A federal judge issued a firm rebuke to the Trump administration in the long-running legal battle over hydropower dams in the Pacific Northwest, agreeing with environmentalists who asserted the infrastructure must be operated to support endangered fish populations as the lawsuit drags on.
In a ruling issued late Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon, Judge Michael Simon ordered that dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers must be operated to support salmon populations, including releasing flows in the spring and summer to aid recovery efforts.
“For decades, the battle for the life of threatened and endangered salmon and steelhead has not been fought at the end of a hook and line, nor in the woven threads of a fishing net, nor even based on the appetites of sea lions, avian predators, or killer whales. Instead, the greatest battle has been waged in the courts,” wrote Simon, an appointee of former President Barack Obama.
The long-running legal battle focuses on the operation of 14 dams in the Pacific Northwest and how they have harmed endangered fish populations.
