Agency asks to cut salmon recovery spending 12/14/02
The BPA had paid $137 million for Power Council-recommended programs in that year. BPA officials Thursday said their analysis shows the agency could be obligated to spend more than $180 million in fiscal year 2003, which started Oct. 1. The agency wants to spend an average of $139 million a year on salmon programs, not including capital projects, from 2002 to 2006, Wright said. "We're coming to the council to ask the council to embrace this and bring its program down," Sarah McNary, manager of BPA's fish and wildlife division, said Thursday. McNary said the BPA remains committed to salmon restoration. Cassidy said he would convene an emergency meeting of the council in Portland next week to re-examine its recommendations for salmon recovery spending by the BPA. Don Sampson, executive director of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, said any cutbacks would set back salmon recovery. "From our perspective, Bonneville has mismanaged its obligation
to meet fish and wildlife costs," Sampson said. "Our tribes
are outraged by this." |