The Biden administration announced Wednesday the opening of a new review of how dams across the Pacific Northwest should be operated to benefit endangered salmon and steelhead populations, reopening a process that during the first Trump presidential term ended with a decision opposed to breaching those facilities.
The Army Corps of Engineers and Bureau of Reclamation issued a joint notice in the Federal Register announcing a supplemental environmental impact statement for 14 dams on the Columbia River system.
The fresh review was triggered by both the “Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement” — a $1 billion settlement agreement reached in late 2023 between the Biden administration and plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit over hydropower operations — and anticipated updates to the Columbia River Treaty between the United States and Canada.
“The purpose of this action is to operate the Columbia River System to meet multiple responsibilities including resource, legal, and institutional purposes of the action,” wrote Brig. Gen. William Hannan, who heads the Army Corps of Engineers’ Northwestern Division, and Jennifer Carrington, who serves as Reclamation’s regional director for the Columbia-Pacific Northwest Region.
