Irrigators say yes to salmon settlement

Irrigators who draw water from the lower Snake River support the proposed settlement of a long-running salmon and dams lawsuit and think regional opposition to the agreement is overblown.

The Tri-Cities-based Columbia Snake River Irrigators Association has signed on to the proposed deal that would put the lawsuit to bed for five to 10 years and believes Columbia River tribes, including the Nez Perce, have traded dam breaching for tribal energy development.

“In our view it just takes dam breaching off the table for at least five to 10 years, if not more,” said Darryll Olsen, executive director of the irrigators association. “It’s just off the table, so why wouldn’t we support it? It is very direct. The tribes, particularly the Nez Perce, said ‘We are going to trade dam breaching for new resource dollars.’”

Nez Perce tribal chairperson Shannon Wheeler was unwilling to break a confidentiality order related to the settlement but said the tribe passed a resolution calling for the dams to be breached in 1999.

“The Nez Perce Tribe is still 100 percent in support of breaching the four lower Snake River dams,” he said.

The Nez Perce, along with the Yakama Nation and the confederated tribes of the Umatilla and Warm Springs reservations, have treaty-reserved fishing rights on the Columbia and Snake rivers and have suffered from a dramatic decline in salmon runs following construction of federal dams in the basin. Those treaties carry the force of federal legislation and under the U.S. Constitution are considered the supreme law of the land.

Along with conservation groups and Oregon, the tribes sued the federal government claiming its 2020 plan to operate the dams in a way that doesn’t further harm wild salmon and steelhead violates the Endangered Species Act. In October 2021, the two sides agreed to pause the case and discuss a potential settlement. Dam breaching was considered during those talks.

The draft of the agreement that some expect to be finalized by Friday was leaked late last month and published by four Republican members of Congress from Idaho, Oregon and Washington. The 34-page document calls for the federal government to assist the tribes in developing up to 3,000 megawatts of renewable energy that will be counted as replacement power if Congress eventually decides to breach the four Lower Snake River dams. The agreement, in effect, would take one powerful argument against breaching the dams off the table.

The leaked draft agreement also commits the government to continue its salmon restoration efforts throughout the Columbia River basin and gives Oregon and Washington, along with the Nez Perce, Umatilla, Yakama and Warm Springs tribes, greater input in how the hydrosystem is managed.

The Public Power Council, Northwest River Partners and the Northwest Public Power Association have come out strongly against the apparent agreement, saying it will lead to breaching and will cost billions of dollars that is sure to be passed on to the customers of the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), including rural electricity cooperatives and public utility districts. They estimate it will raise electricity rates from 5 to 50 percent.

Olsen thinks that is nonsense. He told the Tribune he met with BPA officials who calculate that agreement, known as the commitments document, will amount to a 2.7 percent increase in rates. He said they confirmed the agreement does not, as opponents fear, require the BPA to purchase power from the tribes. Olsen said the agreement allows the BPA to purchase tribal power but only to meet its load. It won’t purchase extra power from tribal sources.

“If you ask what happens with or without the commitments document — will Bonneville purchase new power? Yes,” he said.

He said federal officials have told him that any power purchase agreement the BPA enters must comply with the Northwest Power Act and that the $100 million annual cost to BPA for fish restoration measures in the agreement “largely reflect existing commitments.” Nor does the agreement compel the agency to update its system of transmission lines beyond plans already underway, according to Olsen.

Even with the replacement power argument off the table, Olsen doesn’t believe Congress will ever authorize breaching. The idea has been debated for three decades. In 2021, Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, proposed a $33 billion plan that would breach the dams and mitigate affected communities and industries. Last year, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and Sen. Patty Murray, both Washington Democrats, said Snake River salmon must be saved but the services provided by the dams have to be replaced before breaching.

The irrigators believe Judge Michael Simon, who is overseeing the case, has the power to order what some call functional breach of the dams — leaving them in place but drawing reservoirs down 40 or 50 feet to accommodate migrating fish — and would be inclined to do so if the case moves forward.

“So, the BPA power system costs are likely marginal, and the total economic sector impact costs are well below any previous cost estimates for (lower Snake River) dam breaching,” Olsen said. “The regional industries should be praising this agreement given the alternatives.”

Barker may be contacted at ebarker@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2273. Follow him on Twitter @ezebarker.