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COLUMBIA BASIN SALMON BRIEFING PAPER 



MODIFYING LOWER GRANITE DAM 



The First Step Toward Providing Safe, In-River Migration 

 For Endangered Snake River Salmon 



Snake River salmon face the ultimate crisis: extinction. Hydroelectric development has rendered dieir migratory 

 rivers—their Snake and Columbia River corridors to the ocean and back— lethal. Despite listing under the Endangered 

 Species Act in 1991, their migration conditions remain ledial. 



In 1992, the Northwest Power Planning Council adopted its salmon-saving program. To tackle the pivotal 

 migration problem, the Council called for annual spring drawdowns of four federal lower Snake River reservoirs. These 

 drawdowns will provide Snake River migratory conditions much closer to those the salmon evolved within. (The Na- 

 tional Marine Fisheries Service's Snake River Salmon Recovery Team is also expected to propose some form of draw- 

 downs in its soon-to-be-released recovery plan.) 



But the Council plan is in a desperate race with time. It must be implemented before the salmon go extinct, yet 

 before it can be fiilly implemented the four dams must be modified to allow both salmon passage and presem uses to co- 

 exist. The Northwest, with help from Congress and the Administration, must take the first step now : modifying Lower 

 Granite Dam, the first dam reached by migrating juvenile Snake River salmon. 



Northwest fishermen, conservationists, and salmon advocates therefore urge a $30-30 million Congressional 

 appropriation in 1993 to begin modifications that will allow Lower Granite to operate near spillway crest each spring, 

 starting in 199S, as called for in the Council plan. We must act now or we-salmon and people-will lose the race. 



Background: Why Lower Snake Drawdowns At All? 



In passing the Northwest Power Act of 1980, Congress declared die condition of Snake River salmon an "emer- 

 gency." The Act directed that "flows of sufficient quality and quantity" be provided for salmon dirougb the federal 

 hydrosystem on the Snake and Cohimbia Rivers, and that fish be given "equitable treatment" with other system uses. 



But neither sufficient flows nor equitable treatment exist In the 1980s, Snake River cobo salmon went extinct, 

 and in 1991 all remaining Snake salmon were listed under the Endangered Species Act Today, all Snake River sockeye 

 are being removed from their natural habitat and placed in captive breeding because their migratory habitat is so lethal. 



Northwest fishery agencies and tribes attribute over 90 percent of buinan<aused mortality upon diese fish to (he 

 federal hydrosystem. To restore fishable populations, agencies and tribes say the salmon need 140,000 cubic feet per 

 second of flow through the lower Snake River, ^lil 16 to June IS, in all water years. 



In low water years like those since 198S. it would require more stored water than exists in the entire Snake Basin 

 to create those flows. But spring reservoir drawdowns, recreating something like a river for 2 months, can provide them. 

 The Aimy Corps of Engineen found diat these fishery flow recommendations for the lower Snake can be met 98 percent 

 of the time by reservoir drawdowns to near spillway crest at the four federal dams. 



Based upon this law and logic, the Northwest Power Planning Council adopted diis regional goal in 1992: "The 

 reservoir drafting strategy. ..will be fully developed, demonstrated, tested, and evaluated for quick implementation, unless 

 it is shown structurally or economically infeasible [or] biologically imprudeu..." Implementation was called for by 1995. 



