1. Hells Canyon relicensing detail
2. Tribe’s letter to FERC

The Burns Paiute Tribe wants the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to require Idaho Power to help restore salmon and steelhead upstream of the company’s three dams in Hells Canyon of the Snake River as a relicensing condition.

The dams lack fish ladders. Requiring the company to address fish passage and start to rebuild populations in the blocked areas of the river’s upper basin is “necessary given the history of the problem and the multitude of benefits to addressing it,” Diane Teeman, who chairs the Burns Paiute tribal council, wrote in a Nov. 15 letter to FERC Secretary Kimberly Bose.

Of particular concern is the Malheur River Basin, which supported salmon and steelhead before completion of the dams, Teeman wrote. The dams block the fish from accessing the Malheur, which enters the Snake near Ontario, Ore.

Fish passage lacking

While hydropower projects continue to present challenges related to connectivity and fish passage, “present-day actions taken by other dams provide evidence that adaptive management can and should be applied regarding fish passage,” she wrote.

Historically, salmon-recovery efforts in the Columbia River Basin have focused too much on the Snake downstream of Hells Canyon, Teeman told the Capital Press.

Several state and federal fisheries agencies in 1976 petitioned FERC’s predecessor to require Idaho Power to more effectively address losses of salmon and steelhead due to the dams in Hells Canyon. A 1980 settlement agreement included new hatchery production requirements.

Idaho Power continues to fully mitigate for losses of anadromous fish above the complex per the agreement, and its hatchery mitigation program is one of the West’s most successful, spokesman Brad Bowlin said. Fishery agencies decide distribution.

The agreement was limited in scope and stakeholder input, Teeman said. Upper Snake tribes, including Burns Paiute, “were not a consideration when the settlement was created to mitigate the loss of the Upper Snake anadromous fish, and no mitigation for the damage caused has occurred upstream of the Hells Canyon complex.”

Reintroducing

fish

The tribe requests a “seat at the table” with stakeholders to work together to reestablish “ecological connectivity and salmon population resiliency” in the Malheur Basin through reintroducing anadromous fish, she said.

Under the Federal Power Act, licenses for hydroelectric projects must include conditions to protect, mitigate damage to and enhance fish and wildlife resources, including spawning grounds and habitat, Teeman said. “These conditions are to be based on recommendations received from tribal, federal, and state fish and wildlife agencies.”

The tribe is asking that FERC comply with these legal requirements, and include fish passage and “terms to begin rebuilding salmon and steelhead populations in the blocked areas of the Upper Snake River Basin” in its requirements for the new license, she said.

The Burns Paiute Tribe also wants the commission to acknowledge its federal trust relationship with the tribe and address the “severe impacts caused by separation of the salmon from their homelands and to the people that have been interdependent on them for generations,” Teeman said.

Idaho Power understands the importance of anadromous fish to the tribe but does not believe the Hells Canyon complex was central to the loss of these fish in the Malheur Basin, Bowlin said. Land-use practices — especially mining and agriculture — and construction of federal dams to support irrigated agriculture were key factors.

The basin was not contributing to fish returns above Hells Canyon Dam, the farthest downstream, when the complex was built, he said.

Evaluation underway

The company has entered into an agreement with Oregon and Idaho to evaluate anadromous fish production and habitat in a tributary, Pine Creek, over 20 years.

“Idaho Power believes this evaluation should take place before further decisions are made regarding placing anadromous fish in tributaries upstream of the complex,” Bowlin said.

The tribe will continue to advocate for new dam-licensing conditions that bring salmon back to areas above the dams, Teeman said.