The Hanford Reach: protecting the Columbia's last safe haven for salmon.

• Author: Whidden, Shauna Marie
• Position: Symposium on Northwest Water Law

1. INTRODUCTION

   If salmon are to survive in the Columbia River Watershed, we must face the

   challenges before us with our goals clearly in mind, in heart, and in spirit.

   We must begin to respect, to reestablish, and to restore the balances that

   once enabled this watershed to perform so magnificently, with power and with

   grace.(1)

   The Hanford Reach (Reach) is the last segment of the Columbia River above the Bonneville Dam that has not yet been dammed, dredged, or channeled. The Reach also supports the last healthy native population of Pacific fall chinook salmon in the Columbia River Basin. Historically, the lower length of the Columbia mainstem contained prime spawning and rearing habitat for fall chinook salmon. Due to a variety of factors, including habitat loss and migration difficulties associated with hydroelectric power projects, the Reach is the only remaining portion of the Columbia that consistently supports an abundance of naturally spawning(2) fall chinook salmon.

   The Reach consists of a 51-mile stretch of the Columbia River and an adJacent 90,000-acre parcel of land called the Wahluke Slope, located on the north side of the river in a remote section of southern Washington State.(3) The river segment and the Wahluke Slope together form an ecosystem whose biodiversity was once representative of the entire river.(4) The federal government owns the Reach as part of the 353,000-acre Hanford Nuclear Reservation (Reservation) administered by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).(5)

   The federal government established the Reservation in 1943 to produce nuclear weapons materials.(6) Most of the Reservation's facilities were built along the south shore of the Columbia River. The Reach was used as a buffer zone to protect the Reservation's high security operations from outside infiltration, and to protect the public from exposure to highly dangerous substances associated with nuclear weapons production.(7) Development and habitation in the Reach was prohibited, and plant and animal communities flourished. Today, the aquatic and terrestrial environments of the Reach continue to support a diversity of life that is rare in the remainder of the Columbia River Basin.

   With the end of the Cold War, the federal government changed its mission at the Hanford Reservation from production of nuclear weapons materials to environmental cleanup and restoration.(8) Because the land is no longer needed for security or safety reasons, DOE must prepare the land for disposal under federal land-disposition procedures established by the General Services Administration (GSA).(9) Under these procedures, property may be allotted to another federal agency (such as the Bureau of Land Management) for specific public service purposes that include but are not limited to wildlife conservation.(10) Those lands that are not transferred to another federal agency will be made available for sale to state and local governments and then to the general public.(11) Various parties with various goals could acquire portions of the Wahluke Slope, and conservation may not be a priority for all of these parties. The impact of different land use practices could be devastating on both plant and wildlife communities that require a single protected area. Wildlife depends upon a high-quality environment and has flourished under DOE's protection. The future of roughly 100,000 acres contained within the Reach and the Wahluke Slope, along with the wildlife living in these areas, is uncertain.(12)

   In 1988, Congress passed the Hanford Reach Study Act.(13) This legislation placed an eight-year moratorium on all water development projects within the river corridor and called for a detailed study of policy options for protecting the Reach's resources.(14) The National Park Service (NPS) conducted this study and released a final version to the public in June 1994.(15) The study recommended that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) retain ownership of the Reach,(16) with the fifty-one mile section of river included in the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System (managed under the National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act),(17) and the Wahluke Slope included in the National Wildlife Refuge System (managed under the National Wildlife Refuge Act).(18)

   Reach salmon provide a critical link in regional, national, and international efforts to understand, protect, and restore Pacific Northwest salmon fisheries. Part II explains how the Reach has become vital to the survival of Columbia River fall chinook salmon and why, with the change in mission at the Hanford Reservation, protection of this valuable species will be critical. Part III illustrates why current mechanisms in place to monitor and manage Reach salmon at different stages of their life cycles are inadequate to assure long-term protection of the species. Part IV discusses current land use practices in the Reach and adjacent areas and explores local opposition to protecting the Reach. Part IV also argues that Reach salmon must come under the protection of a single federal agency with the responsibility of protecting both the salmon and their habitat from degradation and deleterious human activities. Part V examines current laws and agreements that provide some protection to the habitat of the Reach. Part VI examines the various alternatives for protecting the Reach and supports NPS's finding that the most effective protection for Reach salmon would come from allowing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to manage the area under the National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act and the National Wildlife Refuge Act. Part VII concludes that the best interests of natural resources in the Reach, including fall chinook salmon, should decide who should own and manage the Reach.

