1995 river operations under the Endangered Species Act: continuing the salmon slaughter.

• Author: Charles, Ray
• Position: The Second Annual 'Who Runs the River?' Colloquium

Idaho Rivers United's goal for Columbia Basin salmon and steelhead is the restoration of healthy, self-sustaining, harvestable populations of these fish in Idaho. This is consistent with the overwhelming public opinion in the Northwest, with promises our federal government made to Indian tribes dating back to 1855,(1) and with promises made in federal law since then.(2) Before I address the question of "Who runs the river?," we should look at how the river was run this year. I want to address the question of whether we provided river conditions in 1995 that will lead to restoring healthy, self-sustaining, harvestable populations of salmon.

There are many uncertainties in managing the river, and we must look at the big picture - the total ecosystem approach. However, we do know that the critical limiting factor in the survival of Snake River salmon and steelhead is the operation of the federal hydropower system. There is no doubt whatsoever about it. There is also no doubt about what the salmon need. They need safe passage over eight federal hydropower dams, and they need river conditions that approximate the conditions under which the fish evolved.

Studying the 1995 migration season is important for several reasons. First, 1995 was the last year that we knew with any certainty that we would have large numbers of juvenile fish migrating downstream. Second, 1995 saw 14,000 endangered sockeye salmon smolts ready to migrate, the product of a captive rearing program in Redfish Lake.(3) Third, 1995 was the first year that a revised NMFS biological opinion(4) (revised to remedy the 1993 biological opinion(5) ruled inadequate by Judge Malcolm Marsh),(6) was in effect. Fourth, in 1995 we had the best available water supply in the upper Snake River Basin since 1987, we had nearly normal snowpack, nearly normal precipitation, and in our reservoirs extending back to Jack@ son Hole, Wyoming, we were holding about nine million acre-feet of water. Finally, 1995 was important because implementation of NMFS's biological opinion was supposedly a trial nm of NMFS's recovery plan for Snake River salmon.

The major elements of the 1995 NMFS biological opinion are as follows: 1) attainment of river flow targets;(7) 2) improvement of juvenile salmon travel time down the river;(8) 3) spill at eight federal dams to achieve eighty percent fish passage efficiency, meaning that eighty percent of the fish passing each dam will escape the turbines at that dams;(9) 4) a policy of "spread the risk," meaning that some fish would migrate in-river under improved river conditions, and the remainder put in barges and trucks for transport downriver;(10) and 5) oversight by a Technical Management Team, made up of the managers of the hydropower agencies, plus NMFS and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, making weekly decisions to optimize migration conditions for salmon.(11)

In 1995, over twenty million juvenile fish arrived at Lower Granite Dam.(12) Almost eight and one-half million of those fish were spring/summer chinook salmon and over twelve million of them were steelhead. The remainder were a relative handful of fall chinook and sockeye salmon. Despite a slow runoff, smolt arrivals at Lower Granite Dam began earlier than predicted. The arrivals peaked during the week beginning April 30. However, for the first twenty-five days of the migration season, from April 10 through May 5, the target...