By Bill Arthur, Snake/Columbia River Salmon Campaign Chair
On February 28th, the long-awaited Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) on Snake/Columbia River salmon recovery was released. The court ordered a new Environmental Impact Statement in 2016 to evaluate stronger measures for salmon recovery, including potentially removing the four lower Snake River dams. Unfortunately, the federal agencies only provided a 45 day comment period for this 8,000 page document despite requests for additional time from the Tribes, Governors of Washington and Oregon, majority of congressional delegations, and numerous groups including the Sierra Club.
Sadly, but not surprisingly, the federal agencies have once again failed to select a proposal that will recover our salmon and steelhead. This DEIS serves as stark reminder that the federal agencies, if left to their own accord, will only continue to imperil our fish, orca, and communities. Their decisions perpetuate the cycle of failure and litigation that we have been trapped in for too long.
Chairman Shannon Wheeler of the Nez Perce Tribe may have said it best in his cover letter submitting the Tribe’s comments on the DEIS, “[t]he Nez Perce Tribe is now almost stunned in disappointment with the CRSO DEIS. At nearly every stage of the NEPA process, opportunities to develop, evaluate, and choose a path of restoration for salmon, steelhead, and lamprey and their ecosystems, were missed, ignored, undermined, or rejected.”
As Chairman Wheeler goes on to note, “restoring the Snake River is urgent and overdue”.
Both Washington and Oregon state found the DEIS inadequate and the preferred alternative insufficient as a long-term recovery solution. The state suggested the current flex spill agreement could provide short-term relief while our region comes together to identify a stronger, long-term plan. But what we need now are bold, comprehensive solutions, not simply maintaining the status quo.
Instead, Sierra Club believes that any comprehensive solution should include Governor Inslee’s key set of principles for a new salmon plan:
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Protecting and restoring abundant, harvestable salmon and steelhead and other native fish species, including contributing to a reliable source of prey for southern resident orcas;
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Honoring tribal rights, including a future for salmon that supports tribes’ cultural, spiritual, and economic needs;
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Providing for a clean, affordable, and reliable energy system that meets our clean energy and climate goals;
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Ensuring affordable and reliable transportation alternatives for wheat farmers in the Palouse and Tri-Cities areas; and
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Ensuring reliable irrigation supplies for eastern Washington farms.
These are principles we agree with and believe should guide the region in forging a comprehensive solution that works for fish, orca, communities and our energy system. A number of the region’s utilities and conservation groups have embraced very similar guiding principles and have called on the four Northwest Governor’s and congressional delegation to help advance this kind of state, tribal, stakeholder dialogue to create a durable solution.
The current EIS process described above will not save our iconic Northwest species from extinction. Without bold, comprehensive solutions our salmon and orca will run out of time. The region’s public utilities, BPA, and local communities are all at increased risk and uncertainty from continued failure to have a recovery plan that works for everyone. It's time to chart a new course.
Please write to or call Governor Inslee and thank him for the state’s thoughtful comments and encourage his stated support for helping to advance this ‘solutions dialogue’ that is so urgently needed. If you have the capacity, please call on your member of congress and our U. S. Senators to do so as well.
Governor Jay Inslee
Office of the Governor
PO Box 40002
Olympia, WA 98504-0002
Ph: 360-902-4111
https://www.governor.wa.gov/contact/contact/contacting-governors-office