OROFINO — Nobody does it better avoiding responsibility for an environmental disaster, that is, Idaho Sen. Ron Beitelspacher told representatives of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Monday night.
Beitelspacher, D-Grange-ville, lashed out at the corps at a meeting at the Orofino Junior High School held to examine issues involved in a test of ways to help Northwest salmon runs. The test is planned next year, but how the test will work has not been decided.
The evening meeting followed an earlier session held at Lewis-Clark State College at Lewiston. That meeting drew a wider cross-section of interests, ranging from port representatives to fishermen.
Beitelspacher, however, repeated a theme common to several of those testifying at both Orofino and Lewiston. ‘’I hope we will come out of this with a change in attitude’’ on the corps’ part, Beitelspacher said.
He added he found it amazing that the agency that could build the Snake River dams could not make them work properly. Beitelspacher’s tongue-lashing drew a round of applause from the audience of about 35.
The corps held the meetings as a first step toward preparing an environmental impact statement for next year’s test. The test will mean changing the operation of federal dams along the Snake and Columbia rivers.
The National Marine Fisheries Service is reviewing sockeye and wild chinook salmon runs in the Snake and wild coho salmon runs in the Columbia River for Endangered Species Act protection.
The service has already proposed the sockeye for endangered species status. Officials are expected to announce by Friday their recommendations for the other runs.
William F. MacDonald, who is overseeing the environmental review of next year’s test, said options range from finding more water to flush the young salmon downstream to drawing down Snake and Columbia river reservoirs.
The issues now known range from potential damage to the fish runs to losses of shipping and power production, he added.
Stephen Pettit, Idaho Fish and Game Department fish passage specialist at Lewiston, testified at both sessions.
Pettit said the corps should consider in its study that doing nothing and allowing salmon runs to dwindle further would be a negative environmental impact.
Jill Thomas Jorgenson of the Port of Lewiston said port officials remained concerned about the threats to shipping that the testing could pose.
Joseph H. Stegner, Stegner Grain and Seed Co. grain manager at Lewiston, said the argument about whether to draw down the reservoirs or find more water to flush the fish is critical to shippers.
‘’There seems to be a lot of disagreement between biologists and politicians on that,’’ he added. Stegner asked the corps to try to narrow down what water velocity is needed to get the young salmon downstream in time.
D. Michael Satterwhite of Lewiston, a member of the Salmon Summit and a Trout Unlimited Idaho Council official, praised the corps for moving quickly after the summit’s completion in March to plan a 1992 test.
Changes are clearly needed in the operation of federal dams on the river. ‘’The proof is in the the performance,’’ Satterwhite said, adding that if the dams weren’t killing too many migrating salmon, Idaho would have healthy runs.
‘’The fact of the matter is, this is not the case. I would also suggest that if we had had cooperation from the corps and other agencies 10 years ago, we would not be in this situation.’’
At Lewiston, an aide to Sen. Steve Symms, R-Idaho, read a statement calling for the agencies in charge of efforts to save the salmon to consider the economic consequences as well.
The corps also should remember why Congress authorized the building of the dams: mainly for flood control and power production, added Tom LeClaire, Symms’ legislative assistant.
This story was published in the June 4, 1991, edition of the Lewiston Tribune.
