Greens, anglers join Columbia River fight
Jeremy P. Jacobs, E&E News reporter
Published: Thursday, July 30, 2020
Environmentalists are joining Washington state in a fight with the Trump administration over temperature standards for the Columbia River. Sarah McDevitt/Flickr.
Fishing and environmental groups yesterday waded into Washington state’s fight with the Trump administration over temperature limits for the Columbia River to protect the Pacific Northwest’s rapidly dwindling salmon runs.
At issue is a complicated regulatory struggle between the state and the Trump administration over the state’s Clean Water Act authority that could have a major impact on the survival of the region’s endangered salmon runs.
In May, Washington for the first time exercised its authority to require federal dam operators to address the temperature of water in reservoirs. Dams stop the flow of the Columbia River and its tributaries, forcing water to stagnate and heat up to temperatures that are lethal to migrating fish like salmon (Greenwire, May 11).
The Trump administration has appealed that decision, claiming that Washington doesn’t have the authority to take that step. Moreover, it has issued a broad rule that would revoke the authority granted to states to set terms of federal permits under Section 401 of the Clean
Water Act (Greenwire, June 1).
The dispute now sits at the Pollution Control Hearings Board of Washington state. Yesterday, the Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association, Columbia Riverkeeper and the Natural Resources Defense Council intervened on Washington’s side.
“Our industry is still reeling from the legacy of the 2015 drought, when hot water in the Columbia basin killed hundreds of thousands of adult salmon,” Liz Hamilton, executive director of sport fishing groups, said in a statement. “Our region’s elected leaders need to support inclusive solutions that bring river temperatures down to levels that are not lethal to salmon and our industry.”
Setting temperature standards for the Columbia River has long been a top priority for conservationists.
Washington, Oregon and EPA have previously acknowledged the need for them. In the early 2000s, they signed an agreement under which EPA would draft a total maximum daily load, or TMDL, regulation for temperature.
EPA issued a draft of the regulation but never finalized it.
Conservationists took the issue to court and won. Last December, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that EPA’s failure to issue the
temperature limits violated the Clean Water Act (Greenwire, Dec. 20, 2019).
In appealing the Washington state regulations, the Army Corps of Engineers claimed the state was violating laws that required the Army Corps to “operate and maintain” the eight federal dams for their “authorized purposes.”
Giulia Good Stefani of NRDC said that without the temperature standards, the region’s salmon runs face extinction.
“The Army Corps must manage the dams to reduce water temperatures,” she said. “If they don’t, we are all cooked: the fish, plus everything and everyone in the region that depends on salmon.”