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regulating federal or non-federal hydroelectric facilities in the Columbia Basin are 

 required by the Act to exercise their responsibilities consistent with the purposes of the 

 Act and to take the Council's program into account at each relevant stage of decision- 

 making to the fullest extent practicable. Exercising these responsibilities involves 

 complex, controversial policy issues - hatchery operations, habitat restoration and power 

 system impacts, to name a few. 



If these issues are not dealt with in the region, they will inevitably demand greater 

 attention from Congress. Congress created the Council, in large part, to deal with these 

 issues in the region. If that remains Congress's intention, and I assume it is, then the 

 Council needs stronger support from Congress. We need Congressional support to ensure 

 that all federal agencies with river and management responsibilities remain involved in 

 the effort to improve survival of the basin's fish and wildlife and that, as the Act says, 

 they coordinate their actions to the greatest extent practicable. Congress must hold these 

 agencies accountable when they fail to take the Council's fish and wildlife program into 

 account to the fullest extent practicable in their decision-making. 



We welcome Congressional oversight of implementation of the Council's fish and 

 wildlife program. We are continuing to improve our monitoring of program 

 implementation, including annual reviews that detail successes and failures. We initiated 

 annual program reviews involving the top regional administrators. As a result, we intend 

 to be more responsive to implementation problems and to raise the most difficult of these 

 to the Congressional level quickly, when appropriate. The regional effort to improve the 

 survival of Columbia Basin fish and wildlife can only benefit from attention and support 

 from Congress. 



Incorporating salmon recovery efforts into the Pacific Northwest Coordinating Agreement 



The Pacific Northwest Coordinating Agreement is an agreement between federal and 

 nonfederal owners of hydropower generation on the Columbia River system. It governs 

 the seasonal release of stored water to obtain the maximum energy subject to other uses. 



Discussions are under way regarding the incorporation of salmon recoveiy actions 

 into the Agreement. In general, the Council supports this effort. 



The Columbia River and its tributaries make up an extremely complex operating 

 system. Flow, velocity and temperature improvement measures contained in the Strategy 

 for Salmon have a substantial impact on operation of the Columbia River hydropower 

 system. We believe that given more time and experience, it is likely that additional 

 refinement of these measures can be achieved, resulting in greater operational efficiency 

 and better coordination between the needs of fish and other uses of the river. 



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