depriving the public of additional data that could be obtained at no 

 cost to the Government just by working together. 



So what will help the salmon? I think good science has nothing 

 to fear from peer review. It prevents mistakes before they happen 

 in most cases. I'm sure you're aware that the Northwest is spend- 

 ing something in the neighborhood of $400 million a year on salm- 

 on, depending on how you calculate it and that we spent in the 

 neighborhood of over a billion dollars in the last 10 years. And yet, 

 we have almost no progress to show for that expenditure. I was as- 

 sociated with the Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program, 

 I funded an awful lot of those projects, and as I said, it's just awful 

 hard to see any progress out there. 



Something needs to change and it needs to change drastically. I 

 think the most important thing is to open up this currently "closed 

 shop" and let some sunshine in. I'd let the universities and the pri- 

 vate sector participate, particularly by providing peer review which 

 can help make lemonade out of the fishery agencies' lemons. 



Finally, we need a new spirit of cooperation and collaboration 

 without which we'll just simply have more polarization and less 

 progress. 



Thank you. 



Senator Kempthorne. Thank you very much. 



Now we have Ms. Margaret Filardo. Welcome. 



STATEMENT OF MARGARET FILARDO, FISH PASSAGE CENTER, 



PORTLAND, OR 



Ms. Filardo. Thank you, Senator, for inviting me today to speak 

 to this committee. 



I have worked for the past 8 years as a biologist for the Fish Pas- 

 sage Center in Portland, Oregon. The Fish Passage Center was es- 

 tablished in 1984 by the Northwest Power Planning Council. The 

 Fish Passage Center staff consists of individuals with expertise in 

 biology, biostatistics, hydrology and data management. We are re- 

 sponsible, in part, for the annual implementation of the Smolt 

 Monitoring Program as well as collecting and distributing data to 

 all interested individuals. The Smolt Monitoring Program monitors 

 juvenile salmon in the Snake and Columbia River systems of seven 

 dams and five tributary traps. Information is collected relative to 

 the overall species abundance and health and timing of the migra- 

 tion for in-season management of flow, spill and hydrosystem oper- 

 ations. Since 1994, the Smolt Monitoring Program has been an in- 

 tegral part of the overall biological monitoring program developed 

 by the National Marine Fisheries Service for spill implementation 

 under the biological opinion. 



Our responses to the questions posed to me by the subcommittee 

 are contained in my written testimony. In the next few minutes, 

 I would like to take this opportunity to make three specific points. 



First, spill as a mitigation measure is not a new concept. Second, 

 the risk associated with the spill program have been analvzed and 

 incorporated into the development of the present controlled spill 

 program. I'd like to make that distinction between the controlled 

 fish spill program and other spill that is occurring in the system. 



I am confident that the present monitoring program is accurately 

 assessing the occurrence of total dissolved gas and will provide 



