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Activist Groups Threaten to Sue Feds by Staff Idaho State Journal, April 21, 2001

Activists: Plan without breaching ‘falls short’

POCATELLO — A group of environmental organizations is threatening to sue the Bureau of Reclamation and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission if the agencies don’t work to allocate more water for the downstream migration of salmon and steelhead smolts from Idaho.

According to a press release from Idaho Rivers United, the BOR’s operation of its 11 storage reservoirs on the upper Snake River, including American Falls and Palisades reservoirs, threatens to harm endangered Snake River salmon and steelhead.

At a recent meeting in Pocatello, BOR officials said there likely wouldn’t be enough water to meet both irrigation demands and required flushes for downstream migration of salmon and steelhead. Eastern Idaho normally contributes about 250,000 acre feet of salmon and steelhead flushes. So far, the bureau has been able to promise 38,000 acre feet of water. That water comes from the Shoshone-Bannock tribal water bank.