The Columbia River Basin is North America's fourth largest, draining about 250,000 square miles and extending throughout the Pacific Northwest and into Canada. There are more than 250 reservoirs and about 150 hydroelectric projects in the basin, including 18 mainstem dams on the Columbia and its major tributary, the Snake River. This basin once supported the world’s largest runs of Pacific salmon and steelhead, but some populations are now extinct and others are severely depleted. NOAA Fisheries has listed 13 anadromous fish runs in the basin for Endangered Species Act protection.
The Federal Columbia River Power System (FCRPS) encompasses the operations of 14 major dams and reservoirs on the Columbia and Snake rivers, operated as a coordinated system. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers operates nine of 10 major federal projects on the Columbia and Snake rivers, and Dworshak, Libby and Albeni Falls dams. The Bureau of Reclamation operates Grand Coulee and Hungry Horse dams. These federal projects are a major source of power in the region, and provide flood control, navigation, recreation, fish and wildlife, municipal and industrial water supply, and irrigation benefits.
The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Energy. It wholesales electric power produced at 31 federal dams (67 percent of its production) and non-hydropower facilities in the Columbia-Snake Basin. BPA sells about half the electric power consumed in the Pacific Northwest. The Corps and Reclamation operate all dams whose power is sold by BPA.
NOAA Fisheries Service is required by the ESA to assess whether federal actions will jeopardize the continued existence of listed species. It does this through a process of consultation with the action agencies; for the Federal Columbia River Power System those are BPA, the Corps and Reclamation. Consultation results in NOAA’s issuing a biological opinion, also called a BiOp or BO.
NOAA Fisheries Service issued the first biological opinion on operation of the Columbia River power system in 1993. In 1994, a federal court rejected that BiOp. In response to judicial decisions, the agency issued new FCRPS biological opinions in 1995, 2000, 2004 and 2008. FCRPS compliance with the Endangered Species Act has been controversial and almost continuously in litigation, as it is now.
While the legal process continues to move forward, NOAA Fisheries Service and the other federal agencies will continue to work with the region to conserve and recover Pacific salmon and steelhead in the Columbia/Snake Basin.
