BPA Proposal Means New Problems for Salmon

Plan to cut summer spill over dams could kill 140,000 fish

March 30, 2004, PORTLAND, Ore. - The Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission today denounced the Bonneville Power Administration's proposal to cut salmon-protective measures at Ice Harbor, John Day, The Dalles and Bonneville dams.

"The bottom line is that BPA's plan sets the stage to sell out Northwest fisheries and salmonrestoration efforts," said CRITFC chairman Harold Blackwolf Sr., a member ofthe Confederated Tribes of the Warms Springs Reservation of Oregon. "The region is only beginning to realize benefits from decades of hard work and sacrifice for robust returns, but this get-rich-quick proposal might return us to the dark ages."

BPA's plan includes reducing or eliminating summer water-spill programs that help juvenile salmon navigate through federal dams en route to sea. CRITFC scientists estimate that spill curtailment could kill as many as 140,000 fish.

"This plan reneges on tribal treaty rights and BPA's obligation to treat fish and electric power j as equals," said CRITFC executive director Olney Patt Jr. "It chops away at salmon-restoration progress so critical to our tribes' cultures and economies and to the entire Pacific Northwest."