Tribes, Bonneville Power Administration agree on fish protection

Published 11:44 pm Monday, April 7, 2008

WASHINGTON — Settlements reached Monday with four Northwest Indian tribes would commit federal agencies to spend $900 million over the next decade on improving conditions for endangered salmon but leave intact hydroelectric dams in the Columbia River Basin that environmentalists say kill fish.

The settlements would end years of legal battles between the Bush administration and the four Northwest tribes, but would affect neither a fifth tribe that is party to a lawsuit nor environmental groups that vowed to press on in their efforts to breach four dams on the Lower Snake River.

Federal officials called the agreement a landmark in the long-running dispute over balancing tribal and commercial fishing rights, protection for threatened salmon and power demands from the region’s network of hydroelectric dams.

But environmentalists said the deal fell far short of what is needed to recover threatened salmon, an icon of the Northwest that is protected by the Endangered Species Act and costs the government billions of dollars to protect.

“This deal defies the decades of salmon science that say salmon recovery in the Columbia and Snake River Basin is not possible with habitat and hatchery programs alone,” said Bill Shake, a retired U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service official who advises a Northwest sportfishing group.

Any scientifically sound plan must include increased spill at the two dozen dams and irrigation projects along the Columbia and Snake rivers as well as removal of four outdated dams on the lower Snake River in Eastern Washington, Shake said.

Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski called the agreement premature and said tribes were taking a short-term view.

Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire called the deal a “positive development” and said federal and tribal leaders should be commended for their efforts.

Steve Wright, administrator of the Bonneville Power Administration, a regional power agency that led the settlement talks, said the new agreements should benefit salmon and Northwest ratepayers alike, although he acknowledged the deal was likely to raise utility rates by an unspecified amount.

“The Columbia River has provided innumerable benefits to all of us here in the Northwest, and these agreements are about giving back to the river and helping to meet our tribal treaty and trust responsibilities by providing even more support for the fish species of our region,” Wright said.

The agreement calls for federal agencies to expand tribal efforts to protect endangered and threatened fish in the Columbia River Basin, spending up to $900 million over 10 years to help fish.

In exchange, two Oregon tribes — the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation and the Confederated tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation — and two Washington tribes — the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation and the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Indian Reservation — agreed to drop lawsuits against the federal government.

Public comments on the proposed agreements will be accepted through April 23.

Ron Suppah, chairman of the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs, said tribal leaders came to the table with the federal agencies two years ago as adversaries.

“We leave that table now as partners,” he said, adding that the agreement will increase the health and number of salmon, steelhead and lamprey and focus the tribe’s energy “where it must be now — on recovering fish, providing opportunity for our tribal fishers and on finding real solutions rather than blame.”

The Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission also agreed to the settlement, although one of its member tribes, the Idaho-based Nez Perce Tribe, declined to sign the agreement. The tribe said in a statement that it still wants to see the four lower Snake River dams taken down.

“The dams on the lower Snake River and mainstream Columbia have a significant impact on the fish and on our people,” said Samuel Penney, chairman of the Nez Perce. He said the tribe will continue talks with the federal government.