Letter regarding mainstem amendments schedule
February 24, 2004
[see addressees below]
Gentlemen,
We are writing to express our concern about the decision schedule for
implementing the Council's Mainstem Amendments to the Columbia River
Fish and Wildlife Program. While we have supported and participated in
early examination of an evaluation of summer spill operations with
offsetting mitigation measures, the schedule for reaching a decision
continues to slip. Now a regional meeting to address this issue has been
pushed back to late March. This decision schedule slippage into late March
will have at least two adverse effects: first, the lead time to
implement offsetting measures will be shortened, making it more difficult
to implement these actions this summer; and second, the continued focus on
the summer spill operations is precluding federal staff analysis of other
operations in the Council's Program including summer operations for
Libby and Hungry Horse dams. We continue to believe that the Biological
Opinions provide enough latitude to implement these evaluations.
We are concerned that the federal executives' decision to delay
making a determination until the end of March on implementing the
experiment for summer spill will leave little schedule flexibility. Thus,
if the regional meeting is put off until late March, we would like your
assurance that there will be sufficient time to implement appropriate
monitoring and adequate offsets necessary to conduct the summer spill
experiment. We also seek your assurance that you will complete the
analysis required to make a decision on the Libby and Hungry Horse
operations by the end of March. Thank you for your attention to these
issues.
Sincerely,
Judi Danielson, Chair
Addressed to:
General William Grisoli
Division Commander
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Northwestern Division
P.O. Box 2870
Portland, OR 97208
Mr. Dave Allen
Regional Director
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
911 N.E. 11th Avenue
Portland, Or 97232
Mr. Stephen Wright
Administrator & CEO
Bonneville Power Administration
P.O. Box 3621
Portland, OR 97208
Mr. J. William McDonald
Regional Director
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
1150 N. Curtis Road, Suite 100
Boise, ID 83706
Mr. D. Robert Lohn
Regional Administrator
NOAA Fisheries
Northwest Region
7600 Sand Point Way NE
Seattle, WA 98115 |
