For Immediate Release: Tuesday, December 17, 2024
Contacts:
Mitch Cutter, Salmon & Energy Strategist, (541) 280-8474
Abby Urbanek, Communications & Marketing Manager, (208) 345-6933 x 214
Federal Agencies to Revisit Flawed Environmental Analysis to Support Salmon and Steelhead Restoration
BOISE, ID – Today the United States Army Corps of Engineers and Bureau of Reclamation announced their intention to prepare a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement on the operations of federal dams on the Columbia and Snake Rivers. Agencies will revisit the original flawed analysis and revise conclusions about how these dams impact Snake and Columbia River salmon and steelhead.
“This announcement is a pivotal step toward doing what’s necessary to save Snake River salmon, steelhead, and other native fish from extinction,” said ICL Salmon & Energy Strategist Mitch Cutter. “Now federal agencies must address flaws from the original study and chart a new course that includes breach of the four lower Snake River dams.”
Last year, the U.S. Government committed to revisit a 2020 environmental study that did not include dam breach, and to consider whether changes were warranted. The 2020 study and operational plan for the dams was challenged in court by conservation and sportfishing groups (including ICL), the state of Oregon, and the Nez Perce Tribe. That litigation is currently stayed while the parties work collaboratively on an updated fish restoration plan. The notice issued today is an important step in that direction.
Today’s announcement fulfills that promise and initiates a new process to determine what changes will be made. Recent information and updates on the state of salmon, including the 2022 paper Rebuilding Interior Columbia Basin Salmon and Steelhead and the 2024 Tribal Circumstances Analysis will be considered. These studies both showed the significant impacts dams have had on native fish in the Columbia and Snake River basins, and the urgent need to breach dams on the lower Snake River.
“Federal agencies have been wrong over and over about the impact of dams on salmon,” continued Cutter. “This supplemental environmental study is a chance for them to do right by Tribes, river communities, and anyone else who depends on the wealth of Northwest rivers for their lives and livelihoods.”
The Army Corps and Bureau of Reclamation will now accept comments from the public on the scope of potential changes to their original study, which will be accepted through March 20, 2025.
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