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do not. As a result, salmon are blocked from more than 55 percent of the habitat that 

 was available before the dams were built. 



During the last 60 years, dams took a tremendous toll on salmon runs. Earlier, I 

 noted that we estimate salmon runs have declined from as high as 16 million adult fish 

 per year to about 2.5 million today. Hydropower is responsible for a substantial 

 amount of that loss. At the same time, the dams powered this region. Our regional 

 demand for power has outgrown the dams' output today, but we still rely on them for 

 about two-thirds of the electricity we use in the Northwest. 



Columbia Basin salmon recovery is a massive effort being undertaken by the four 

 Northwest states and a plethora of government agencies, Indian tribes and interested 

 citizens. It will not be quick, easy or inexpensive. Salmon recovery impacts virtually 

 everyone in the Northwest because we all depend on the Columbia River and its 

 tributaries in some way ~ electric power, navigation, irrigation, recreation, flood 

 control, just to name a few. Our dependence harms the fishery resource. 



In short, I am appalled by what recent generations ~ mine included — did to the 

 salmon. In the name of progress, we ran roughshod over the salmon. Hydroelectric 

 dams, salmon harvest, destruction of spawning and rearing habitat, pollution — these all 

 played a part. Now it is time to pay the price, as well we should, but we do not want 

 this burden to fall disproportionately on any one use of the river and its water. With 

 regional cooperation, we can steadily rebuild Columbia Basin salmon runs. 



The Power Planning Council's Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife 

 Program aims at all of these impacts. It is a comprehensive strategy to improve salmon 

 survival at every stage of the life cycle, and as such it offers some useful parallels for a 

 Pacific coastwide salmon rebuilding effort. Our goal is increased and biologically 

 diverse salmon runs that can once again contribute to the region's economy. 



The Power Planning Council's role in salmon recovery 



The Pacific Northwest Electric Power Planning and Conservation Act of 1980 

 (Public Law 96-501) directs the Council, at Section 4.(h)(5), to develop a program "to 

 protect, mitigate and enhance fish and wildlife affected by the development, operation, 

 and management of [hydroelectric] facilities while assuring the Pacific Northwest an 

 adequate, efficient, economical and reliable power supply." And, at 4.(h)(l l)(A)(ii), 

 the relevant federal agencies are directed to take the Council's fish and wildlife 

 program into account "...at each relevant stage of decisionmaking processes to the 

 fullest extent practicable..." The Act also says, at 4.(h)(10)(A). that Bonneville's 

 Administrator "...shall use the Bonneville Power Administration fund and the 

 authorities available to the Administrator under this Act ... in a manner consistent with" 

 the Council's fish and wildlife program. 





