Environmental groups and the state of Oregon asked a judge Tuesday to OK a suite of changes to dam operations in the Columbia Basin to reduce harm to endangered salmon and steelhead.
The requests are the first major development in a decadeslong legal battle in the basin since the Trump administration blew up a 2023 agreement that had provided a path to dam removal on the lower Snake River.
The environmental groups alongside the Nez Perce, Umatilla, Warm Springs and Yakama tribal nations, and states of Oregon and Washington, returned the fight to federal court in September.
Earlier Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon denied a request by the federal government to pause litigation until the partial government shutdown ends.
The preliminary injunction request filed by the environmental groups asks for bigger changes to dam operations than what was provided in the Biden-era deal, called the Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement.
“We agreed to less because it was part of a comprehensive package to set us on a path toward dam breach and toward really major habitat investments in the basin,” said Amanda Goodin, a senior attorney with Earthjustice. “We made some concessions to try and get there together, and now we’re not walking that path anymore. We have to get as many operational protections in place as we can, because otherwise we’re going to lose these fish while we keep looking for the long-term solution.”
Oregon filed a similar request Tuesday, Goodin said, and the two filings are asking for the same relief. The Nez Perce Tribe and Washington plan to file in support of the requested relief, according to Earthjustice.
The board of trustees of Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation voted to maintain “unaligned amicus” status in the litigation. The tribes are not currently aligning with plaintiffs or defendants.
The changes requested by the environmental groups Tuesday would require some reservoirs be drawn down to minimum operating elevations, and the maximum amount of water spilled over the dams allowed by state water quality standards in the spring, when the highest number of juvenile salmon and steelhead are migrating toward saltwater.
The groups are requesting some summer, fall and winter spill as well, with exceptions.
These changes would help juvenile fish pass over the dams instead of through lethal turbines, the groups say, and decrease the time adult salmon spend migrating through slackwater at deadly temperatures.
The request, if approved, would affect hydropower operations at lower Snake and lower Columbia River dams including Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose, Lower Granite, Bonneville, The Dalles, John Day and McNary.
The request also includes emergency conservation measures such as increasing capacity for managing predators — including invasive walleye and some birds — and kelt reconditioning, or rehabbing adult steelhead after they spawn to increase their chance of repeat spawning.
The groups have also asked to remove physical barriers slowing the migration of Tucannon River spring Chinook, a population that is rapidly approaching extinction.
Earthjustice in the litigation represents the National Wildlife Federation, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, Institute for Fisheries Resources, Sierra Club, Idaho Rivers United, Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association, NW Energy Coalition, Columbia Riverkeeper, Idaho Conservation League and Fly Fishers International.
Dam operations on the Columbia and Snake have been fought over in one of the longest-running unresolved legal fights in the region.
Four of the 16 Columbia Basin salmon and steelhead stocks that historically returned to spawn above the present-day location of Bonneville Dam, about 40 miles east of Portland, are extinct. Seven are listed under the Endangered Species Act.
Some populations of Snake River spring/summer Chinook and steelhead have already been lost. Nearly a quarter of Snake River spring-summer Chinook populations and 14% of wild Snake River steelhead populations had fewer than 50 spawners last year.
“ … Snake River salmon are running out of time. Oregon, Washington, and four Tribes came up with a good plan to save them, but the federal government threw it out,” Mike Leahy, senior director of wildlife, hunting and fishing policy for the National Wildlife Federation, said in a statement, “so returning to court is the best tool we have left to prevent the collapse of these imperiled fish populations.”
The agreement had committed $1 billion over a decade to improve fish habitat, plan for the eventual removal of dams on the lower Snake River, and build new sources of clean energy.
Scott Simms, CEO and executive director of the Public Power Council, said the Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement provided some flexibility in what could’ve been done for both fish and hydropower.
The 2025 operation was about spilling more in the spring for fish and ceasing spill sooner in August to allow more hydropower production at a time that’s critical for electricity consumption, Simms said.
“We are in a worsening position in this region for our resource adequacy — meaning our ability to meet the demands of consumers, especially during peak periods of cold or hot weather,” Simms said in a phone call before the filing. “What we’re worried about is an operation that’s similar to (a proposal in) 2021 which would involve severely hobbling the federal hydro system and its output.”
The council is an intervenor defendant in the case.
