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EIS Reopened on Lower Snake River Dams by Tony Tekaroniake Evans Idaho Mountain Express, January 15, 2025

Process could lead to removal of 4 dams that block salmon recovery

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Bureau of Reclamation are reopening a four-year-old study that rejected calls from environmental groups and tribes to breach four lower Snake River dams in eastern Washington.

A new version of the study could affect recovery of endangered anadromous fish, including Snake River sockeye salmon, which migrate 900 miles from the Pacific Ocean to spawn in the Sawtooth Valley.

"This announcement is a pivotal step toward doing what's necessary to save Snake River salmon, steelhead and other native fish from extinction," said Mitch Cutter, salmon and energy strategist for the Idaho Conservation League. "Now federal agencies must address flaws from the original study and chart a new course that includes breach of the four lower Snake River dams."

The Federal Register announced on Dec. 18 the reopening of a 2020 Columbia River System Operations Final Environmental Impact Statement, which took more than three years to complete and covers the operations of 14 federal dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers.

The new supplemental EIS process was initiated to address "new circumstances and information about the significance of adverse effects that arose or became available" after completion of the original.

The four lower Snake River dams have for decades been the target of litigation against hydropower companies due to claims that they impede the federally mandated recovery of endangered and threatened species of salmon.

Dam supporters from the agricultural, power and shipping industries are fighting the new EIS process.

"The justification for this study is not clear and won't help any of the economic challenges millions of people in the Northwest including those in Idaho face from rising energy costs," said Clark Mather, executive director of Northwest River Partners, as reported in the Lewiston Tribune.

In 2021, Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, proposed a $33.5 billion plan to breach the four dams while balancing the interests of stakeholders. His idea was opposed by other Republicans in Northwestern states.

As previously reported in the Mountain Express, the Biden administration announced in 2023 the Columbia Basin Restoration Initiative, a 10-year moratorium on litigation that included a $300 million payout from the federal Bonneville Power Administration to "restore native fish and their habitats throughout the Columbia River Basin," with added measures to "increase the autonomy of States and Tribes to use these funds."

The recent reopening of a new EIS follows the introduction of new information, including a newly revised international treaty with Canada, that could sway federal agencies to support an alternative leading to dam breaching.

The Federal Register states that considerations that led to the new EIS process include changes to operations, maintenance and configuration of the 14 dams that make up the Columbia River System, new species that have been listed or proposed for listing under the Endangered Species Act (including the wolverine, which was recently listed as threatened) and "relevant new reports, studies, or other information" published since the original EIS was completed.

A primary consideration in the supplemental EIS process involves ongoing renegotiation of the Columbia River Treaty between the U.S. and Canada, which has for 60 years agreed to provide flood protection for U.S. rivers and hydropower operations downstream. The Columbia emerges from Canada and meets the tributary Snake River in eastern Washington just below the last of the four lower Snake River dams, before flowing west to the Pacific.

Anticipated changes to river flows from a "modernized" treaty, as well as indigenous groups' stated concerns regarding salmon recovery, have contributed to the start of the new EIS process.

PBS reported in July that President Joe Biden stated that "the new agreement reflects the changing climate and the changing needs of the communities that depend on the Columbia River, including tribal nations."

Biden said the revised treaty "will elevate U.S. Tribes' and Canadian Indigenous Nations' voices" and will "re-balance energy coordination between the United States and Canada."

According to a Nov. 12 story in The Spokesman-Review, "When the Columbia River Treaty first was ratified in 1964, little attention was paid to how the agreement would impact the natural ecology of the river basin or the tribes that traditionally lived there."

"We used to have a treaty that was focused almost exclusively on flood control and power generation," Jay Johnson, representative of the Syilx Okanagan Nation, said during treaty negotiations, as reported by The Spokesman-Review. "That treaty reflected the era of the day in the '60s -- building something to conquer nature and trying to make a better world that way. But that left out the ecosystems, left out the communities along the river, left out Indigenous voices."

Federal and state agencies, Native American Tribes, local governments and the public are asked to submit scoping comments relevant to the supplemental EIS no later than March 20. Information will also be provided at public meetings. For more information or to comment, go to nwd.usace.army.mil/columbiariver.

Related Pages:
Agreement Could Pave Way for Breach of Snake River Dams by Tony Tekaroniake Evans, Idaho Mountain Express, 12/20/23