April 10, 2003

PORTLAND — Culminating a nearly two-year public process, the Council Wednesday amended its Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program with a description of river conditions and tests of dam operations intended to protect all fish and wildlife that utilize mainstem rivers as habitat. [See final amendments report.]

The Council based its program amendments on river conditions and dam operations in the 2000 Biological Opinions issued by NOAA Fisheries and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on behalf of threatened and endangered fish species. The Council's fish and wildlife program and the biological opinions are implemented by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Bureau of Reclamation and the Bonneville Power Administration, the federal agencies that operate and sell power from the system of federal dams in the Columbia basin.

"These amendments support the goal of our fish and wildlife program to benefit all fish and wildlife in the basin while keeping in mind the energy needs of the region," said Council Chair Judi Danielson, an Idaho member. "The conditions we describe can be achieved through dam operations and will benefit salmon and steelhead in the lower Columbia River as well as fish in the rivers and storage reservoirs of the upper basin in Washington, Idaho and Montana."

Danielson said the river conditions and tests described in the amendments are consistent with recommendations in the biological opinions, the Council's fish and wildlife program and state water laws.

The amendments describe tests and experiments of alternative river operations to better understand the benefits of various dam-operating strategies on fish and wildlife, including Endangered Species Act-listed and non-listed species. Some of these tests and experiments may require temporary departures from current dam operations while remaining consistent with the Biological Opinions.

Some of the tests and experiments would occur in the summer and fall. The NOAA Fisheries 2000 Biological Opinion mandates water releases from storage reservoirs in Montana — behind Hungry Horse and Libby dams — in July and August to boost flows in the lower Columbia River to help ESA-listed juvenile salmon and steelhead migrate to the ocean. The Council suggests an experiment to release a slightly smaller volume of water over a longer period of time — July through September — on the grounds that a longer, steadier release affords greater protection to upriver fish and wildlife in the rivers and reservoirs than the rapid flow fluctuations under the Biological Opinion, and would continue to benefit salmon and steelhead downstream. The Biological Opinion has enough flexibility to allow this experiment.

In addition, the amended fish and wildlife program describes dam-operation tests and experiments to:

• Determine the relationship between fish survival and various levels of water spills at dams.
• Assess new spill technologies such as removable spillway weirs.
• Determine optimum fish survival through turbines at dams.
• Evaluate the fish-survival benefits of augmenting flows.
• Measure the biological effects of steady outflows from Libby and Hungry Horse reservoirs in Montana.
• Identify the effects of shifting summer flows to later in the summer.
• Assess impacts of predation and harvest on ESA-listed species in the mainstem rivers.
• Address other scientific uncertainties.

Responding to public comments, the Council decided not to recommend a change in spring operations of the dams. Fish and wildlife agencies and Indian tribes, among others, supported maintaining the spring operations called for in the biological opinions.

Today's decision completes a public process that began in 2001 when the Council called for recommendations to amend the mainstem habitat section of the fish and wildlife program. The Council received numerous recommendations and made them available for public comment. Last October, the Council issued draft amendments based largely on the recommendations. After a public comment period on the draft, the Council made revisions and voted final approval of the amendments. The Council will prepare a formal response to all of the public comments that were received and incorporate the response as part of the program amendments.

The response to comments will be posted here when available.

The Council is an agency of the states of Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington and is directed by the Northwest Power Act of 1980 to prepare a program to protect, mitigate and enhance fish and wildlife of the Columbia River Basin affected by hydropower dams while also assuring the region an adequate, efficient, economical and reliable power supply.