Columbia, Snake rivers draft settlement agreement released

A draft settlement agreement between the Nez Perce and other lower Columbia River Treaty tribes leaves the four lower Snake River dams in place but supports actions that would make future breaching more plausible. 

The proposed confidential settlement is related to an on-going lawsuit in which the tribes and conservation groups have challenged the federal government over the impact of Snake and Columbia River dams on threatened and endangered salmon and steelhead. It was released by Republican members of Congress Wednesday, including Russ Fulcher of Idaho, and Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Dan Newhouse of Washington. 

The agreement would establish a tribal energy program with the intent of bringing enough new renewable electricity online sufficient to replace power generated at the lower Snake River dams. The government would offer financial and technical assistance in the development of the new resources. 

The Army Corps of Engineers and other federal agencies would analyze ways to replace the transportation, recreation and water supply benefits of the dams. The government also commits to reintroducing salmon to the upper Columbia River upstream of Grand Coulee Dam and working to restore salmon in the mid-Columbia River. 

Critics of the agreement call it a road map that will lead to breaching the Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose and Lower Granite dams on the Snake River between Lewiston and the Tri-Cities. The members of Congress wrote to President Joe Biden calling the commitments in the draft agreement vague and open to misinterpretation. 

“It is imperative that our constituents, whose livelihoods depend on the Columbia River System, have a comprehensive understanding of this document’s contents so they can anticipate and prepare for the wide-ranging impacts that will inevitably be felt across the region should the commitments detailed in this document be realized,” they wrote. 

Shannon Wheeler, chairperson of the Nez Perce Tribe, said he is bound by a confidentiality order and is not able to comment on the leaked document. The agreement is scheduled to be ratified by the tribes and the federal government by Dec. 15. If the agreement falls apart, the lawsuit that has been on pause for the past two years to accommodate mediated negotiations, would resume. 

For more on this story, see Thursday’s Tribune.