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The Spokane Tribe of Indians, along with the State of Oregon and various environmental groups, claim that continued official inaction concerning the environmental harms caused by the Grand Coulee Dam will threaten endangered species, perpetuate climate change, and effectively destroy a culture.
The lawsuit, originally initiated by various advocacy groups, claims that the Columbia River hydroelectric dam has blocked salmon migration and contributed to climate change; side effects that government regulators, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), failed to account for. In court documents filed yesterday, the Spokane Tribe intervened, arguing that the Grand Coulee Dam will permanently destroy their culture.
The Spokane Tribe points out that dams along their traditional fishing areas have chipped away at their way of life since 1911 when a small dam blocked anadromous fish migrations from the Columbia. They say that this move was followed in 1933 by the Grand Coulee Dam, ripping away a crucial food supply for the tribe.
“Up until then the Spokane and Columbia Rivers were the Spokane Tribe’s metaphorical grocery store,” says the intervening complaint filed by the tribe. “Salmon, steelhead and lamprey from these waters sustained not only Upper Columbia Tribes, but downstream Tribes as the fish returned to the Spokane and further upstream into Canada. Grand Coulee Dam severely altered the Tribe’s relationship with the Rivers.”
The Spokane Tribe alleges, along with the environmental groups and the State of Oregon, that continued federal mismanagement of the Grand Coulee Dam perpetuates harm caused by the hydroelectric project. The plaintiffs have taken issue with several analyses conducted by NOAA and other regulators, claiming they failed to properly account for the dam’s effect on endangered species, such as the orca whale which feeds on migratory fish, as well as climate change.
Both sides have battled it out under various administrations, with judges rejecting regulators’ revised analyses and forcing more water to be released from the dam. In 2020, regulators under the Trump administration permitted the Grand Coulee Dam to continue to operate.
The Spokane Tribe says its priority is to return and restore anadromous fish populations.
Have you been affected by the Grand Coulee Dam? Tell us about it in the comment section below.
The plaintiffs are represented by Todd D. True and Amanda W. Goodin of Earthjustice and Daniel J. Rohlf of Earthrise Law Center of Lewis & Clark Law School.
The Spokane Tribe is represented by Ted C. Knight.
The Grand Coulee Dam Lawsuit is National Wildlife Federation et al. v. National Marine Fisheries Service et al., Case No. 3:01-cv-00640, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon.
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