Contact:  Brian Gorman             IMMEDIATE RELEASE
          Janet Sears              6/26/98

In an unprecedented agreement signed today (Saturday), two Washington state public utility districts, the federal government, the state, a leading environmental organization and several Indian tribes will embark on a process intended to lead to a 50-year agreement to protect Columbia River steelhead and salmon listed under the Endangered Species Act.

The agreement marks the first time the Commerce Department's National Marine Fisheries Service, the federal agency charged with protecting salmon and steelhead, has proposed to enter into such an arrangement with an electric-generating facility. That arrangement, which could be completed in final form as early as the end of next year, is known as a habitat conservation plan or HCP.

"This agreement serves as a model on how to guarantee the future of our fish and how to achieve recovery through the Endangered Species Act's flexibility. We set the survival goal for salmon and steelhead and then allow the utilities to work with the other parties in developing a plan that will adapt hydropower operations and allow the same number of fish to pass through these dams as though they weren't there," said Terry Garcia, the Commerce Department's assistant secretary for oceans and atmosphere.

"This is government at its best," Garcia added. "We're proposing tough standards the toughest possible, no net impact on the resource but we're also providing broad flexibility for the utilities and the other parties to use a large toolbox to pick the best measures to achieve those standards."

The no-net-impact commitment requires the two electric-dam operators -- Chelan and Douglas county public utility districts in mid-Washington -- to meet a standard of 91-percent survival for juvenile and adult salmon passing through three dams and their reservoirs. In addition to the 91-percent overall survival rate, 95 percent of juveniles passing through each dam must survive.

"This is a major shift from traditional command-and-control decision making, in which the federal government orders utilities to use certain protection measures," Garcia said. "Instead, with this proposed agreement, the parties agree to collaborate and determine for themselves the most effective methods to achieve the required salmon-survival goal."

To achieve the no-net-impact goal from the 91-percent base survival rate, both the state and several Indian tribes will offset seven percent "unavoidable" loss of fish at the dams through hatchery production. The remaining two percent will come from increased productivity of wild stocks expected from improvements in tributary habitat on the mid- Columbia.

A "tributary habitat conservation fund" will be established to accumulate almost $50 million over the lifetime of the HCP. The fund will be used to improve habitat along Columbia River tributaries and to get more fish to survive passage past the dams.

The HCP must still go through the National Environmental Policy Act process, expected to take about 18 to 24 months. NEPA provides a public review of proposed federal actions that may affect the environment.

In addition to the National Marine Fisheries Service, participants in this proposal are Chelan and Douglas county public utility districts; the state of Washington; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; the Yakima, Colville and Umitilla tribes; American Rivers environmental organization and the major wholesale purchasers of the public utility districts' electricity.