PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Lawyers for conservation groups, Native American tribes and Oregon and Washington states returned to court Friday seeking changes to the operations of dams on the Snake and Columbia rivers after a landmark deal with the federal government to help restore critically endangered salmon runs collapsed.
Last year, President Donald Trump scuttled the 2023 agreement in which the Biden administration pledged to spend $1 billion over a decade to help restore salmon while also promoting tribal clean energy projects. The White House called it “radical environmentalism” that could lead to the breach of four controversial dams on the Snake River.
Referring to the decades-long litigation, U.S. District Judge Michael Simon in Portland said it was “déjà vu” as he announced the hearing in a packed courtroom.
The plaintiffs argue that the way the government operates the dams violates the Endangered Species Act, and judges have repeatedly ordered changes over the years to help the fish. They are asking the court to order changes to eight large hydropower plants, including lowering reservoir water levels, which can help fish pass through dams faster, and increasing leakage, which can help young fish pass through dams instead of turbines.
“We’re looking at endangered fish,” Amanda Gooding, an attorney with Earthjustice, a nonprofit law firm that represents conservation, clean energy and fisheries groups in lawsuits, said at the hearing. “This is not a situation that can wait.”
In opposing arguments, a lawyer for the federal government said there was no linear relationship between “more spills equals more benefits” for salmon.
In court documents, the federal government called the request a “comprehensive plan to seize control of the dam” that would compromise the dam’s ability to operate safely and efficiently. The government said any such court order could also increase rates for utility customers.
The long legal battle restarted last June after Trump withdrew the United States from the Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement. Agreements with Washington state, Oregon and four Native American tribes allow the lawsuit to be put on hold.
Plaintiffs, including the state of Oregon and a coalition of conservation and fisheries groups including the National Wildlife Federation, filed a motion for a preliminary injunction, supported by Washington state, the Nez Perce Tribe and the Yakama Nation as “friends of the court.” All parties describe salmon as central to tribal life in the Northwest.
The Columbia River basin, roughly the size of Texas, was once the world’s largest salmon-producing river system, home to at least 16 species of salmon and steelhead. Today, four of them are extinct and seven are endangered or threatened. Another iconic but endangered species in the Northwest — killer whales — also feed on salmon.
The construction of the first dams on the Columbia River, including Grand Coulee Dam and Bonneville Dam in the 1930s, provided jobs as well as hydroelectric power and shipping during the Great Depression. They made the town of Lewiston, Idaho the most inland seaport on the West Coast, and many farmers continued to rely on barges to transport crops.
Opponents of the proposed dam improvements include the Inland Ports and Shipping Group, which said in a statement last year that the increasing spill “could seriously harm shipping, disrupt the flow of commerce and have a very damaging impact on our communities and economy.”
However, dams are also to blame for declining salmon populations, which local tribes consider part of their cultural and spiritual identity.
“Extermination is not an option,” Jeremy Takala of the Yakama Tribal Council said in remarks before the hearing.
“It’s very personal to me. Very intimate,” he said, describing how his grandfather took him fishing. “Each season of lower survival means the closure of subsistence fisheries, the loss of rituals and a reduction in the number of elders able to pass on fishing traditions to the next generation.”
Dams seeking changes include Ice Harbor Dam, Lower Monument Dam, Gosling Dam and Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River, and Bonneville, The Dalles, John Day and McNary Dams on the Columbia River.
