UPDATE, 5:36 P.M., FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2025: A federal judge has agreed to lift the stay, per reporter KC Mehaffey.
Litigation over Columbia River hydropower operations impacts on salmon and steelhead that had been paused appears to be headed back to court as Northwest fish and fishing interests, including a recreational angling organization and four tribes, along with two states, are asking a federal judge to lift a longterm stay on what had been a long-running court case.
The five- to 10-year hold on the case followed on the Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement of late 2023, which put the feds and so-called Six Sovereigns on a path toward restoring the watershed’s salmon and steelhead following decades in federal court and numerous lawsuits, but the deal was derailed this June by a presidential memorandum pulling the US Government out of it.
So now plaintiffs including the National Wildlife Federation, Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association and others, along with the states of Oregon and Washington, and the Yakama Nation, Nez Perce Tribe, Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation and the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs have all signed onto a motion filed today to set new court hearing dates and submit new briefs in US District Court for Oregon.
The plaintiffs and Oregon also plan to file a request for injunctive relief to protect salmon early next month, per the motion.
“The agreement had set us on a path to restore a strong fishing economy, honor tribal treaty rights and secure a bright future across the Northwest. Now that the Trump Administration has reneged on the agreement, we must find other ways to keep moving Columbia Basin restoration forward – and that includes returning to court,” said Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association Policy Director Liz Hamilton in a press release. “Losing our irreplaceable salmon would harm everyone, including the sportfishing industry that generates over $5 billion in economic output for the region, creating jobs for nearly 37,000. We won’t give up on these fish – and no one else should either.”
Oregon Governor Tina Kotek also issued a press release saying that extinction of Columbia River salmon runs isn’t an option and that it was possible to have both abundant returns and power to meet electricity demands.
“The state of Oregon will return to federal court and seek an injunction to address urgent needs for the fish, including requiring the federal government to operate the hydropower system to help salmon complete their downstream migration next spring, maximizing the chance that they will return as adults,” Kotek stated.
Much of the public debate has been focused on the potential breaching of the lower four dams on the Snake River, which would require an act of Congress, and back in Washington, DC, a hearing was held earlier this month on a bill from Representative Dan Newhouse (WA-04) and three Northwest cosponsors, all Republicans, that would bar the use of federal funds “to allow, lead to, or study the breach or functional alteration” of Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose and Lower Granite, all built in the 1950s through 1970s.
The Defending our Dams Act would also bar spilling water for outmigrating smolts on the Snake except by approval the Secretary of the Army or Bonneville Power Administration chief.
Breaching proponents say that the four Snake dams (and those downstream) account for the highest source of mortality for wild spring Chinook smolts, more than 40 percent, about as much as from predators such as walleye, piscivorous birds, and sea lions and seals, as well as ocean and in-river fisheries, and loss of adults in the hydropower system combined. The fewer wild fish, the stricter fishery restrictions. They foresee million-springer runs in good times, and 250,000-fish returns counting as a bad year (it’s a relatively good to pretty good year now).
That presidential memo argued that breaching the quartet would eliminate 3,000 megawatts of hydro capacity, sever a shipping channel that makes Lewiston a seaport and impact irrigation and recreation.
The idea to breach the dams arose most publicly from Idaho Republican Representative Mike Simpson in the early 2020s as part of a unique $30-plus-billion plan to not only reinvigorate fish runs for harvest by recreational and tribal fishermen but replace the services the dams provided. It might not have gotten traction Simpson and NSIA hoped, but out of the other end of the conversation came the Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement.
Now the talking will be before US District Court Judge Michael Simon in Portland.
