Posted on 09/20/2009 8:41:57 AM PDT by IbJensen
Portland, Ore. - Calling it an "insurance policy" for Pacific Northwest salmon, the Obama administration on Tuesday offered up a tougher conservation plan for the fish that includes climate-change monitoring and the "last-resort" possibility of removing dams.
The plan submitted to a federal judge for approval was a revised version of a Bush administration plan that had been in the works for years, but which was rejected.
Reaction to the new plan was sharply divided, echoing a debate that stretches back decades over balancing Columbia River Basin fish survival and hydroelectric dams: It either goes too far or not far enough.
Environmentalists say it does little to enhance the Bush administration plan the judge has already called inadequate, while business groups worry it could lead to drastic measures such as dam removal on the lower Snake River in southeastern Washington state.
"We appreciate that President Obama took the time to look at this, but we see little more than a veiled attempt to pass off the old Bush plan as a new one," said Greg Stahl, assistant policy director for Idaho Rivers United.
Another environmentalist was even more critical, calling the new plan "illegal and scientifically unsound."
Nicole Cordan, legal and policy director of the Save Our Wild Salmon coalition, said the Obama administration acknowledged the analysis in the Bush plan was uncertain and potentially overly optimistic but stuck with much of it.
"Again, we've had eight years of these same actions and same kind of work, and what we're seeing is a whole lot of money spent and not a whole lot of impact happening on the ground," Cordan said.
Most of the $750 million spent each year on salmon conservation comes from Bonneville Power Administration ratepayers. The Portland-based BPA is the federal power marketing agency that shares salmon recovery management with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
The plan submitted by NOAA to U.S. District Judge James Redden on Tuesday is called a "biological opinion" that sets the requirements for ensuring salmon survival under the Endangered Species Act.
The chief of NOAA, former Oregon State University professor Jane Lubchenco, said the additional measures recommended by the Obama administration take into account the uncertainties mentioned by critics and tries to adjust for them.
She noted the new plan would immediately expand research and monitoring, and set specific biological "triggers" for strong conservation measures if numbers of endangered or threatened fish fail to reach certain benchmarks.
"It's definitely not business as usual," Lubchenco told The Associated Press in an interview. Lubchenco, widely considered a top expert in marine ecology, defended the scientific models used to draft the plan but said more research would be required to make sure it works and to adapt it to variable conditions, including climate change.
She called for an end to litigation over the plan in order to move forward with conservation measures that may not enjoy unanimous support but resulted from a regional consensus, including many American Indian tribes.
"We believe the time has come to get out of the courtroom," Lubchenco said.
The biological opinion has been a work in progress since 2000, and has twice been rejected by Redden who, at one point, threatened to take over management of Columbia River Basin hydroelectric dams.
But some elements of the plan, including a recommendation that the Corps of Engineers study the possible removal of the four lower Snake River dams, raised serious concerns with U.S. Rep. Doc Hastings, the top Republican on the House Natural Resources Committee.
"The Obama administration has put dam removal back on the table and delivered just what dam removal extremists have been demanding," said Hastings, whose committee has jurisdiction over fish recovery and federal hydropower dams.
Lubchenco, however, emphasized the possibility of breaching any dams was considered only "an option of last resort."
Steve Wright, Bonneville Power Administration chief, repeated Lubchenco's cautionary note, adding that hydroelectricity produced by the dams is not only relatively cheap, it does not cause any carbon dioxide pollution, considered the main cause of global warming.
"Climate change is always lurking in the background" of any environmental policy decisions, Wright said.
Reaction among other members of the Northwest congressional delegation was mixed. Sen. Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat, said the Obama administration made a number of improvements over the previous proposal but he worries about more litigation stalling salmon recovery efforts.
His spokeswoman, Julie Edwards, said Merkley agrees with Republican Sens. Mike Crapo and Jim Risch of Idaho "that a regional dialogue among all the stakeholders will be necessary to forge a lasting solution."
I know what you’re saying, we have some brain-dead family members too but it’s way past time for these people to be put straight and quit blaming Bush. It’s ludicrous the lack of balanced thinking out there.
They need to do some research on fisheries development, what works and what doesn’t and see just exactly who was supporting the good conservation efforts, not the politcal efforts.
De-development at work
O and his enviro freaks at it again! We’re looking at the dams near me being taken out...at millions of cost to ELECTRIC customers...yet the powers that be tell us to drive electric cars, but soon the electricity will be as high as gas!
IDIOTS! CORRUPT IDIOTS!
“Provided the Native Americans actually take their gill nets out of the rivers.”
What a load of crappola that is! Modern ‘native Americans’ waste more fish than the rest of us use altogether. Living proof that ‘a nation within a nation’ DOES NOT WORK!
Then there is the matter of water storage, who cares if people have nothing to drink in the summer? The north usually has rivers that run year round and we can always cut off water to LA and San Diego and all little towns in the surrounding areas, not to mention that farmers won't have to worry about the water being turned on because their won't be any.(do I need the sarcasm tag?)
You should see the corruption in the agencies and the use of corrupted science to support dam removal. It is obscene. For instance, sampling behind the dams in 2006 discovered cyanide and dioxin at levels hazardous to human health in the sediment behind the dams. Siskiyou County, which opposes dam removal, raised concerns about the human and environmental damage breaching the dams would cause. (Such poisonous sediment would require dredging and disposal of sediment in special landfills at an exorbitant cost rather than release downstream.) We also questioned the costs/benefits of removal if responsible treatment of the hazards and restoration of the land exposed where included in the considerations.
In response, the federal and state government's have worked to shield themselves from any liability, have excluded County consultants from auditing the scientific process and have ordered new sediment sampling down the middle of the stream where problems are least likely and to specifically exclude any further sampling for cyanide or dioxin. Sediment models used have been experimental ones that assume a particulate size larger than what actually exists behind the dams - models that produce a favorable flushing result- rather than the likely result of long term suspension of sediment in the water column.
A recent TMDL (Clean Water Act total maximum daily load for pollutants) set for the Klamath forces dam removal. It is all so corrupt. By the way, the same groups behind the Central Valley water cut off (PCFFA, etc.) are the same people behind the Klamath. They have shut down the timber and mining industries for salmon and have made a huge dent in any viable agricultural industry. It is a massive transfer of wealth.
http://www.klamathbasincrisis.org/settlement/letters/2009.htm
http://www.klamathbasincrisis.org/settlement/articles09/2009.htm
“You should see the corruption in the agencies and the use of corrupted science to support dam removal. It is obscene.”
BTT!!
I’ve been hearing about this on our radio.
We should be listed on the Endangered Species Act. We ARE an endangered species!!!
So how is it that they are going to charge all of these electric cars they want? No nuclear power, no hydro, no coal, heck they are even protesting wind and solar.
They will pray to Thor the god of thunder.
Corrupt Idiots fits them to a tee!!
Wait until a fish can hire an attorney.
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