A slate of actions aimed at preparing the Pacific Northwest for a scenario in which four dams on the Lower Snake River are breached appears to be under consideration as the Biden administration looks to resolve a 22-year-long legal dispute over declining salmon populations.
A draft settlement document titled "U.S. government commitments in support of the Columbia Basin Restoration Initiative and in Partnership with the Six Sovereigns" was recently made public by four House members opposed to dam breaching.
Labeled "CONFIDENTIAL MEDIATION DOCUMENT — NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION” in large, red letters, the paper lays out a number of potential commitments federal agencies may pursue in a settlement, including a program that aims to support renewable energy deployment by four tribal nations. The departments of Energy and Agriculture, through the program, would provide “targeted technical assistance, planning and funding” to the tribes for clean energy projects to offset the power lost if Congress authorized a breach of the dams, according to the document.
The Energy, Transportation, Agriculture, and Interior departments, the Bureau of Reclamation and the Army Corps of Engineers also would analyze options for replacing transportation infrastructure, recreation opportunities, and access to water supplies threatened by a potential breach, according to the document.
These actions would be done in partnership with the states of Oregon and Washington, and the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon, and the Nez Perce Tribe.
It's unclear whether the proposals laid out in the document are still being considered by the parties.
Lawyers for those six parties and the government agencies involved in the litigation, as well as representatives of 12 environmental and fishing groups listed as plaintiffs, set Dec. 15 as the target date for an agreement, according to an Oct. 31 court filing. If a package of actions and commitments is approved by the parties involved, they said they intended to ask the court to enter into a “multi-year stay of the litigation” to allow for it to be implemented.
While the draft document — dated Nov. 2 — notes that the federal government has not decided whether it would support dam-breaching legislation, it does say agencies are “committed to exploring restoration of the Lower Snake River, including dam breach.”
“We agree that business as usual — and the consequential disappearance of salmon and other native fish populations in the Columbia River Basin — is unacceptable,” the document reads. “And while there is still time to save these fish, there is no time to waste.”
Four House lawmakers from the region — Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., Cliff Bentz, R-Ore., and Russ Fulcher, R-Idaho — attached the confidential document to a letter they sent to President Biden last week. The letter asked for further details on the draft agreement, which the lawmakers said was “susceptible to misinterpretation” due to “vague and imprecise language.”
“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,” the four lawmakers wrote.
Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash.Newhouse told Agri-Pulse Tuesday that the lawmakers' letter was meant to get more information about ideas presented in the document, including where the funding for some of the commitments will come from."I want to make sure that my constituents have some transparency here, they can see what they have to prepare for," Newhouse said. "I want to make sure their voices are included in the considerations.
The Pacific Northwest has long been engulfed in a debate over the future of the four Eastern Washington dams — Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose and Lower Granite.
Salmon runs in the Columbia and Snake River system have declined more than 90% over the last 100 years, according to estimates from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Oregon Department of Fish and Game. Federal agencies have spent $17 billion building hatcheries and equipping the dams with additional safety measures like fish ladders and diversion screens, but conditions still appear dire for two at-risk species: spring-summer chinook and sockeye salmon.
Tribes, environmental groups and fishermen who are worried about the fates of the two species, as well as steelhead and spring-summer chinook salmon, have spent years pushing for the dams to be breached. The idea has been fiercely opposed by farmers, shippers and utility companies concerned about losing a shipping route for approximately 10 percent of the nation’s wheat exports, a renewable energy source capable of generating 1,000 megawatts of power each year, and a water source capable of irrigating thousands of acres of farmland.
The draft document's language has sparked concern from some groups representing agricultural, shipping and energy interests in the region who say their voices have not been heard in settlement talks.
“There’s no mention of any interaction with any stakeholder or river user outside of the four lower Columbia tribes and the states of Washington and Oregon,” Dan Keppen, the executive director for the Family Farm Alliance, said of the leaked draft.
The executive directors of Northwest RiverPartners, the Public Power Council and the Pacific Northwest Waterways Association, in a joint statement, said their organizations have “repeatedly looked for ways to find common ground with the plaintiffs’ concerns during the mediation process,” but were not provided any details on negotiations or allowed to participate. The leaders of the three groups also said the federal commitments “fail to address the severe impacts of dam breaching on the region’s ports, farmers, river users, and barging operators.”
“We’re really disappointed in this process that led to these commitments,” Neil Maunu, the executive director of the Pacific Northwest Waterways Association, told Agri-Pulse.
Breaching the dams would take an act of Congress and the idea has divided lawmakers from the region. Ten Republican members of Congress staunchly oppose breaching, including the four that sent the letter.
Reps. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, and Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., on the other hand, have proposed a $44.5 billion plan to breach the four dams, compensate those in the region for their losses and put a 35-year moratorium on all current litigation.
"The only way you're going to save these fish is remove the dams on the lower Snake River," Simpson told Agri-Pulse Tuesday. "That's a controversial position, but it's a discussion that needs to happen and that's what's been going on."
Simpson said he does not know enough about the document to know "exactly what's real and what's not real." He has not been briefed by the administration on this issue, he said.
"I've got to believe that it's real," Simpson said of the document. "I know those that are opposed to dam removal believe it's real, because they're raising hell."
Simpson said the administration previously briefed one of his staffers on "broad outlines" of options they were looking at to address salmon declines.
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, issued their own set of recommendations last year following a 10-month-long study into solutions for salmon declines.
They concluded that breaching the dams is not a “feasible option in the near-term,” but did not rule it out as an eventual possibility. They did, however, encourage the federal and state governments involved to “move forward with a program to replace the benefits provided by the Lower Snake River Dams, consistent with the Pacific Northwest’s clean energy requirements and decarbonization future, so that breaching of the Lower Snake River Dams is a pathway that can be credibly considered by policymakers in the future.”
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