368 



This is why, Mr. Chairman and members of the Task Force, we need your help now, and continuing 

 oversight for the next few years. Bonneville needs a firm hand to restore its ethical moorings so, to 

 paraphrase your chairman, "Bonneville can serve as a conscience, or at least an example, for the 

 utility industry" [which clearly needs both]. The President and the Congress must bring this agency 

 into line with the salmon protection intent of the people and the Congress as belatedly reflected in 

 the Council's call for drawing down John Day and the lower Snake River reservoirs. To stop the 

 diversionary squandering of public resources. To expedite the capital investments necessary to 

 implement pivotal reservoir drawdowns and thereby stem the social, economic and environmental 

 hemorrhaging that is traumatizing the region and undermining the public's faith in its political 

 institutions. 



Response to Task Force Questions 



1] Is the NPPC's strategy for Salmon an appropriate and sufficient framework for salmon recovery 

 efforts in the Columbia Basin? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the Strategy for Salmon? 



It is an appropriate and sufficient /ramevvor^:. Its strength is that it was forged in the fire of real 

 participatory democracy, and [belatedly] deals with the pivotal issue of improving downstream 

 migrant salmon survival via the only rational approach, i.e., reservoir drawdowns. Its weaknesses 

 are legion; it violates virtually every standard established by Congress in the Northwest Power Act 

 [see previous discussion]; it is pusUlanimous regarding the pivotal issue of reservoir drawdowns; it 

 at egregious expense provides a study, committee, process, or chicken for every pot rather than 

 focussing on pivotal issues and needed capital investments; it cravenly accomodates BPNUCC's 

 blatant agenda to prove Darwin wrong by making fish barges "work" even if they have to kill all the 

 fish to prove it; it has no teeth, not even a falsetto growl, to ensure compliance by the Corps of 

 Engineers and Bonneville. 



2] Is the implementation of the Strategy for Salmon on track for timely completion? How well are 

 federal and state agencies coordinating their activities with each other and with the Council to 

 achieve timely implementation? 



It is not on track for timely completion, even 13 years after Congress called for emergency action. 

 The Corps and Bonneville have no intention of implementing reservoir drawdowns. Their intent is 

 clear and unambiguous. They will study draw downs to death, squander more millions of public 

 dollars, compound the environmental, social and economic damage, unless the President and/or the 

 Congress brings them to heel. 



State, tribal and federal fisheries agencies - except for National Marine Fisheries Service - generally 

 are weU coordinated; still room for lots of improvement. National Marine Fisheries Service has 

 used its authority to implement the Endangered Species Act to ignore and undermine the 

 coordinated actions of other state, tribal and federal fisheries agencies. The NMFS Snake River 

 salmon recovery team is exjjected to be politically cortect and grandiloquently describe the ball park 



