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Methow Valley News May 4, 2000 Endangered Species Coverage Publisher's Comment by Lee Hicks New fish twist from EPA Another clear indication of the hazy vision for salmon recovery came last week with the entrance of the nation’s leading environmental agency into the debate. The Environmental Protection Agency, according to news reports, has come down squarely against plans by the Army Corps of Engineers and National Marine Fisheries to delay any decision to breach Snake River dams. With its authority under the federal Clean Water Act, the EPA argues that the Corps’ science is bad, that keeping the dams will impede fish recovery. The EPA particularly takes issue with a Corps conclusion that dams may actually cool Snake River water—a benefit for migrating fish. Only days earlier, NMFS officials had said the agency would likely recommend keeping the dams for at least five years. The EPA stance also comes just a few days after reports that the Clinton administration last fall forced the Corps to withold a recommendation to keep the dams. All along, the debate on salmon recovery has largely been framed within the provisions of the Endangered Species Act. But EPA’s position on the dams indicates the Clean Water Act could be as crucial to salmon policy as the ESA. Terns stay in place While the EPA enters the fray on dam breaching, federal courts are protecting Caspian terns chowing down on about 650,000 spring chinook at the mouth of the Columbia. The Army Corps has been blocked by the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals from destroying the birds' eggs and relocating them. The mosaic of salmon recovery still appears mostly a collection of myriad tiles that thus far lacks any real pattern. Opinion | Sports |
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