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VI. Seismic Events in Salmon and Hydropower Policy
Many of the activities of the 1980s rested on a certain set of assumptions about the relationships of rivers, salmon, and human activities. In the 1990s, three developments called these... |
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which is probably as many denials as were issued in the last 100 years.' It would be an oversimplification to say that the Endangered Species Act caused all of these denials, or all the salmon-related developments of 1991-1994. Others did much -of...
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biologists, microorganisms may be more significant than animals, and the overall structure and complexity of an ecological system are more important than individual species.' Salmon protection can tend to emphasize what Aldo Leopold called "show...
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water conservation and other measures that could leave an additional million acre-feet in the Snake River for salmon. The biological opinion offers limited Snake River measures and instead relies more heavily on barge transportation and infusions...
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The fact that the Act takes little account of economic considerations9 reflects problems of a different kind. Species are in trouble because of the habitat impacts of economic development. If the Endangered Species Act were well funded (which it...
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There is a rationale for a relatively closed process: the consultation process is supposed to last for only 90 days and broad participation could make this impossible, particularly if involving outside parties requires compliance with the Federal...
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hydropower system operations and recovery plan implementation.' But, in 1997 after the federal court upheld the Fisheries Service biological opinion on hydropower operations based in part on the Service's implementation process, the process began...
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and wildlife agencies and Indian tribes, into the recovery effort. And because the governors' influence is maximized by Council unanimity, the Act has built-in incentives to find broader political consensus. The Northwest Act can soften the...
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and wildlife agencies and Indian tribes, into the recovery effort. And because the governors' influence is maximized by Council unanimity, the Act has built-in incentives to find broader political consensus. The Northwest Act can soften the...
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Society in the Pacific Northwest." Indeed, some of Return to the River's recommendations closely resemble not just those of the National Research Council study, but also the National Marine Fisheries Service's proposed recovery plan; the treaty...
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choice, Return to the River maintains, is between a more complex working river with healthy salmon populations and a simpler river without them.
Return to the River urges that salmon recovery be premised on the restoration of a working...
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focus our efforts, and how far we need to move toward specific norms. Deciding whether to focus effort in this geographic spot, with these techniques, in this community, will depend not just on a conception of a normative river, but on a complex...
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C. A Brave New Energy World
Many of the most difficult questions that face the Basin have to do with the hydropower system. Decisions over river operations and reservoir drawdowns are coming. Science notwithstanding, these decisions involve big...
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concessions, often established by statute, such as the public power preference, preferential rates for irrigation pumping, and the "residential exchange" for customers of investor-owned utilities24 and sometimes established for business or other...
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and Steelhead Conservation and Enhancement Act were never funded.31 Other beneficiaries of the dams such as irrigators, navigation interests and flood control beneficiaries pay little if any of the cost of fish and wildlife mitigation. But with...
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measure, and potential competitors had to face the reality that building power plants was a risky, expensive undertaking. In recent years, natural gas prices have fallen through the floor, and advances in generating technology have removed-much of...
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features.36 The U. S. Treasury and the Office of Management and Budget, jealous guardians of the contingency fund, played significant roles in the agreement's development. Not incidentally, the Agreement commits the federal agencies to collaborate...
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VII. New Footings for Water Policy on
the Columbia River
If the next generation of water policy requires a river system that is consistent with the ecological needs of salmon, the new realities of the power industry, and the constraints of... |
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These three points tend to bound the discussion of ecosystem management for the Columbia Basin: ecosystem recovery measures could demand a great deal from the current system, yet economic and legal factors impose limits on the system's...
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These three points tend to bound the discussion of ecosystem management for the Columbia Basin: ecosystem recovery measures could demand a great deal from the current system, yet economic and legal factors impose limits on the system's...
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individual initiatives, and how do we link them analytically with a large collection of other measures to determine whether they add up, or even if we have a solvable problem?
These are complex scientific questions. They have to do with how...
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Yet, if policy makers lack patience for science, they run other risks. The complexity of marine ecosystems has repeatedly led humans into error, in which the wrong factors were identified as problems and purported solutions only compounded- error...
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The Columbia River has a similar history. Hatcheries and other technologies were offered as the antidote to dams. When Grand Coulee blocked salmon from the Columbia's upper reaches, upper basin fish stocks were transplanted to hatcheries below the...
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A River in Common: The Columbia River, the Salmon Ecosystem, and Water Policy
2. Adaptive Management in the Columbia River
More than one hundred years after the Northwest began these mitigation experiments, one of life's bracing experiences is...
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could be addressed, errors corrected, and successes identified.13 In this fashion, the Council could work with fish and wildlife managers to acknowledge their uncertainties, frame their judgments as hypotheses, and test them.' In effect, salmon...
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