Favor Salmon Over Farmers, Panel Says
Study looked at drought withdrawals from Columbia River
Farmers should not be given permission to withdraw more water from the Columbia River in the hot summer months unless the flow can be cut off during droughts, because salmon already are under assault by water that is too warm.
That was the conclusion of a long-awaited National Academy of Sciences study released yesterday to the praise of environmentalists and the scorn of farmers.
Instead, conservation and purchases from those who hold long-standing water rights should help lessen the effects of droughts on farmers, the panel of the congressionally chartered academy said.
However, the scientists warned that water shortages are likely to get worse as the climate warms. There are no easy answers to the dilemma, the panel said.
"Columbia River salmon today are at a critical point," the report said.
"The basin's salmon populations have been in steady decline, and scientific evidence demonstrates that environmental thresholds important to salmon, such as water temperature, are being reached or in some cases exceeded."
Ernest Smerdon, a retired engineering professor who was chairman of the panel of 13 scientists from around the country, said: "In the (Columbia) basin, water management may not be critical at all times, but it is certainly critical in these low-flow, high-temperature times."
The advice to the state Ecology Department moves the politically touchy issue squarely back into the agency's lap.
"The findings and recommendations clearly illustrate how complicated the issue is and how challenging it will be to reach solutions," Ecology Director Linda Hoffman said in a statement.
Continue reading this story from the Seattle P-I:
Favor salmon over farmers, panel says
