Redden, who oversees a federal case considering protection of the fish, said it was important to determine whether a revised plan being developed by NOAA Fisheries would ensure the continued existence of the threatened fish.

At issue is a draft plan announced by federal authorities this month for balancing the needs of salmon against the demand for electricity, irrigation water and barge transportation provided by dams in Oregon, Washington and Idaho.

NOAA Fisheries, the federal agency responsible for salmon recovery, concluded that four lower Snake River dams pose no threat to the salmon's continued existence. That was a reversal from the government's previous position that the
dams were a serious enough threat to consider targeting some for removal. Redden also questioned the new conclusion last week.

The new plan, known as a biological opinion, has drawn sharp criticism from environmentalists, Indian tribes and others who say removing the dams is the best course to salmon recovery. Utilities, irrigators, grain shippers and
others who depend on the dams for power, navigation and water support the draft opinion, which would replace a 2000 opinion thrown out by Redden as inadequate because it did not assure that mandated measures to protect salmon would actually be carried out by federal agencies.

Conservationists, American Indian tribes and commercial and sport fishing groups said they were frustrated by the government's new stance. In a letter released Tuesday, more than 400 fishing and outdoor recreation-based businesses opposed the new federal salmon plan, saying it significantly lowers the bar for wild salmon recovery.

The draft plan ''ignores the hundreds of businesses that depend upon strong salmon runs and the healthy habitat that accompanies them for their livelihoods,'' said Trey Carskadon, a board member for the Northwest Sportfishing Industry
Association, one of the groups that signed the letter. ''Instead of doing the things necessary to build the economy, it appears the federal government has decided that it's not their responsibility.'' Companies that signed the letter include some of the largest names in outdoor gear and sport fishing, including California-based Patagonia Inc.

Bush administration officials have dismissed dam removal from consideration, saying in a Sept. 9 draft opinion that the Endangered Species Act requires the fisheries service to consider only how the dams will be operated -- not
their existence.

9/15/04 - California’s Water Agencies Applaud Senate Passage of Bipartisan Bay-Delta Bill
WASHINGTON – California’s water users today are applauding the Senate’s passage of legislation to reauthorize the CALFED Bay-Delta Program. The $389 million bill would implement a multi-year plan for restoring the Sacramento-San Joaquin Bay Delta ecosystem, while improving statewide water supplies, flood control and water quality.

9/12/04 - Bay-Delta Bill Runs into Small Snag in the U.S. Senate
WASHINGTON -- Key California lawmakers said Friday they're optimistic about getting a Senate vote soon on a final version of a landmark bill authorizing the California Federal Bay-Delta Program.
A $389 million CalFed bill passed the House in July, but Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said at least one major provision couldn't make it through the Senate, and she's been working since then to resolve the problem.

For four days straight they will dance a dance older than the lake for reasons as new as the motorboats skimming its surface: There is talk of raising the lake level. The last time the Winnemem danced this way, there was no Shasta Dam. There was no Bureau of Reclamation. But there was the river.

9/08/04 - Red Bluff Diversion Dam Gates to be Raised to Aid Salmon Migration
For the 19th consecutive year, the Bureau of Reclamation will raise the gates at Red Bluff Diversion Dam to improve passage for the endangered winter-run Chinook salmon in the Sacramento River. The gates will be raised beginning September 9, dropping the river back to its normal level by September 12. The gates will remain open until May 2005, when they will be lowered in time for the spring/summer irrigation and recreation seasons at Lake Red Bluff.

8/27/04 - Federal Water Contracts Raise Alarm with Environmentalists
Contra Costa Times - By Mike Taugher
Dozens of long-term water contracts that are part of the biggest federal water project in the West are on track to be renewed in the coming months, raising concern among environmentalists and some Democratic lawmakers that concessions to agribusinesses will come at the expense of fisheries and state water policy for decades to come.

The Shasta-Tehama Water Education Coalition has been formed and elected an interim board of directors. The Regional Water Quality Control Board has authorized the coalition to develop a water quality management program giving irrigated operators an option to comply to a conditional waiver.

After a 20-year agriculture waiver expired in December 2002, the Legislature and the Central Valley Water Quality Control Board imposed new water quality regulation on irrigated landowners and wetland operators beginning Jan. 1, 2003.

8/20/04 - Bush Administration Denies Public a Chance to Speak Out on Controversial Water Deals
CONCORD, CA – The Bush Administration is denying Congress and the public a reasonable opportunity to weigh in on new sweetheart deals that it has struck to provide water to agribusinesses in California at below-market rates, Representative George Miller (D-Martinez) said today.

8/18/04 - Sacramento River Watershed Profiled in TU Report: "Settled, Mined and Left Behind"
Chronic pollution from abandoned mines merits inclusion in report; Serious ecological and public health impacts cited.
WASHINGTON, DC – California’s Sacramento River basin is one of 10 watersheds included in a report released today by the national conservation organization Trout Unlimited (TU) that illuminates the threats posed by abandoned hardrock mines to drinking water and fisheries throughout the West.