2. BACKGROUND OF THE HANFORD REACH

   1. The Decline of Columbia River Basin Salmon

      Salmon historically traveled throughout most of the Columbia River Basin, which includes the Columbia River, the Snake River, the Willamette River, and other tributaries. The Basin drains more than 260,000 square miles of land.(19) Today the Columbia is one of North America's top ten most endangered river systems,(20) and over one-quarter of the river's native salmon runs are extirpated.(21)

      Over roughly the past fifty years, the construction of eleven large dams has significantly modified the mainstem of the Columbia.(22) Dams produce power, facilitate irrigation, control flooding, and aid shipping and navigation.(23) There are four dams in the 341 miles between the Pacific Ocean and the lower end of the Reach, where the McNary Dam is located. The fifth, the Priest Rapids Dam, is located at the upper end of the Reach. The remaining six dams span the upper stretches of the Columbia, culminating with the Grand Coulee dam in north-central Washington.

      In the short period of time since the development of hydroelectricity, the 1,214-mile-long Columbia River has been transformed from a mighty river into a series of pools and reservoirs between dams. Miles of critical salmon spawning habitat have been inundated or blocked. From pre-dam population levels in the tens of millions, salmon runs have declined to under 500,000 in 1994, an historic low.(24) The naturally spawning (as opposed to hatchery-reared) population is a mere fraction of that figure.(25) In short, in the past half century, the Columbia has been transformed from the world's greatest salmon producing river into the world's largest hydroelectric system.(26)

   2. The Hanford Reach: A Home to Displaced Salmon

      Unlike summer chinook that spawn further inland on large rivers, or spring chinook that spawn in tributaries and head-waters, fall chinook spawn in the deep, swift waters of the mainstem and lower tributaries of the Columbia.(27) Changes in spawning habitat caused by mainstem dams may have forced many fall chinook that spawned elsewhere in the Basin to move to the Reach, the only segment of the Columbia that still contains high-quality spawning habitat.(28)

      The Atomic Energy Commission (predecessor to the Department of Energy) first began counting Hanford Reach fall chinook reads (salmon egg nests) in 1948.(29) Ten main spawning areas were identified on the 51-mile stretch of the river, and the total read count for 1948 was 787.(30) By 1968, construction of the four lower dams (Bonneville, The Dalles, John Day, and McNary) and the Priest Rapids Dam Just above the Reach) was complete.(31) These dams inundated large segments of the fall chinook's native spawning habitat.(32) The total read count for the Reach rose to 3649.(33) By 1987, more than ten years after construction was complete on all eleven mainstem Columbia and Snake River dams,(34) the total read count in the Reach reached a high of 8630.(35) In 1993, the total read count for the Reach declined dramatically to just under 3000(36). In 1994, however, the read count almost doubled.(37) One possible explanation for the higher

      1994 count is that commercial harvest on the Columbia was severely limited, possibly resulting in more salmon making it to the Reach to spawn.(38)

      While the remainder of the Basin has been unable to sustain significant production levels of salmon due to vast modifications of the aquatic environment, salmon spawning activity in the Reach has actually increased. Over eighty percent of adult fall chinook that pass the McNary Dam are heading to the Reach to spawn.(39) The Reach has become the last safe haven in the mainstem of the Columbia for adult salmon to spawn and young salmon to grow.

   3. The Hanford Reach Habitat

      The Columbia flows through the Reach over a bed of gravel, boulders, and rock shelves, and around eighteen islands. The aquatic environment provides optimal habitat for fall chinook and over forty other species of aquatic life.(40)

      The adjacent lands are home to a diverse array of birds, mammals, and plants, forty-eight of which are on state or federal lists as endangered, threatened, or sensitive.(41) The Nature Conservancy, under...