan will be enough to avoid jeopardizing salmon survival in the Columbia.

"We've said all along that this jeopardy standard is an erosion and deflation of what the law requires, and it's married to an analysis that inflates what we can accomplish. That's how we manage to say, 'What we've been doing for the last 20 years we're going to keep doing for the next 20 years, and everything will be fine.' And we just don't think that's the case.

The real concern there is I think we're going to get a bunch of mushy information without any standards, and the federal government is going to get to call the play however it wants to call the play at that time. The law has standards in it, and we have to meet those standards. ...The way we do what our laws require is by complying with the standards that are in them. And this biological opinion doesn't do that."