salmon runs — unless Congress takes bold action. This committee 

 has the ability to assist in rewriting the ending of this story. 



Recently we were told by the National Marine Fisheries Service 

 that operation of the federal Columbia River Project System does 

 not jeopardize the continued existence of Snake River salmon, even 

 though by NMFS' own admission, the passage through the federal 

 system will result in the death of up to 77 percent of the juvenile 

 sockeye and spring and summer chuiook, and up to 91 percent of 

 juvenile fall chinook. 



This type of analysis has convinced Idaho that the federal agen- 

 cies are incapable of fulfilling their mandate to protect anadromous 

 fish runs of the Columbia River, These agencies have agendas of 

 their own — to maintain the status quo at the expense of the salm- 

 on. Their agendas run contrary to law. 



BPA is a mismanaged, overstaffed and deeply entrenched mem- 

 ber of the Northwest establishment that is only selectively follow- 

 ing the laws that set forth its charter. It needs an administrative 

 overhaul to reduce its size and it needs to be held accountable for 

 perpetuating policies that run contrsiiy to the Northwest Power Act 

 and the values of the people who live in the region. 



Congress, which established BPA, needs to scrutinize the per- 

 formance of this agency and of the body it empowered to oversee 

 it, the Northwest Power Planning Council. 



As the marketing agency for the electricity produced by the 

 dams, Bonnevdlle has at its disposal the resources to truly help the 

 salmon. Yet it consistently has used its resources to divert atten- 

 tion away fi'om the mainstem survival problem and talk about har- 

 vest, habitat and hatcheries, areas over which BPA has no respon- 

 sibility. Everyone knows that these activities are not what has 

 brought the salmon to the brink of extinction. The record is clear 

 that the federal dams are the primary cause of the problem. 



Rather than acknowledge that mainstem survival is the cause of 

 decline, Bonneville can be relied upon to advocate further study 

 that takes years to yield results that will likely be as inconclusive 

 as the present evidence. Smoke is substituted for meaningful ac- 

 tion. 



During final debate on the Northwest Power Act, Congressman 

 John Dingell said that the Power Council would defer to state and 

 federal agencies and not become a super fish and wildlife agency. 

 Congressman Dingell's prediction did not hold trae for BPA. Bon- 

 neville's fish and wildlife program now staffs 77 full-time people, 

 exceeding the entire staff of the Power Council. 



Then there are the large amounts of money spent on contracts 

 with the University of Washington for development of a juvenile 

 salmon passage model and with resources for the future on a cost- 

 effectiveness study for restoring the salmon upstream of BonneviUe 

 Dam. We question the soundness of these actions because the work 

 duplicates life-cycle modeling projects of the Power Council and the 

 region's fishery, agencies and tribes. There is also a recently com- 

 pleted multi-volume Bonneville "Recovery Plan" developed by pri- 

 vate consultants for the agency. This recovery plan was developed 

 after the Power Council's Strategy for Salmon. 



BPA, rather than accepting the conclusion that mainstem pas- 

 sage must be fixed, instead paid for a result oriented to justify the 



