SALMON SPILL POLICY ON THE COLUMBIA 

 AND SNAKE RIVERS 



THURSDAY, JUNE 22, 1995 



U.S. Senate, 

 Committee on Environment and Public Works, 

 Subcommittee on Drinking Water, 

 Fisheries and Wildlife, 



Washington, DC. 

 The subcommittee met, pursuant to recess, at 10:02 a.m. in room 

 406, Senate Dirksen Building, Hon. Dirk Kempthome [chairman of 

 the subcommittee] presiding. 

 Present: Senator Kempthome. 



OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. DHIK KEMPTHORNE, 

 U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF ffiAHO 



Senator Kempthorne. Ladies and gentlemen, I'll call this meet- 

 ing to order. 



A little more than 2 weeks ago, this subcommittee held our first 

 field hearings in Roseburg, OR and Lewiston, ID. At those hear- 

 ings, we had a combined attendance of about 2,000 people; in fact, 

 it exceeded 2,000 people. We wanted to hear from people whose 

 lives had actually been affected by the Endangered Species Act, 

 both positive and negative. We had a good, balanced hearing which 

 centered on the efforts of the National Marine Fisheries Service 

 and the Corps of Engineers to restore chinook and sockeye salmon 

 runs in the Columbia Basin. 



One method used by NMFS to pass young salmon, called smolts, 

 over the dams is to spill the smolts over the dams rather than ei- 

 ther pass them through the turbines for generating electricity, or 

 physically to collect the smolts and transfer them through a bypass 

 system. When water is spilled over a dam, gases in the air become 

 dissolved in the water. Depending on the percentage of the satura- 

 tion of those gases in the water, fish can get a diseases called the 

 Gas Bubble Trauma, or GBT, which is similar to the bends which 

 scuba divers can get if they surface too quickly after a dive. 



This morning's hearing will focus on how the National Marine 

 Fisheries Service and the Corps of Engineers chose this particular 

 scientific policy under the Endangered Species Act. NMFS chose 

 this scientific policy in order to increase survival of young, endan- 

 gered chinook and sockeye salmon, but I believe that this policy 

 was hastily conceived without sufficient safeguards provided in the 

 scientific method; and that as a result, we may be continuing to en- 

 danger the very species that we want to protect. 



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