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with respect to this issue. As you're aware, the Grovemor just as- 

 sumed office, kind of right in the hot seat of this winter's spill is- 

 sues and is still, I think, coming to terms with the issue and all 

 its complexity. 



One of the key planks that there seems to be strong support in 

 is utilizing spill at the mainstem dams below Idaho's borders to 

 help get the fish across those dams and to spread the risk more eq- 

 uitably between transportation and in-river migration. 



Senator I'd also like to mention that the comments that I pre- 

 pared for this testimony were reviewed by the Governor and his 

 staff and his input was taken very much to heart. 



Senator Kempthorne. All right. Mr. Bowles, you state in your 

 written testimony that, "A carefully managed spill program is es- 

 sential to interim salmon recovery efforts." Based on the testimony 

 from the first panel, do you consider this a "carefully managed pro- 

 gram"? 



Mr. Bowles. I think that it is a very good face put forward, a 

 very good step and one that is put forward in very good faith. I do 

 think it can be improved on several fronts, but the primary concept 

 and basis of the spill program and the policy that drives it is 

 sound. As I mentioned, I think all of us, in dealing with issues day 

 to day, have to deal with managing when we have uncertainty; we 

 have to make decisions anyway and move forward. The salmon 

 issue accentuates this management under uncertainty. 



I'd like to stress that this isn't just an experiment that we're 

 doing to try to see what might work. The bottom line is we have 

 fish that define the very nature of the Northwest that are about 

 to go away. Steps have to be taken to stop that. Transportation can 

 be an important, interim part of that, but it has not stopped the 

 decline. Something else that also needs to be allowed is in-river 

 passage, and spill to help those in-river migrating smolts is a part 

 of that. Improving the program? Yes, I think we can do that. I 

 think we have involvement to do that. It can be improved and I 

 have written comments on some specifics, but the basis is there for 

 a good program to continue. 



Senator KEMPTHORNE. Mr. Bowles, let me also ask you, were you 

 troubled by the testimony that we heard today that this year's 

 monitoring program is substandard and that last year's monitoring 

 program wasn't initiated until after the spill program had begun? 



Mr. Bowles. I was troubled by that testimony perhaps from a 

 different perspective than what you're asking. I personally have not 

 been directly involved in the monitoring program in my position, 

 but we have scientists within the department who are tracking it 

 very closely and have participated in developing that monitoring 

 program. The States and tribes were represented in developing 

 that program. 



The monitoring program this year, I think, has done a very good 

 job of responding adaptively to the issues and concerns that have 

 been brought up, and there have been many. Some of them are is- 

 sues that, over the course of the past year, tne scientific community 

 that has been reviewing the spill policy and implementation have 

 come to a conclusion, for example, on internal versus external sam- 

 pling protocols for gas symptoms. They came to the conclusion that 



