Tribes seal $900 million deal
Yakama, Colville, Umatilla and Warm Springs tribes agree to back federal dam-operation plans for 10 years
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
SCOTT LEARN and MICHAEL MILSTEIN
The Oregonian Staff
For decades, as Columbia and Snake river dams helped push salmon, sturgeon and lamprey numbers down, Northwest tribes battled the federal government over its treatment of what the tribes see as sacred species.
That dynamic changed Monday, when four tribes and the government announced a history-making deal:
The tribes will agree for 10 years to support the government's controversial plans for operating its dams and bow out of a long-running lawsuit that has faulted dam operations. And they pledge not to advocate breaching dams or listing Pacific lamprey as endangered
In exchange, the government -- mostly courtesy of the Bonneville Power Administration's electric customers -- will pay $900 million in the next decade for habitat and hatchery improvements spelled out by the tribes.
"We are now putting aside the hostilities and putting trust in one another," said Fidelia Andy of the Yakama Nation, chairwoman of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission. "We are eager to leave behind the gridlock."
"It's moving our energy from courtrooms to streambeds," added John Ogan, attorney for the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs.
Environmental groups and Oregon officials said the deal fails to help endangered fish past the dams that kill them or address removal of Snake River dams. That risks throwing more dollars at a problem that has swallowed billions without restoring endangered fish, they said.
"I firmly believe this agreement doesn't go far enough and isn't aggressive enough to restore our salmon runs," Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski said Monday. Before the deal, the state had been allied with the tribes in demanding more help for fish.
Federal strategy
As recently as January, the tribes had complained that the latest federal strategy for offsetting the damage from dams is "a step backwards" for fish. They criticized that strategy for cutting back water releases to help fish and sending them downriver on barges instead.
"This agreement doesn't change the law, and it doesn't change the science," said Todd True, an attorney with Earthjustice who is working for some of the environmental groups suing the government.
U.S. District Court Judge James Redden still has to rule on the federal government's strategy, with the parties due back in his courtroom in early May. Environmental groups and the state of Oregon will continue to argue that the plan, even with the additions negotiated by the tribes, isn't adequate for fish survival.
But Steve Wright, Bonneville Power's administrator, said he thinks Redden will be impressed that the tribes and the government have followed the judge's instructions to collaborate on a plan. The tribal agreements, out for public comment until April 23, better cement funding for fish projects, Wright said, something Redden wanted to see.
The agreement "increases the probability of success," Wright said. "I think it's a rather dramatic turn, actually, to have (the tribes) move over to our table in the courtroom."
The tribal backing also helps give the government moral high ground -- "nobody has more passion for the fish and more at stake than the tribes," Wright emphasized Monday -- and some rhetorical ammunition against salmon advocacy groups.
When told that some were harshly criticizing the deal, Andy, the intertribal commission chairwoman, fired back, noting that tribes had worked on the agreement for two years: "This is a direct insult to us as tribes," she said.
