Federal agencies will accept input through Aug. 15
May 2, 2025
By Eric Barker
Federal agencies have extended a public comment period on their effort to take a new look at the effect Snake and Columbia River dams have on salmon and steelhead.
The Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation will now accept comments through Aug. 15 in advance of their work to update the 2020 environmental impact statement on the dams.
The update, known as a supplemental environmental impact statement, is a product of the agreement between the Biden administration and Native American tribes like the Nez Perce and other plaintiffs in a decades-long lawsuit over the harm dams cause to the fish.
Specifically, the agencies plan to consider new information including a tribal circumstances report released last year that said development of the dams caused substantial and ongoing harm to tribes with treaty fishing rights in the Snake and Columbia river basins and a 2022 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries report that said wild Snake River salmon can’t be recovered to healthy and harvestable levels without dam breaching.
Public meetings related to the work were to be held this spring but were canceled last month, causing some to speculate that the Trump administration may be mulling its support of the agreement struck by his predecessor. According to a news release announcing the extended deadline for public comments, those meetings will now be held virtually over the summer months. However, dates have yet to be announced.
The agreement led to a pause in the litigation expected to last up to 10 years. In exchange for the tribes shelving their lawsuit, the Biden administration pledged to make significant investments in salmon recovery and to study how to replace the services of the four lower Snake River dams if they are ever breached.
More information on the environmental impact statement process and ways to comment on it are available at www.nwd.usace.army.mil/columbiariver/.
Lewiston Tribune: Salmon and dams comment period extended
