species that is on the endangered species list that you can buy in 

 any can in any store in America. 



So, I sometimes have a problem with that. 



In May of this year, the NMFS overruled agency biologists and 

 ordered the Corps of Engineers to spill huge volumes of water over 

 the dams in the Columbia and the Snake River Basins to flush en- 

 dangered juvenile salmon to the sea. This controversial gambit has 

 cost ratepayers tens of millions of dollars in higher electricity costs. 



Most scientists agree that it will result in negligible additional 

 numbers of adult salmon reaching the spawning grounds. At worst, 

 this expensive experiment may actually reduce salmon numbers. 

 There is strong evidence that the spills are resulting in higher 

 losses of juvenile fish. 



The direct cost of this action has been estimated at more than 

 $1 million for each adult salmon that will return to the spawning 

 grounds. Although the administration recently agreed to share 

 some of these costs by repaying them from the Federal Treasury, 

 this action will not compensate Montana homeowners near Libby 

 and Hungry Horse Reservoirs, who now have a vast dry mudflat 

 where water usually is. 



The payments from the Treasury will not compensate the week- 

 end recreationists that do not have enough water to launch their 

 boats, nor will they compensate for the dust that fills the air for 

 miles and miles when the wind blows in northwestern Montana. 

 And they will not compensate for the job losses directly or indi- 

 rectly dependent on water that has been drained from our State for 

 very questionable results. 



Payments from the Treasury also will not compensate Montana 

 for the problems that the spill has caused for our own efforts to 

 protect fish populations in our own State. And I would draw atten- 

 tion to the bull trout, a species that has been considered for listing 

 on the endangered or threatened list, although the emergency spills 

 by the Federal Government has robbed Montana of our most im- 

 portant tool of protecting our resource and our own fish, and that 

 would be our own water. 



So, Mr. Chairman, I believe that this action by the NMFS is a 

 national disgrace. It has resulted in tremendous cost to the tax- 

 payers, to agriculturalists and farmers and recreationists, sports- 

 men, fish and wildlife. And as a result of the administration's re- 

 cent agreement to offset these direct costs from the U.S. Treasury, 

 cost to the American taxpayers may range up to $30 million. 



Citizens of the Northwestern States and the U.S. taxpayers have 

 every right for adequate, technically defensible justification for this 

 drastic action. The justification has not been provided by the Na- 

 tional Marine Fisheries Service. There has been little consultation 

 with other river interests. There have been few efforts to provide 

 public involvement in the coordination with Congress or existing 

 salmon recovery programs. 



And, worst of all, there has been no time for scientific review or 

 biological analysis. Scientific equipment to gather data for the re- 

 sults of this multimillion dollar experiment are not even in place. 

 So, the emergency spill action ordered by the National Marine 

 Fisheries Service is not based on science, it is based on political 



