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Related links: Excel table of high priority projects

Contact: John Harrison, spokesman, 800-452-5161

March 7, 2001

Power planners OK high-priority projects to help ESA-listed fish species

PORTLAND, Oregon -- The Northwest Power Planning Council today approved 20 new projects totaling $19.3 million designed to immediately benefit threatened and endangered species of salmon and steelhead in the Columbia River Basin.

The projects would be funded by the Bonneville Power Administration, which works with the Council to mitigate the impact of hydropower dams on fish and wildlife.

“These projects respond to the urgent need to help ESA-listed fish, particularly in this drought year,” Council Chairman Larry Cassidy of Vancouver, Washington, said.

The projects include acquiring critical spawning and rearing habitat for salmon and steelhead, installing fish screens to protect bull trout and reducing stream pollution from livestock operations.

The Council sought proposals for high-priority projects last November. In that solicitation, the Council made clear that high-priority funding would not be provided for infrastructure or to build capacity -- at a fish hatchery, for example, as these are activities that would require separate follow-on funding in future years. On the other hand, the projects recommended today could continue in future years if they are reviewed and approved through the Council’s normal project-review process.

The Council also required that the high-priority projects must:

• Address imminent risks to the survival of one or more ESA-listed fish species, and 1) represent a time-limited opportunity or 2) be broadly recognized as projects that would achieve direct anadromous fish benefits.
• Be consistent with the Northwest Power Act, the law that created the Council in 1980, provide appropriate mitigation for the impacts of the Columbia River hydrosystem and not be in lieu of other expenditures or actions authorized or required by other entities.
• Have all required permits and agreements in place so that on-the-ground work can begin no later than September 30, 2001.

A total of 96 project proposals were submitted. Before making its decision, the Council submitted the projects for reviews by the Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Authority, which is an association of the region’s state, federal and tribal fish and wildlife agencies, the Independent Scientific Review Panel (ISRP) and the National Marine Fisheries Service.

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