Meeting about fish and dams to be conducted by teleconference

Lewiston is often viewed as the epicenter of the debate over salmon and dams, but the coronavirus is robbing the city and surrounding area of its public square, soapbox moment in the long-running fight over the best way to preserve the fish.

The public hearing on the topic that was to be held at Lewiston’s Red Lion Hotel today was canceled late last week, one of many casualties of social distancing tactics that are sweeping the nation in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19.

The meeting will be held from 4-8 p.m. today, but not at the Red Lion. Instead it will happen in the cybersphere. Participants will be required to phone in and join a massive conference call in which they can deliver 3 minutes worth of comments and/or listen to the thoughts of their fellow citizens.

Background

Every anadromous fish that returns to Idaho and parts of southeastern Washington and northeastern Oregon swims past the city that sits at the confluence of the Snake and Clearwater rivers. The city is also the world’s most inland seaport, a designation made possible by four dams on the lower Snake River that are at the center of the decadeslong argument — should the dams be breached to save the fish?

Doing so would give the wild salmon and steelhead protected by the Endangered Species Act the best chance at recovery, according to a draft environmental impact statement authored by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the Bonneville Power Administration. But those agencies said breaching would be too disruptive to power production, barge transportation and recreation. Instead, they chose to move forward with a modification of an existing plan that calls for spilling water at the dams, combined with other measures aimed at boosting returns.

The draft Columbia River Hydropower System EIS was released Feb. 28 and is available for review and public comment through April 13. Each of the public meetings that were to be held in cities around the Pacific Northwest will now be held via telephone only.

For each of them, including today’s, callers are instructed to dial (844) 721-7241 and then key in the code 5998146# when prompted. More detailed instructions are available at http://bit.ly/38PyFrI.

How it will work

Once logged in, callers will be placed on mute, meaning they will be able to hear the proceedings but won’t be able to speak. The meeting will start with a short introduction and brief overview of the document before public comments begin.

Amy Echols, outreach coordinator for the Columbia River Systems Operation Review for the Army Corps at Portland, is advising people who wish to hear the introduction to phone in up to a half-hour before the meeting starts.

“Lines are a little bit slow right now,” she said. “We are giving people notice to start dialing 25 to 30 minutes ahead of time.”

But people can call in at any time during the four-hour meeting.

Echols said a moderator will announce a numerical code to punch in for people who wish to make comments. Those who enter it will be placed in a queue and listen to other comments until their name is called.

“When it’s that person’s time, we will unmute their line,” Echols said.

Each speaker will have three minutes, after which their line will again be muted.

“We will not be able to tell people where they are in the queue,” she said. “They can join any time. If somebody is not off work (at the start of the meeting) they can pop in anytime before 8 p.m. and get in the queue.”

She also said people not able to call in during what was supposed to be the Lewiston meeting can join any of the other meetings. Essentially, she said, the meetings are no longer tied to a geographic location.

People can also submit written comments anytime before April 13. Instructions for written comments, and the dates and times of other call-in sessions, are available at the website listed earlier in this article.

Matt Rabe, a spokesman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, said agency officials are still reviewing requests they have received to extend the public comment period for at least another 45 days. Several fishing and environmental groups have asked for an extension.

Among them are the Save Our Wild Salmon Coalition, that has long supported dam breaching. Joseph Bogaard, executive director of the coalition, said he supports the cancellation of in-person meetings but would like them to be rescheduled at a later date and for the comment period to be extended.

“We haven’t received any explanation of why the agencies, under these extreme circumstances, are unwilling to expand the comment period to allow for more meaningful public comment,” he said. “This is an 8,000-page public document and the agencies decided to offer the minimum (comment time) they are legal required to.”

Barker may be contacted at ebarker@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2273. Follow him on Twitter @ezebarker.