Environmental opposition to the US Army Corps of Engineers’ (USACE) operation of four hydroelectric dams on the Snake river has been rejected by a federal appeals court.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that USACE kept temperatures low enough to protect populations of endangered salmon in the river and that it did comply with the standards in the Clean Water Act.
The ruling comes in the wake of an earlier National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Marine Fisheries Service declaration that removal of Snake river dams need no longer be a consideration for the restoration of salmon runs, as a result of continuing structural improvements and plans to install experimental removable spillway weirs.
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