Suit aims to keep fish center open

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1142564112226200.xml&coll=7

BPA - Supporters say the research center, scheduled to close today, is a victim of political pressures
Friday, March 17, 2006
WILLIAM McCALL, the Oregonian

A group representing public employees, including federal scientists, filed a lawsuit Thursday against the Bonneville Power Administration to force the government to keep open the office that tracks the number of fish in the Columbia River.

The complaint by the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility claims that Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, and BPA Administrator Stephen Wright retaliated against the Northwest Fish Passage Center because a federal judge relied on its data to order more water spilled from dams, aiding migrating salmon but reducing electricity sales.

The lawsuit, which seeks an emergency injunction to keep the center open, alleges the scientists' constitutional rights to free speech and due process were violated. A hearing was scheduled for this morning before U.S. District Judge Ancer Haggerty.

A Bonneville spokesman declined to comment. A spokesman for Craig had no immediate comment.

The center was to close today. The lawsuit said the closure was ordered only because Craig and Wright believe the scientists at the center "have taken a political position contrary to the interests of the hydroelectric power industry."

The scientists say they were simply doing their job by monitoring the salmon, steelhead, bull trout and other fish moving through the Columbia and lower Snake rivers.

. . .

All the Fish Passage Center does is monitor and report the passage of fish (mostly anadromous), streamflows, and spills through hydro-electric dams up and down the Columbia and Snake Rivers and their tributaries. Sometimes its scientists will suggest that increased spill through certain dams will aid in smolt survival, or that barging of fish around the snake river hydro dams does not improve survival, but their conclusions are based on the data in such cases.

Their web site demonstrates all of this:

http://www.fpc.org

Idaho Senator Larry Craig is clearly in the pocket of business interests (utilities, irrigators, etc.) who don't care about the survival of anadromous fish, and would rather the fish ladders in the dams be sealed off, and that spill for compliance with federal environmental and endangered species regulations become a thing of the past.