Salmon-dams lawsuit placed on pause

Parties to the long-running salmon versus dams lawsuit on the Snake and Columbia rivers have reached a tentative but still confidential agreement of sorts that could lead to a multiyear timeout in litigation.

On Tuesday, the plaintiffs and the federal government told the court they will share a jointly developed “package of actions and commitments” with other parties to the lawsuit and “regional sovereigns” over the next 45 days. If the package is ultimately approved by a Dec. 15 deadline, they intend to seek a multi-year stay in litigation to allow time for the actions to be implemented. If a final agreement is not reached, the court case that has been on pause for two years, would resume. The contents of the package remain shrouded in the confidentiality that has surrounded the mediated talks that began in 2021 and were twice extended.

During those negotiations, the government said that breaching one or more of the four lower Snake River dams was one of several alternatives being discussed. The Nez Perce Tribe and several fishing and conservation groups have long favored breaching.

The dams impede adult and juvenile salmon during their migrations to and from the ocean and, according to fisheries scientists, lead to lower survival of the fish. But they also generate low carbon hydroelectric power and make it possible for farmers in southeastern Washington and north central Idaho to cheaply and efficiently move wheat to downriver ports.

“Our thing at Nez Perce and for the salmon and our people is to continue to advocate for salmon recovery to the fullest account that we can,” said Shannon Wheeler, chairperson of the Nez Perce Tribe. “If breaching is a part of that, we will look to take the necessary actions that will get us to breach.”

Defender intervenors, such as the Public Power Council and its members, were not part of the negotiations from which the package emerged and have not yet seen its contents. Kurt Miller, executive director of Northwest River Partners, said he doesn’t know its details, the degree to which the parties who developed it may be bound to it, or if his members will have a chance to change it. He worries the actions could affect the amount or affordability of power produced at Snake and Columbia river dams.

“We continue to not have confidence in how the government-led process is being conducted,” he told the Tribune. “One hundred percent of the negotiations have been conducted by the plaintiffs and the U.S. government and now they are going to bring us in with something already in place that we haven’t had a chance to shape. I don’t like that and I don’t think it is in the best interest of our members.”

Justin Hayes, executive director of the Idaho Conservation League, one of the environmental plaintiffs, said he is unable to share much about the package of actions but said its development makes him optimistic.

The Biden administration has not endorsed dam removal but has been more sympathetic to the action than previous administrations. At the onset of the talks, the government committed to seeking a durable long-term strategy to restore salmon.

Last year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said that breaching one or more Snake River dams is necessary for salmon to be recovered to healthy and harvestable levels. In September, President Biden signed a presidential memorandum calling for a sustained national effort to restore Snake and Columbia river salmon runs to healthy and abundant levels.

Breaching has few supporters in Congress. Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, unveiled his $33.5 billion concept that would breach the dams and mitigate affected communities and industries two years ago. It has yet to be crafted into legislation and has few supporters on Capitol Hill. But it has prompted his colleagues, such as Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Republican from eastern Washington, to author legislation to protect the dams.

The plaintiffs in the court case have won several rounds of the lawsuit that is more than 25 years old and convinced a judge to force the federal government to redo successive versions of its plan that seeks to mitigate harm caused by the dams. The latest iteration of the plan was released in 2020. Instead of breaching, it calls for a host of actions that include efforts to improve inland and estuary habitat, hatchery and harvest reform and spilling water at the dams to help juvenile salmon and steelhead reach the ocean.

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