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New Secret Plan Proposed in Snake River Dam Lawsuit by Matthew Weaver Capital Press, October 31, 2023

"The ag position and concerns are being expressed."
-- U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, August 1, 2023

The U.S. government and plaintiffs in a lawsuit against management of the four lower Snake River dams say they have developed a "package of actions and commitments" that they hope to present in court by Dec. 15.

Agricultural stakeholders say they have no idea what's in the package, including whether it calls for breaching the dams.

A coalition of environmental and fishing groups in 2020 sued the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Reclamation and Bonneville Power Administration over their dam operations plan.

A federal judge earlier this year granted a stay in the case while the White House Council on Environmental Quality and Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service led mediation. The stay expired Oct. 31.

U.S. government representatives and staff teams for the plaintiffs will now confer with other parties, according to the notice filed with the judge.

Following that, they will present the package to the parties' decision-makers for final review and approval.

They would either present a joint motion to the court, if approved, or a joint schedule for further proceedings.

If approved, the parties intend to ask for a multi-year stay of the litigation to allow them to implement the package.

"I am cautiously optimistic that we can find a path forward," said Amanda Goodin, supervising senior attorney for Earthjustice, which represented the plaintiffs.

Contents of the confidential package won't be made public before it is filed in court by Dec. 15 at the latest, she said.

"I wish I could say more, considering we have not been privy to any of those conversations for whatever document is going to be presented," said Anthony Pena, government relations manager for the Pacific Northwest Waterways Association.

The association's Inland Ports and Navigation Group is an intervenor defendant in the lawsuit.

The group and other agricultural stakeholders say they've been shut out of the mediation process.

Without knowing any of the details, Pena said he's not optimistic about the benefits to agriculture.

"From the rumors we've been hearing, it does not sound good," he said. "We don't know, ultimately. We're completely in the dark on this."

Other stakeholders will supposedly be given an opportunity to provide input, but that remains to be seen, Pena said.

"There's an agreement coming out that they've already conferred on," he said. "It sounds like they pretty much have their decision that they want. ... Given our experience in this process, I'm very doubtful."

"It was kind of anti-climactic, because we didn't get any details of what's come out of negotiations," said Kurt Miller, executive director of Northwest RiverPartners.

Miller and Pena say their organizations expect to receive copies of the proposed package before the Dec. 15 deadline, and plan to respond.

Key questions about the proposed actions and commitments, according to Northwest RiverPartners:

• Do they help the region meet its climate change policy objectives?

• Do they support electrical grid reliability for the region?

• Do they support energy affordability?

• Do they have a scientific basis in salmon recovery?

(bluefish notes: Yes, to all the above, follows from Remove Snake River Embankments of the Columbia River System Operations Environmental Impact Statement that employed 'classic' GENESYS for modeling.)

"How can I have any faith that the next 30 to 45 days would be any different?" he said. "I don't -- I have absolutely zero faith that our input is going to be taken seriously."

Stakeholders have been told that Biden administration senior adviser John Podesta is "genuinely" worried about endangered salmon, but also about the region's energy, barge transportation and farm infrastructure, Miller said.

"We've been told all those things carry important weight with him," Miller said.

With the Biden administration's "aggressive" climate decarbonization goals, removing the dams doesn't make sense, he said.

"But this is the government we're talking about," he said. "It's just really hard to say. ... They literally are giving us nothing tangible."

Being left out of the process likely won't make the region's members of Congress happy, Miller said.

"Policy makers don't like to have groups being excluded," he said. "Policy makers are not going to like that, if the administration turns its back on millions of Northwest ratepayers."

The message to farmers?

"Just keep a really close eye on this," Pena said. "Whatever happens here is going to have a huge impact on agriculture and our economy. Don't lose sight of it. We'll wait and see, I guess. We don't know what they're going to do."

Related Pages:
Vilsack on Snake River Dams: Ag 'Well-Represented' in Mediation by Matthew Weaver, Capital Press, 8/1/23