Federal agencies to revise environmental study for Columbia River Basin dam operations

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation announced Tuesday that they will update an environmental study on the management of federal dams along the Columbia and Snake rivers.

The agencies will prepare a supplemental environmental impact statement analyzing new environmental data that a 2020 study, which evaluated the operations and maintenance of the 14 federally managed dams throughout the Columbia River Basin, did not address.

The new data that will be considered under the supplemental study includes a 2022 paper, Rebuilding Interior Columbia Basin Salmon and Steelhead and the 2024 Tribal Circumstances Analysis. Both identify breaching the lower Snake River Dams located in Washington as the greatest opportunity to restore salmon and steelhead populations in the basin.

The 2020 study, known as the Columbia River System Operations Final Environmental Impact Statement, implemented a plan to keep the lower Snake River dams in place. Shortly after, it was challenged in court by 10 entities – including the Idaho Conservation League, the states of Oregon and Washington, the Nez Perce, Umatilla, Warm Springs, and Yakama tribes, and other environmental nonprofits.

https://washingtonstatestandard.com/2024/12/19/federal-agencies-to-revise-environmental-study-for-columbia-river-basin-dam-operations/