17 



8 



We believe there are gains to be made in streamlined fish and wildlife staffing 

 at Bonneville. We support the notion of shifting the funding of fish and wildlife 

 program activities to the fishery agencies and tribes in a lump sum along with the 

 responsibility to perform. The growth in staffing in Bonneville's fish and wildlife 

 program staff could be checked, perhaps even reversed, through a policy similar to the 

 way federal block grants are provided to states. 



Bonneville asserts that its current financial condition will prevent or delay full 

 implementation of the Power Council's Fish and Wildlife Program. But it is useful to 

 consider Bonneville is quite willing to spend if such projects can influence stalemate 

 on the Power Council. Also recall that Bonneville refused to provide increased spill 

 for juvenile fish until litigation with Idaho forced good faith bargaining. 



Finally, Bonneville and its customers are very proficient at determining the 

 costs to the federal power system to provide legally-mandated protection of fish and 

 wildlife and the ensuing rate impacts. Yet they ignore the cost to the region of 

 decades of depleted anadromous fish runs in the Columbia because of mainstem hydro 

 dams. It seems presumptuous to calculate a cost of foregone revenues for operations 

 that conflict with federal law. The BPA's shopworn "billion dollars" spent in the 

 1980s is no more than an estimate of foregone revenues based on a notion of 

 "opportunity cost" that stretches credibility. 



FEDERAL AGENCY COORDINATION 



Along with the proposals to change the method of funding activities under the 

 Power Council's Fish and Wildlife Program, there has also been discussion of the 

 adequacy of current institutions and agency authorities to manage the recovery of the 

 salmon runs. 



The listing of the Snake River runs under the Endangered Species Act adds 

 additional complication to the issue: last spring, federal agencies used their mandates 

 under the Endangered Species Act to ignore Power Council, state and tribal input on 

 managing the federal projects during the salmon migration season — a practice in 

 which states and tribes have been involved for over a decade. 



We believe the authorities are in place to provide the protection and recovery of 



