BY ANDY WALGAMOTT, NORTHWEST SPORTSMAN MAGAZINE
A federal judge has ordered increased spill at eight Columbia and Snake River dams to aid smolt outmigration, a “significant ruling for” salmon and steelhead and their advocates in the resumption of their long court battle with the federal government to mitigate hydropower system impacts on ESA-listed fish.
US District Court Judge Micheal Simon today granted the spring, summer, fall and winter spill portions of the preliminary injunction filed by the National Wildlife Federation, Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association, et al, as well as the state of Oregon, and it means young Chinook, coho, summer-runs and other salmonids have a safer way through Bonneville, The Dalles and other dams instead of going through spinning turbines.
In doing so, he also smacked down federal defendants – NMFS, COE, BOR and USFWS, which are supported by irrigators, ports, farm bureaus, Montana and others – for submitting evidence challenging the benefits of spill that was “contrary to the established scientific evidence in the record.”
“The Court gives it little weight,” he wrote.
But Judge Simon did stop short of fully granting the plaintiffs’ request to lower reservoir levels to minimum operating pool levels. During court arguments earlier this month, he had tipped his hand on that front, seeing a negligible difference for the fish between minimum irrigation and minimum operating levels but substantial harm for irrigators, bargers and power generation with the latter.
In his ruling today, he told dam managers to use 2025 operating levels. He wrote that “Federal defendants successfully operated the dams at those levels and thus all parties can be assured of the viability of the operations for power generation, transportation, and irrigation.”
He also did not order the feds to make certain repairs to the dams, or do more work to control piscivores such as walleye and birds known to prey on juvenile salmon and steelhead.
On the latter front, he wrote that a 2020 biological opinion guiding operations already contains similar measures. But he did order the defendants to file quarterly reporting about predator reduction and other matters.
The last two weeks have left one of the plaintiffs exhausted, but happy.
“By far the largest human-caused mortalities of salmon and steelhead in the Columbia are hydro related,” said Liz Hamilton, NSIA policy director. “Spilling more water over the tops of dams, and lowering the reservoir levels will speed baby salmons’ journey to the ocean, reduce their exposure to temperature pollution and predators, and generate higher smolt to adult returns. This preliminary injunction is a significant ruling for fish and for those who depend upon these fisheries for their livelihoods, and provide real hope for the future of our fisheries.”
Hamilton and other plaintiffs in the long-running lawsuit over dam operations were forced to return to federal court last October after the Trump Administration in June 2025 unilaterally pulled the US Government out of the Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement, leading to an end of the longterm pause to the case.
“Because the federal government threw out a comprehensive plan that would have restored the Columbia Basin while investing in the region, returning to court is the only tool we have left to prevent the collapse of imperiled salmon and steelhead populations,” said Mike Leahy, NWF’s senior director of wildlife, hunting and fishing policy, in a press release out this evening. “While these emergency measures are implemented, we’ll keep our eye on our long-term goal of helping the Tribes and the states restore Snake River salmon for the generations to come.”
NWF, NSIA, the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, Sierra Club, Idaho Rivers United, NW Energy Coalition, Columbia Riverkeeper and Federation of Fly Fishers are represented by Earthjustice. They were joined in requesting a preliminary injunction by the state of Oregon, and were supported in motions filed by the state of Washington and the Yakama Nation and Nez Perce Tribe.
They had requested maximum spill within state water quality guidelines during the spring spill season, restored spill for the entire summer season, and 24-hour spill during fall and winter spill seasons, all of which the judge agreed. August spill could really help Snake River wild Chinook, per Hamilton.
Judge Simon’s ruling follows on oral arguments made in court on February 6.
The federal defendants had asked for a preemptive stay order on the preliminary injunction pending appeal, but the judge was disinclined to issue one.
“Staying the injunction pending appeal poses a significant risk that the government will be unable to implement any protective measures during 2026, causing significant harm to the species. Finally, as explained, the public interest always weighs in favor of protecting endangered species,” Judge Simon wrote near the end of his 47-page opinion and order.
“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,” the judge also wrote in the preamble to his ruling. “Although people have debated various definitions of ‘jeopardy’ and whether mitigation actions are sufficiently ‘certain’ to occur, the abundance of these salmonids has dwindled to near extinction levels. One of the foundational symbols of the West, a critical recreational, cultural driver for Western states, and the beating heart and guaranteed resource protected by treaties with several Native American tribes is disappearing from the landscape. And yet the litigation continues in much the same way as it has for 30 years.”
No doubt there are a few more days in court to come.
