June 7, 2000

Methow deal may not end fish fight

By JOHN K. WILEY
Associated Press Writer

SPOKANE -- An irrigation district has approved a deal with the federal government to protect some of the most endangered fish in the Columbia River Basin, but it was unclear whether that action will resolve the dispute.

Directors of the Methow Valley Irrigation District approved a consent decree Monday night with the National Marine Fisheries Service over the diversion of water from the Methow and Twisp rivers in north-central Washington.

The consent decree calls for the irrigation district comply with the Endangered Species Act and take steps to prevent fish kills with slower velocities for the irrigation water and improved fish screens in the district's ditches.

A hearing scheduled Tuesday before U.S. District Judge Fred Van Sickle was postponed for 10 days while government lawyers reviewed the agreement.

The federal agency wants the irrigation district to switch from open ditches to a modern system of wells and pressurized pipelines.

The judge could order the district to "dewater" the ditches -- about four feet wide and a foot deep -- that irrigate pastures, lawns and hobby farms in the scenic Methow Valley below Twisp.

"We think it's killing some of the most endangered fish in the Columbia River Basin," NMFS spokesman Brian Gorman said Monday from Seattle.

NMFS last week sued the district, alleging its diversion dam is killing salmon and steelhead protected under the federal Endangered Species Act.

By accepting the decree, the district may avoid paying a pending $55,000 fine for violating the Endangered Species Act.

The district must wait and see whether its actions will be acceptable to NMFS, Richard Price, an Omak lawyer defending the district in federal court, said Monday.

"The government's lawyer has said that even if Methow Valley Irrigation District agrees to the consent decree, the government may want to require more stringent requirements," Price said. "Apparently, this is retribution for requiring them to have to go to court."

The dispute is similar to one that has raged for years in Grants Pass, Ore., where irrigation district customers this year voted to remove a dam which federal officials and environmentalists say is harmful to fish.

In the case of the Methow district, the Bonneville Power Administration and the state Department of Ecology have agreed to foot the estimated $5 million cost of changing to pipelines.

"God knows, when it comes to salmon, we need to make all the progress we can," Gorman said. "Within 25 to 30 years, the majority of salmon stocks in the Pacific Northwest will be virtually extinct, and we won't be able to bring them back at all."

District directors said they want to protect endangered fish.

"We certainly want to do everything we can do to help endangered species," said Vaughn Jolley, chairman of the district's board. "And when a salmon survives ocean overharvest, sport fisheries, Arctic terns, Indian nets, major Columbia River dams, and NMFS hatchery killings, we certainly wouldn't want one" to perish in the Methow district's irrigation diversion screens.

The district produced a study by retired Washington State Department of Wildlife biologist Kenneth Williams, who contends the leaky ditches actually recharge the aquifer, helping to keep river flows higher during the dry fall and early winter months.

Williams also disputed NMFS' contention that the district irrigation diversion screens killed three Upper Columbia spring chinook salmon and 35 juvenile steelhead.