Environmental and conservation groups, the State of Oregon, and federal defendants asked the federal district court for the District of Oregon to stay litigation in a long-running case challenging management of the Columbia River System, a system of hydroelectric dams and reservoirs on the Columbia and Snake Rivers. In January 2021, plaintiffs filed an eighth supplemental complaint alleging that actions finalized in 2020 did not cure defects identified by the court in 2016. Among other shortcomings, the January 2021 complaint alleged a failure to fully assess the impacts of climate change on salmon, and failure to consider climate change threats to the Southern Resident killer whale. In their motion to stay litigation, the moving parties said they had reached an agreement for short-term operations of the Columbia River System that would provide “an interim compromise” while the parties worked towards “a long-term comprehensive solution that, if successful, may resolve all claims in this litigation.”

Challenges to reviews of the Federal Columbia River Power System's impacts on salmon and steelhead.

National Wildlife Federation v. National Marine Fisheries Service

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Parties Asked Court to Pause Litigation to Allow Negotiation of Long-Term Solution for Management of Columbia River System

Filed

United States of America

Oregon

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Parties Asked Court to Pause Litigation to Allow Negotiation of Long-Term Solution for Management of Columbia River System

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