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©2007 Cascadia Times
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Enter the God Squad
Bonneville, with encouragement from utility groups, appears to be so determined to continue with the status quo that it is willing to play a game of “chicken” with the judge. It apparently wants to see if Redden will actually follow through with his threat to run the river or impose sanctions.
But if the judge doesn’t back down, the Bush administration might have in mind another route around the judge's courtroom. It could invoke the “God Squad” provision of the ESA that allows a special committee to give an exemption to the law if it poses a significant economic hardship. The God Squad has convened only three times — for the snail darter in Tennessee, the northern spotted owl in the Northwest and the whooping crane on the plains.
It is conceivable that the God Squad could allow the salmon's extinction. The ESA is a powerful law, but the Indian treaties are equal to the Constitution, the highest law in the land. And the God Squad cannot overturn a federal treaty.
In defending their fishing rights, the tribes turn to the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, which advises them on legal and technical issues. CRITFC, as it is known, believes that “the fishing right means more than the right of Indians to hang a net in an empty river.”
CRITFC’s roots go back decades, to the days when Celilo Falls was still thriving. The fishery was managed by the Celilo Fish Committee, which protected the runs by making sure everyone shared the harvest and conserved the resource for future generations.
Today, CRITFC is challenging the Bonneville Power Administration at nearly every turn. It has been fighting Bonneville's efforts to reduce power rates and to cut back spending on salmon recovery projects. It claims that Bonneville will fail to fulfill its duty to restore the runs until the end of this century — possibly long after the salmon are already extinct.
Based on Bonneville's assumptions, it would take 22 years to implement the production measures in subbasin plans developed by federal, state, and tribal fish managers, and more than 40 years to implement measures designed to restore habitat. But under more realistic assumptions, CRITFC's Lothrop says it would take more than 80 years to implement the habitat measures, and the production actions would never happen.
Under CRITFC's plan, salmon spending would rise from the current $143 million per year to $240 million. Bonneville plans to spend just $143 million for each of the next three years.
The plan relies heavily on Bonneville to mitigate for the historic and continuing loss of fish at dams by taking on recovery projects throughout the basin, not just at the dams. The tribes are calling on Bonneville to:
• Protect more than 48,000 acres of habitat;
• Improve more than 1,300 miles of streams;
• Construct 1,600 miles of fence;
• Enhance 75,000 acres of habitat;
• Correct passage problems at more than 1,200 diversions and culverts; and
• Make additions or major enhancements to fish production facilities in 11 subbasins.
More than $100 million of new, scientifically supported projects have been deferred this year due to lack of Bonneville funding. The tribes say this raises questions about whether needed actions are reasonably certain to occur.
Bonneville currently maintains a $1 billion surplus, is paying new subsidies of $177 million to multinational aluminum corporations through 2009, and is selling wholesale power at about 53 percent below the open market price. Bonneville cut wholesale power rates by 1 percent in 2006 and another 3 percent starting in 2007.
The Northwest Power Act of 1980 called for the creation of a regional program to protect, mitigate, and enhance fish and wildlife to the extent affected by the development and operation of any hydroelectric project of the Columbia River. Bonneville must act in a manner consistent with that plan. The program was to be built around recommendations from federal and state fish and wildlife agencies and from the tribes. “The Northwest Power Act finally gave the tribes a seat at the table,” says John Platt, CRITFC's policy advisor.
But Bonneville has a long history of resisting the fish and wildlife program. It claims that it has no responsibility to pay for the damage caused by hydro projects other than the ones it operates. The tribes have “misconstrued” Bonneville’s responsibility for fixing problems caused by the dams, said Greg Delwiche, a Bonneville vice president for environment, fish and wildlife, in a letter to the Yakama Nation.
“Desires for fish and wildlife project funding in the Columbia River basin will probably always be greater than the financial resources available to meet them. BPA cannot and will not attempt to meet all those needs whether identified in subbasin or recovery plans or other such plans,” Delwiche wrote.
The Power Act created the regional Northwest Power and Conservation Council to oversee the program. The Council set a goal of restoring 5 million fish to the basin by 2025 — a goal Delwiche says Bonneville cannot meet. “BPA funding at any level will not result in 5 million returning adults,” he says.
Delwiche says Bonneville is aware that “the trend line for salmon populations for the last 150 years is steeply downward and offers little hope of improvement given the multiples causes of decline.”
But the tribes contend Bonneville is legally required to do much more than it has or is planning to do.
For example, in the last 10 years, Bonneville and other federal agencies have violated river flow targets set by NOAA 53 percent of the time. It resisted spilling water as a means to move fish through the dams until Judge Redden ordered it to do so in 2004, 2005 and 2006 (in 2005 spill improved survival for Snake River fall Chinook by 64 percent.)
“Delwiche is being deceptive,” the tribes’ Lothrop says. “He says other federal agencies need to step up. But he’s no dummy. He knows other agencies are not going to get new chunks of federal money.”
“These efforts are especially important to us,” the Yakama tribe said in a statement. “For at least the past four decades, the Columbia Basin Treaty tribes have voluntarily imposed severe restrictions on their treaty-reserved fisheries to assist in rebuilding wild populations of salmon and steelhead.
“This action was taken based on the expectation that other relevant parties would also take actions to share the burden of wild stock conservation. The tribes are still waiting for these actions, particularly in the area of habitat protection and improvement.”
Congress held high expectations that the Northwest Power Act would resolve the longstanding salmon crisis in the Columbia.
“The fish and wildlife provisions will assure that in the power-planning decisions, fish and wildlife concerns are adequately met,” Rep. John Dingell, of Michigan, chair of the House Energy and Power subcommittee, said at the time. “Fish and wildlife, for the first time in this region, will be treated on a par with power and other purposes.”
That was 27 years ago. Dingell promised he would hold oversight hearings on the Act, to see how it’s working. With Democrats now in control of Congress, he finally has the chance make them happen.
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