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Judge orders changes to Columbia and Snake river dam operations to help ‘disappearing’ salmon
The judge's order maintains most 2025 dam operations while slightly increasing spill to aid salmon migration amid ongoing decades-long legal efforts.
- On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon in Portland ordered narrow changes to operations of eight Columbia and Snake River dams to help salmon, keeping most 2025 spill and reservoir levels while allowing modest increases and calling the order narrowly tailored.
- Revived last fall, the litigation followed the Trump administration last year abandoning the 2023 Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement, with the state of Oregon, National Wildlife Federation, Washington state, Nez Perce Tribe and Yakama Nation involved.
- Dams force juvenile salmon through turbines and slow migration, as fish now face weeks-long journeys across 325 miles and eight dams through warm reservoirs and turbines.
- Tribes say the changes address threats to salmon as a `First Food`, aiming to prevent extinction that endangers cultural lifeways, while Southern resident orcas and fisheries depend on Chinook; Lewiston, Idaho farmers and utility customers may face commerce and rate impacts.
- NOAA scientists found in 2022 that dam removal must be part of solutions as nearly all remaining salmon populations stay below minimum thresholds with a poor prognosis, and four extinct stocks remain.
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Judge orders changes to Pacific Northwest dam operations to help salmon
A federal judge this week granted a partial win to conservation groups after the Trump administration pulled out of a salmon restoration agreement last year. Obama-appointed Judge Michael J. Simon issued a preliminary injunction ordering the federal government to take certain actions requested by the groups but did not grant them all of the changes…
·Washington, United States
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Judge orders changes to Columbia and Snake river dam operations to help salmon
A federal judge in Oregon late Wednesday ordered narrow changes to hydropower dam operations on the Columbia and Snake rivers in the Pacific Northwest in order to help salmon, saying that the Trump administration’s plans for the massive structures would harm salmon runs that are “disappearing from the landscape.”
·Portland, United States
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Coverage Details
Total News Sources39
Leaning Left12Leaning Right3Center20Last UpdatedBias Distribution57% Center
Bias Distribution
- 57% of the sources are Center
57% Center
L 34%
C 57%
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