June 2, 2006 – In a victory for environmentalists fighting to save threatened salmon species that migrate on the Snake River in the Northwestern United States, a district judge ordered the federal government to reassess its dam and irrigation projects.
In February, The NewStandard reported on the government?s refusal to address the affect hydroelectric dams have on salmon, which must run a gauntlet of manmade obstacles as they travel from the ocean to their spawning habitat upriver.
Now, a federal judge has ruled that in Idaho, where irrigation systems threaten salmon habitats, the government must take into account the cumulative affects of those water management projects and the dams downriver.
