The ruling requires federal stakeholders to rework the 2004 Biological Opinion that outlines the ecological rationale for the $600 million per year proposed to protect 13 threatened salmon species. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations Marine Fisheries Service, along with other federal agencies, asserted that protection proposals could ignore dam operations because their permanence placed them beyond regulatory purview, much as a waterfall would be exempt. The May 26 ruling by Judge James Redden of U.S. District Court in Portland, Ore., called the interpretation legally flawed and inconsistent with ESA precedent.
The ruling does not immediately affect hydroelectric operations. The environmental consortiums lawsuit is aimed at temporarily suspending operations and spilling water through the dams to improve survival of juvenile salmon during the downstream summer migration.