{"id":617995,"date":"2026-02-26T17:33:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T17:33:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/617995\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T17:33:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T17:33:12","slug":"judge-orders-changes-to-columbia-and-snake-river-dam-operations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/617995\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge orders changes to Columbia and Snake river dam operations"},"content":{"rendered":"

By CLAIRE RUSH and GENE JOHNSON<\/strong><\/p>\n

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) \u2014 A federal judge in Oregon has ordered narrow changes to hydropower dam operations on the Columbia and Snake rivers in the Pacific Northwest in order to help salmon, saying the Trump administration\u2019s plans for the massive structures would harm salmon runs that are \u201cdisappearing from the landscape.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ruling late Wednesday came in a decades-long legal effort by the states of Oregon and Washington, Native American tribes, and conservation and fishing groups to ensure better protections for migrating salmon, which are killed in large numbers<\/a> by the dams.<\/p>\n

In a landmark 2023 deal<\/a> that paused the litigation in favor of finding long-term solutions, the Biden administration promised to spend $1 billion over a decade to help restore salmon while also boosting tribal clean energy projects.<\/p>\n

But the Trump administration torpedoed that agreement<\/a> last year, calling it \u201cradical environmentalism\u201d that could have resulted in the breaching of four controversial dams on the Snake River, and the plaintiffs went back to court. The deal had been opposed by Republicans who said it would jeopardize the region\u2019s power supply, irrigation and the ability to export grain to Asia.<\/p>\n

U.S. District Judge Michael Simon in his ruling Wednesday lamented what he described as the \u201cdisappointing history of government avoidance and manipulation instead of sincere efforts at solving the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the foundational symbols of the West, a critical recreational, cultural, and economic driver for Western states, and the beating heart and guaranteed resource protected by treaties with several Native American tribes is disappearing from the landscape,\u201d Simon wrote. \u201cAnd yet the litigation continues in much the same way as it has for 30 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

A dispute over water and spill levels<\/p>\n

Oregon and the other plaintiffs had asked Simon to lower the levels of reservoirs behind the dams, which they argued can help fish travel through them faster, and increase the amount of water spilled past them, which can help fish pass over the dams instead of through turbines. The federal government sought higher reservoir levels.<\/p>\n

Simon ordered that reservoirs remain at the same level as last year and wrote that the changes in his order were \u201cnarrowly tailored\u201d and essentially maintained the status quo.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Federal Defendants have, for years, maintained a safe and reliable power system and dam operations with the nearly the same spill levels as ordered here, and with the same reservoir levels from 2025,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

Amanda Goodin, an attorney with the environmental law firm Earthjustice, said she was \u201cincredibly relieved and happy that he ordered the levels of spill that he did.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the government had been allowed to implement their proposal, it would have had really, really devastating consequences for salmon,\u201d Goodin said.<\/p>\n

The Bonneville Power Administration, which markets the electricity from the dams, referred a message seeking comment to the Justice Department, which said in an email Thursday that it had no comment.<\/p>\n

In court filings, the federal government called the request a \u201csweeping scheme to wrest control\u201d of the dams that would compromise the ability to operate them safely and efficiently for power generation, navigation and irrigation. Any such court order could also raise rates for utility customers, the government said.<\/p>\n

\"WaterFILE \u2013 Water moves through a spillway of the Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River near Almota, Wash., April 11, 2018. (AP Photo\/Nicholas K. Geranios, File)
\nThe dams have altered life in a wide area<\/p>\n

The Columbia River Basin, spanning an area roughly the size of Texas, was once the world\u2019s greatest salmon-producing river system, with at least 16 stocks of salmon and steelhead. Today, four are extinct and seven are endangered or threatened. Another iconic but endangered Northwestern species, a population of killer whales, also depend on the salmon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The construction of the first dams on the Columbia River, including the Grand Coulee and Bonneville in the 1930s, provided jobs during the Great Depression as well as hydropower and navigation. They made Lewiston, Idaho, the most inland seaport on the West Coast, and many farmers continue to rely on barges to ship their crops.<\/p>\n

But the dams hurt salmon<\/a> in a number of ways, including by forcing them through turbines, warming the slow-moving water in reservoirs to inhospitable temperatures, and greatly slowing the migration of juvenile fish to the sea. Juvenile salmon once reached the ocean from the upper Snake River in two or three days as swift currents pushed them along. Now, the journey past eight dams can take weeks, during which time they are exposed to more predators.<\/p>\n

\"WaterFILE \u2013 Water spills over the Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River, which runs along the Washington and Oregon state line, June 21, 2022. (AP Photo\/Jessie Wardarski, File)<\/p>\n

The plaintiffs, which include the state of Oregon and a coalition of conservation and fishing groups such as the National Wildlife Federation, filed the motion for a preliminary injunction, with Washington state, the Nez Perce Tribe and Yakama Nation supporting it as \u201cfriends of the court.\u201d<\/p>\n

Opponents of the injunction include the Inland Ports and Navigation Group, which says increasing spill to benefit fish can hinder navigation, disrupting the flow of commerce and hurt the economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe order increases the risk of harm to infrastructure, listed species, and public safety while failing to demonstrate that there will be benefits to listed salmon and steelhead,\u201d the organization said in a written statement.<\/p>\n

The dams at issue are the Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose and Lower Granite on the Snake River, and the Bonneville, The Dalles, John Day and McNary on the Columbia.<\/p>\n

Johnson reported from Seattle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By CLAIRE RUSH and GENE JOHNSON PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) \u2014 A federal judge in Oregon has ordered narrow…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":617996,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,264690,746,16808,3549,7264,36658,4352,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-617995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-america","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-columbia-river","tag-environment","tag-salmon","tag-san-diego","tag-sandiego","tag-snake-river","tag-trump-administration","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116138135086617610","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=617995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/617996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=617995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=617995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=617995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}