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Federal Columbia River Power System Biological Opinion
More so than almost any other river in the world, the Columbia River is a significantly managed system. Twenty-seven mainstem Columbia River dams and more than 60 smaller hydropower projects constitute one of the worlds largest hydroelectric power systems.
When numerous Columbia River fish species were listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act, Section 7 of the law required the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to prepare a biological opinion on whether the operation of the Federal Columbia River Power System (FCRPS), the system of hydropower and flood control dams that control the river, was jeopardizing the continued existence of listed Snake River salmon. Essentially the BiOp was to determine what affect the hydropower system had on the listing of threatened and endangered species.
NMFS submitted its Final 2000 Federal Columbia River Power System biological opinion to the Action Agencies in December 2000. The BiOp concluded that impacts of the hydropower system jeopardized the continued existence of listed Snake River salmon. The 2000 Biological Opinion incorporated 199 actions aimed at protecting or improving the survival of listed salmon and steelhead stocks. The actions span a wide range of activities including early action offsite mitigation proposals and research efforts aimed at gaining future improvements.
A number of reasonable and prudent actions included in the 2000 BiOp acknowledged the importance of the lower Columbia River and estuary to the survival of these species and called for specific restoration and monitoring actions to protect and restore this highly important stretch of the river. The BiOp called for the Action Agencies to work with the Estuary Partnership to address the habitat needs of salmon in the estuary, develop and implement an estuary restoration program with a goal of protecting and enhancing 10,000 acres of habitat, and to fund a monitoring and research program.
Species actions related to the lower river include:
- Action 158: During 2001, the Corps and BPA shall seek funding and develop an action plan to rapidly inventory estuarine habitat, model physical and biological features of the historical lower river and estuary, identify limiting biological and physical factors in the estuary, identify impacts of the FCRPS system on habitat and listed salmon in the estuary relative to other factors, and develop criteria for estuarine habitat restoration.
- Action 159: BPA and the Corps, working with the Estuary Partnership and NMFS, shall develop a plan addressing the habitat needs of salmon and steelhead in the estuary.
- Action 160: The Corps and BPA, working with the Estuary Partnership, shall develop and implement an estuary restoration program with a goal of protecting and enhancing 10,000 acres of tidal wetlands and other key habitats over 10 years, beginning in 2001, to rebuild productivity for listed populations in the lower 46 river miles of the Columbia River. The Corps shall seek funds for the Federal share of the program, and BPA shall provide funding for the non-Federal share. The Action Agencies shall provide planning and engineering expertise to implement the non-Federal share of on-the-ground habitat improvement efforts identified in LCREP, Action 2.
- Action 161: Between 2001 and 2010, the Corps and BPA shall fund a monitoring and research program acceptable to NMFS and closely coordinated with the Estuary Partnership monitoring and research efforts (Management Plan Action 28) to address the estuary objectives of this biological opinion.
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Action 162: During 2000, BPA, working with NMFS, shall continue to develop a conceptual model of the relationship between estuarine conditions and salmon population structure and resilience. The model will highlight the relationship among hydropower, water management, estuarine conditions, and fish response. The work will enable the agencies to identify information gaps that have to be addressed to develop recommendations for FCRPS management and operations.
The Estuary Partnership, through its estuary habitat restoration and habitat and water quality monitoring programs, has been working with the Action Agencies to implement Action 160 and 161. Action 159 has been completed and provides a comprehensive history of habitat change in the lower river and estuary.
A number of organizations challenged the 2000 BiOp in court saying that the BiOp did not do enough to protect and recover endangered salmon. In June 2003, US District Court Judge Redden invalidated the 2000 Federal Columbia River Power System (FCRPS) Biological Opinion, finding that NOAA Fisheries had improperly relied on actions to be taken by entities other than the FCRPS Action Agencies that had not undergone ESA consultation or were not “reasonably certain to occur.” The Judge ordered NOAA Fisheries to revise the document, and release a final document by November 30th of that year. A draft was released to the public on September 7, 2003 to allow time for states, tribes and other regional “stakeholders” to comment and provide input on the draft before it was submitted to the court in final form.
The Estuary Partnership submitted a comment letter. The following summation was included in the Partnership’s conclusion to the letter.
“(t)he Estuary Partnership recommends a broad ecosystem approach to salmon recovery that includes the estuary and lower river in its considerations of threatened and endangered species. This approach acknowledges and includes the role of the estuary in the life cycle of these and other species. The Draft Biological Opinion is performance standard based, as such, there are no clearly articulated Reasonable and Prudent Alternatives or restoration goals. Without these, it is difficult to carefully assess whether the actions proposed under the Updated Proposed Action will lead to species recovery which is a fundamental part of the Estuary Partnership mission. We recommend that consideration for toxic contaminants and monitoring be included in the BiOp as part of an ecosystem approach. Finally, we submit that the many of the lower river and estuary related RPAs provided in the December 2000 BiOp are in fact “likely to occur” given the current level of restoration activity underway by the Estuary Partnership and its collaboration. A shift away from recovery and habitat restoration that de-emphasizes restoration activity in the lower river and estuary could jeopardize seriously the momentum of and undermine the progress and investments made by many parties toward habitat restoration and species recovery.”
In November 2004, NMFS released its revised Biological Opinion on operations of the Federal Columbia River Power System. This BiOp included an Updated Proposed Action which describes how the action agencies will run the FCRPS. The 2004 BiOp came to a very different conclusion than the 2000 BiOp, determining that the 12 listed species of salmon and steelhead in the Columbia River basin would not be jeopardized with extinction because of the operation of the federal hydropower system. The 2004 BiOp acknowledged that the proposed operations do cause a reduction in survival of migrating juvenile salmonids, but proposed measures to mitigate those effects over the 10-year life of the plan. The 2004 BiOp included no actions – another departure from the 2000 BiOp which included over 190 “Reasonable and Prudent Alternatives (actions).
The Updated Proposed Action is essentially focused on three areas: structural changes to dams, predator control (both Caspian terns and Northern pike minnow – both major consumers of juvenile salmon) and hatchery improvements. This also was a significant departure from the 2000 BiOp which considered the ecosystem as a whole.
In response to the 2004 BiOp, several parties went back before the court to argue that the new BiOP went beyond the court’s request in 2003 when it remanded the BiOp back to NMFS to better deal with the “reasonable certainty to occur” of the Reasonable and Prudent Alternatives in the 2000 BiOp.
In June 2005, the Court issued an opinion against the revised 2004 BiOp, called for additional summer spill at a number Columbia River dams, and sent the BiOp back to NFMS once again. A challenge by federal agencies to the spill decision was denied.
While the legal maneuverings continue, the 2004 BiOp remains in place.
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