For Release: 10:00 AM February 15, 2000
For More Information:
Todd True, Earthjustice: 206/343-7340
Nina Bell, NW Environmental Advocates: 503/295-0490
Rob Masonis, American Rivers: 206/213-0330
Mark Schneider, CRANE: 206/264-3615
LAWSUIT FILED OVER DEEPENING OF COLUMBIA RIVER CHANNEL
Calling the move "inevitable," on Monday a coalition of environmental
organizations filed the first lawsuit aimed at the proposed deepening
of the Columbia River shipping channel in order to protect endangered
salmon. "When federal agencies such as the Army Corps want to destroy
salmon habitat and the responsible fish protection agency, the National
Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), steps aside to let them do it, a lawsuit
is inevitable," said Nina Bell, Executive Director of Northwest Environmental
Advocates. The lawsuit asks a federal court in Seattle to set aside the
December, 1999 approval of the project by NMFS.
The federal fisheries agency was required to rule on the
channel deepening project because there are 13 stocks of salmon listed
under the federal Endangered Species Act that use the Lower Columbia River.
Every adult and juvenile salmon in the Columbia River Basin must pass
through the estuary, where they make the transition from fresh to salt
water and back again. The estuary is a critical nursery area for juvenile
salmon, as well as sturgeon, smelt, crabs, and other wildlife.
In its Biological Opinion giving channel deepening a green
light, NMFS urged the project's sponsor, the Army Corps of Engineers,
to conduct further studies and to make efforts to restore habitat in the
estuary, but only after the Corps has completed the dredging project.
"Politics has played a huge hand in the government's
decision to use a set of flimsy promises to justify the destruction of
what little is left of this precious estuary," said Bell. "What
else explains the stark contrast between NMFS' recent proclamation of
the central importance of the estuary to saving salmon and its go-ahead
to the Corps to destroy more estuary habitat."
NMFS scientists concluded that the channel deepening project
is "an incremental insult to a degraded system" that is already
not meeting the needs of salmon. These scientists also have concluded
that protection of salmon in the River estuary may be a key to ensuring
the survival and recovery of the species. The Clinton Administration is
currently preparing a recovery plan for Columbia River Basin salmon.
"If federal government scientists cannot determine
the deepening project is safe for salmon, the project should be stopped
or changed," said Rob Masonis, of the Seattle office of American
Rivers. "People in the Northwest and taxpayers throughout the country
should be extremely concerned about why we are spending billions of dollars
trying to save Columbia River salmon while giving the go-ahead to a project
that will waste those dollars by killing the very salmon we need to save,"
said Masonis.
The lawsuit seeks a court order forcing NMFS to withdraw
its Biological Opinion and ensure that the Corps does not rely upon it
to move forward with the dredging project. The groups also seek to force
the fisheries agency to consider the effects of the channel deepening
in combination with all the other human activities that have altered the
Columbia River's ability to support salmon.
"NMFS' approval of this project is part of a pattern
that has brought Columbia River salmon to the brink of extinction. The
government approves a project it knows will harm salmon, but promises
to study the project's effects and attempt mitigation once the damage
is done," said Todd True of Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, the
attorney for the plaintiffs. "Neither the law nor common sense suggest
that we can restore the salmon by continuing to approve expensive and
unnecessary projects that destroy their habitat," he concluded.
Although the Corps' August, 1999 environmental impact statement
addressed the entire project which includes six miles of the Willamette
River, the Corps sought and gained approval from NMFS for only the Columbia
portion. The Lower Willamette River is being considered as a potential
Superfund site.
In a related lawsuit, the Columbia River Alliance for Nurturing
the Environment (CRANE), expressed concerns regarding the destruction
of wetlands habitat if the dredging project moves forward. CRANE's attorney,
Mark Schneider, noted, "Today we're challenging the deeply flawed
decision of the fisheries agency with regard to salmon, but channel deepening
is also bad news for many other species of fish and wildlife. We're particularly
concerned that this project would destroy the few remaining wetlands in
the Lower Columbia that are important not only for salmon but also home
to sandhill cranes and bald eagles. There simply isn't much habitat for
them left."
Joining Northwest Environmental Advocates and American Rivers
as plaintiffs are the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations,
Institute for Fisheries Resources, and Trout Unlimited.
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