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'Extinction is Not an Option': Environmental Study for Columbia and Snake River Dams Being Revisited by Sean Wolfe Hydro Review, December 18, 2024

Earthjustice, a nonprofit environmental law organization, called the existing environmental study "flawed,"
and argued that revising the study should lead to changes in the Columbia Basin that would
help prevent extinction and restore imperiled salmon and steelhead populations.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and the Bureau of Reclamation have jointly announced plans to update the environmental study that currently lays the foundation for the management of the Columbia and Snake River dams.

The federal agencies said that based on new information, they plan to prepare a supplemental environmental impact statement (SEIS) updating the 2020 Columbia River System Operations Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).

Earthjustice, a nonprofit environmental law organization, called the existing environmental study "flawed," and argued that revising the study should lead to changes in the Columbia Basin that would help prevent extinction and restore imperiled salmon and steelhead populations.

"The 2020 EIS and Record of Decision continued the flawed and failed results of previous plans," said Sierra Club’s Snake/Columbia River Salmon campaign director Bill Arthur. "We appreciate the decision to do a supplemental process to address these flaws and evaluate stronger measures in how we operate the hydropower system including breaching the lower Snake River dams. Extinction is not an option and that is the trajectory we are on without stronger actions."

The current management plan was challenged in court by plaintiff groups represented by Earthjustice, the state of Oregon, and the Nez Perce tribe. That litigation is currently stayed while the parties work collaboratively on an updated fisheries restoration plan.

Earthjustice and the plaintiff groups it represents applauded the action as a "critical next step" in an agreement signed a year ago between the federal government, the states of Washington and Oregon, four lower Columbia Basin tribes, and conservation, fishing, and renewable energy groups represented by Earthjustice. That agreement is based on the Columbia Basin Restoration Initiative (CBRI), a plan to restore the basin’s native fisheries that the federal government pledged to support through specific commitments. The CBRI was developed by four tribes and two states as a guide for basin restoration and Northwest energy planning.

Earthjustice said some of the new information that led agencies to conclude a new study was warranted includes a June 2024 report by the U.S. Department of Interior that documented the "ongoing harm" to Northwest tribes from Columbia Basin dams as well as anticipated changes in the river system resulting from the modernization of the Columbia River Treaty. Other new information includes replacement planning for the transportation, water supply, energy, and recreation services currently provided by the lower Snake River dams, the 2022 report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that detailed necessary actions to avoid extinction and restore salmon populations throughout the Columbia Basin, and more.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers operates four run-of-river dams and locks on the lower Snake River in Washington that together provide 1,000 average MW of capacity and up to 3,033 MW of capacity at their peak. The dams, constructed between 1955 and 1961, are Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose, and Lower Granite. Construction and operation of the dams altered the physical, chemical, hydrological, and biological processes in the river, and all species of salmon that use the Snake River are listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act. With salmon being "central to culture and wellbeing in tribal nations throughout the Pacific Northwest," there have been discussions about breaching the dams.

The Nez Perce Tribe released a statement saying:

"Extinction of salmon populations is happening now. The Tribe is reassured to see strong support in the Northwest for ensuring that no salmon extinction occurs on our watch. That should be a fundamental feeling for all people in the Northwest."

"The reality is the federal agencies have never truly made visible the devastating effects the federal dams on the lower Snake and mainstem Columbia River have had - and continue to have every day - on US Treaty obligations to Columbia Basin tribes. It is time for the consequences of those effects to be revealed and to truly guide agency decision-making."